Critical Thinking Exercise

Your school district is looking into a new science curriculum. Your current curriculum is hopelessly outdated. Several teachers are no longer using the texts at all and are simply "winging it". This has led to redundancy and gaps in the curriculum. You are on the committee of teachers examining various curricula. Your committee has chosen two science curriculum packages that warrant further examination -- "The Wonders of Science", and "Science for Life". The cost for the two curricula is roughly the same. You must now decide which one to recommend for purchase by the board of education. Both publishers have offered the use of their curriculum, on a limited, pilot basis for one semester, free of charge.

1		What factors should you consider in making your recommendation to the board of education?
2		How would you go about setting up a study to determine which curriculum to recommend?
3		Set up the study, describing the manner in which you would choose participants and teachers and how you would go about determining which curriculum to purchase.
4		Identify your study as an observation study, a correlation study, or an experimental study.
5		If your study is an experiment, what are your independent and dependent variables?
6		If you were to get results favoring one curriculum over the other, what could you say with regard to those results? Can you infer cause and effect? Why or why not?

Analyze your own beliefs about children's development. Analyze these beliefs in terms of how they might influence the way in which you will teach children and the types of experiences you might provide in your classroom.

7		With which theories are you most comfortable? Why might this be so?