CCMS Mission and Principles
The Center’s mission is to develop the knowledge and leadership needed to improve the quality and use of curriculum materials for K-12 science teaching and learning so that all students—whatever their culture, language, gender, interests, or learning styles—can achieve science literacy. The Center’s approach is multifaceted and includes:
- research and development projects carried out within and across the CCMS partner institutions,
- doctoral and postdoctoral programs to develop a new generation of leadership in science curriculum materials,
- professional development of teachers in both pre-service and in-service settings, and
- knowledge sharing through in-person, in print, and on-line exchanges of resources and expertise.
All of the Center’s work is guided by a set of core principles for the development and use of science curriculum materials. The principles speak to the value of:
- focusing materials on science learning goals,
- building pedagogical supports into materials,
- promoting the use of student investigations as learning activities,
- incorporating learning technologies into materials,
- serving the needs of diverse science learners,
- taking account of policy contexts, and
- supporting teacher learning.
CCMS is a part of the NSF-funded Centers for Learning and Teaching (CLT), which aim to enrich and diversify the national infrastructure for instruction in K–12, undergraduate, and graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). For more on CLT programs, visit www.cltnet.org.
