What does it mean to create sustainable science curriculum innovations? A commentary

Abstract

Two key issues for research on the creation of sustainable science curricula are the following: (1) How do we create curriculum innovations that will be used in classrooms after the developers or researchers depart; and (2) How do we create curriculum innovations that are scalable, such that teachers who never have direct contact with the developers may successfully enact them? We introduce the idea of usability as a guiding principle for the successful design of sustainable and scalable curricula, present a framework for examining usability in school contexts, and critique the ideas presented in this issue of Science Education using this framework. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 87: 564–573, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10088