Perspectives on Inclusion by Design: Science Curriculum Reform and Special Education‪.‬

The call for reform in science education occurs within the context of a curriculum revolution in American education designed to bring schooling in line with society's most pressing needs (Pugach & Warger, 1996). Curriculum is being sought that ensures congruence between what is taught and what needs to be taught, to ensure that stude nts are productive citizens at the end of formal schooling. Reform in science curriculum is illustrative of this transformation that is occurring in schools throughout the United States. How teachers construct and interpret curricula at the classroom level is determined by years of experience as students and as teachers. The lenses through which teaching experiences are viewed have been shaped by educators' recollections from childhood, as well as a certain amount of nostalgia for the past. The underpinning of these recollections of experience include assumptions and beliefs about how students learn and about how schooling practices "should be" in order to facilitate student learning. Assumptions must be examined in order to facilitate change in how curricula is developed an d enacted, as well as to create opportunities for meaningful learning by all students.