ABSTRACT
Standardization of outcomes and testing in science education has the result of reinforcing science’s characterization as a fixed body of knowledge, which lends to more straightforward descriptions of learning outcomes and more readily comparable test results. Science education policy continues to be dominated by scientists, who remain protective of the power and prestige of the discipline and consequently see only the need for reform that “starts with standards and ends with achievement”. Such a stance reflects a long-held perspective that “the simple ideology of pre-professional training of scientists and engineers seems to have political advantages over more complex ideologies that inspire humanistic approaches to school science”. This image of science has been supported by an academic tradition in science education that has emphasized abstract knowledge, the diminution of context and the use of practical work to confirm extant knowledge.
