Research On National Science Foundation’s Science Education Project

After the Second World War,in order to continue to maintain its status as a scientific and technological power and its advantages in the field of science and technology,the United States set up a special federal agency to fund scientific research and science education: National Science Foundation(NSF).NSF not only strongly funds basic scientific research,but also takes the progress of science education as an important goal,and strongly supports and funds science education projects.Among them,"Pre-College Teacher Institutes" and "Course Contents Improvement Project" are two educational projects initiated and funded by the foundation shortly after its establishment,focusing on two core issues in the field of science education: science teachers and scientific courses.NSF’s funding for these two projects not only improved the educational and teaching ability of many science teachers in the United States,but also promoted the reform of the science curriculum in the United States,promoted the overall improvement of science education in the United States after World War II,and laid the foundation for the progress of science and technology and the leading role of science education in the United States in the second half of the 20 th century.This paper focuses on NSF’s funding and management of "Pre-College Teacher Institutes" and "Course Contents Improvement Project" projects from the 1950 s to the 1970 s,and analyzes the start-up,specific implementation and operational characteristics of these two projects,so as to reveal how NSF integrates various forces to scientifically design and operate science education support projects.Then,the enlightenment of NSF’s educational support projects to the development of science education in China is considered.The paper is divided into five parts.The first part is the introduction,which explains the reasons for choosing the topic,research significance,concept definition,research review,research methods and research ideas.The second part provides a brief overview of NSF’s founding and its motivations for promoting science education,as well as the departments within NSF responsible for funding and managing science education programs.The third and fourth parts respectively discuss the initiation and implementation and characteristics of "Pre-College Teacher Institutes" and "Course Contents Improvement Project".The fifth part analyzes the experience of NSF in supporting science education and its suggestions to China.