ABSTRACT
National science education reforms identify “understanding for all” as a central goal of school science curricula (National Research Council, 1996). Although the reforms established lists of what the scientifically literate student should know, translating these lists into curricula that foster understanding is not trivial. One reason for this difficulty is that the standards call for students to do more than memorize the conclusions of scientific research—they recommend that students also understand how scientific knowledge is constructed. We have found that a fruitful place to begin to realize this vision of scientific literacy is by developing curricula that are consistent with what scientific communities count as understanding. There is a growing consensus among educators of the value of engaging students in inquiry as part of their education in science. For us, scientific inquiry is a sense-making endeavor—a process of developing explanations about the natural world through participation in the complex activities of practice. Scientific knowledge is inextricably bound up with its generation and use, and to engage in scientific practice is both to demonstrate and to achieve understanding. We suggest that for students, 160as well as scientists, understanding is the ability to function within a particular practice.
