A Systematic Review: The Next Generation Science Standards and the Increased Cultural Diversity

Abstract

This systematic review aims to explore the effect of NGSS on students’ academic excellence. Specifically, considering increased cultural diversity, it is appropriate to identify student’s science-related values, respectful features of teachers’ cultural competence, and underlying challenges and detect in what ways these objectives are addressed by NGSS. Exploring the phenomena of effects, the qualitative evidence is collected. The sample consists of 52 academic entries (empirical researches and case studies) that shed light on the researched question. Summarized data is processed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that modern students possess such science-related values as social presence, decreased power distance with tutors, simplicity of learning process, multitasking, universal accessibility of learning instruments, readiness to work with big data, readiness to use online software and tools. Simultaneously, teachers are expected to have such cultural competencies as cultural sensitivity, online mentoring, gut feeling about the proper power distance, and social presence. The lack of these competencies results in the emergence of various challenges in an educational setting.