Comments from the

Science Education Directorate,

National Science Foundation

Focus on Early Adolescence:

A New Emphasis for the
Science Education Directorate
CONRAD KATZENMEYER*
National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. 20550
Since late 1977, the Science Education Directorate of the National Science Foundation
(NSF) has been planning a major new focus on science education for Early Adolescence.
This paper outlines the rationale for this new effort, the ongoing planning effort, and the
directions we hope to take in the future. It is also an invitation to researchers and practitioners to participate in order to make it a truly national focus on improving science
education for early adolescents.
NSFs Changing Role in Science Education

From its inception, the National Science Foundation has offered programs to
strengthen science, mathematics, and social science education. From a modest beginning,
the Science Education programs expanded rapidly in the wake of Sputnik. The initial
emphases were graduate science training and pre-college teacher education, with the
strengthening of undergraduate institutions becoming a third major focus in the 1960s.
Inspired by the nationwide concern for more scientists and engineers, the common goal
was the identification and education of the most talented students for careers in
science.
But the changing conditions have led to the need for new science education thrusts

* The author has been the coordinator of early adolescence planning for the Science Education Directorate.
This article reflects the thoughts of many individuals both inside and outside the National Science Foundation.
Scicncc Education 63( I ): 139- I 4 2 ( 1979)
0 1979 John Wilcy & Sons, Inc.

0036-8326/79/0063-0139$01 .OO

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and for resetting priorities. To be sure there remains a need to identify the talented science
students and to maintain a top-flight system for educating them in the face of shrinking
academic budgets. This is complicated by a tight employment market in many fields of
science and engineering, arguing against expansion of existing facilities and resources.
Thus, because minorities and women remain markedly underrepresented in many of these
fields, there is a need for additional strategies to increase the participation of these groups.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, society has need for broader knowledge about
science to deal with such questions as energy and environment that directly impact every
citizen. It is no longer possible to treat science as the exclusive realm of the scientist.
While NSF has recognized the necessity for responding to these broadened priorities,
resources for doing so are severely limited. Support for science education programs
dropped from approximately 134 million dollars in 1968 to 6 2 million dollars in 1973.
While there has been a gradual increase in the budget to the current level of approximately
80 million dollars, realistic assessments of the current economic situation indicate that
no dramatic upward shift in science education programs is likely in the near future. Given
these conditions N S F must clearly target its efforts on specific areas of concern. One
area that has been selected is early adolescence.
Early Adolescence (roughly the age period served by the junior high and middle
schools) is a critical period for a number of reasons. This is the last chance for many
students, as the number enrolling in science and mathematics drops markedly in the senior
high schools. This is particularly true with women and minorities. Further, there is
abundant evidence that once out of the sequence, few students reenter science and
mathematics later. Intervention earlier than high school is clearly indicated.
While our program might also be aimed a t the elementary schools, attempts to influence science education at this level present severe difficulties. Faced with budgetary
constraints and pressures for back-to-basics, many schools have found it necessary
to stress reading skills and mathematics computation, with minimal time for other science
instruction. Elementary students also present limitations due simply to their age and stage
of cognitive development. Because of their age, they are more school-bound than the
early adolescent, making it more difficult to draw on resources of the community in enhancing science instruction. Developmentally, many elementary school students have
not reached a stage that permits them to cope with much of the content of science. While
this is also true of many early adolescents, the proportion that has advanced cognitively
is far greater.
Finally, there is general recognition that science education of the early adolescent
presents serious problems. Students of this age are faced with great social and personal
changes that make instruction, at best, difficult. The curriculum in these schools has
generally not been uniquely appropriate to this age; it has adopted elements from both
the elementary and secondary schools. Likewise, the staff is not uniquely prepared for
this level.
But it is all too easy to detail the problems of early adolescence and to overlook the
potentials these students present. They are often inquisitive, concerned about the society
in which they live, and anxious to discover how they will relate to it. They have closed
off fewer options than older students. And they are certainly not without responsibility;
a great proportion of the people we trust as baby sitters with our young children are early
adolescents.

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The challenge we face is to create a better match between the nature of the early adolescent and the science education instruction offered for them. How NSF hopes to influence this is the goal of our current planning efforts.
Outlining an Initial Program

The Science Education Directorate began planning this program in November 1977
by accumulating existing information about early adolescents and organizing an internal
task force to guide the planning effort. Telephone conversations were held with many
experts in the field as a preliminary step in identifying a panel of researchers and practitioners to help us chart program directions over the next five to ten years.
This panel, chaired by Paul DeHart Hurd, Professor of Science Education Emeritus,
Stanford University, met in May 1978. Each of the eight specialists included on the panel
prepared a paper expressing his or her opinions on the nature of the problem and proposed
solutions. An extensive literature review was also commissioned as background for the
panels deliberations. Based on their discussions, the panel generated a report recommending the following categories of programs:
Research

The primary area of need is more and better information about science education for
early adolescence. Included should be policy studies regarding theories of early adolescence and conceptual frameworks for instruction; synthesis of what is currently known
about early adolescence (much exists but often not targeted to this age group) and collection of descriptive information about early adolescents and both formal and informal
instructional programs; and research and case studies of learning, development, and
instructional practices.
Development and Demonstration

There is also a need for curriculum materials targeted on values, career development,
and real-life experiences; and demonstration projects to relate science instruction to
community and work experiences.
Action Projects
A wide variety of programmatic efforts were recommended, including conferences
and symposia for researchers and practitioners, establishment of research and resource
centers, and development of a communication network on early adolescence.
Of course, such a brief summary cannot begin to convey the full scope of the recommendations made by the panel. The panel report, plus the individual panelists papers
and the literature review will be published under the title Early Adolescence by the U.
S. Government Printing Office. (Please contact the Office of Program Integration,
National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. 20550 to obtain the publication number,
which is not yet available as this is written.)
What is clear from even this brief summary is that many approaches will be needed
to significantly impact the problems. Although NSFs charge is limited to science, early
adolescence is far broader, and we will pursue cooperative efforts with other federal
agencies and private foundations, so that the full range of early adolescence concerns

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will be addressed, and in a comprehensive manner.

Within our own programs, the Science Education Directorate will introduce initiatives
over several years in order to have as much impact as possible with limited funds. Our
first priority will be the expansion of the information base, primarily through collection
and synthesis of already available data. For example, current guidelines for both the
Research in Science Education and Development in Science Education programs emphasize early adolescence concerns. Included in the expansion of the information base
will be conferences for researchers and practitioners. While disseminating findings regarding early adolescence, these conferences will also permit us to continue our planning
effort for future activities by gathering reflections and ideas of participants.
In future years we will expand these efforts to larger-scale research efforts (both
theoretical and descriptive), development of prototype models for in-service and preservice staff improvement, in school and out of school programs for relating formal science
education to broader community activities, and specialized curriculum materials. We
will also explore the need for new types of institutional entities, such as resource clearinghouses and research centers for early adolescence.
Details of the long-term plan are necessarily tentative, awaiting results of initial efforts.
But we foresee this as the beginning of what can become a substantial transformation
of science education for early adolescence. We welcome your suggestions in pursuing
this goal.