Alberts Addresses Impediments to Implementing New Math and Science Education Standards
by Irma S. Jarcho
Dr. Bruce Alberts, President of the National Academy of Sciences, addressed the Science Policy Association of the New York Academy of Sciences at their breakfast meeting on 18 March 1997. His talk, a well-reasoned overview of the guidelines developed for the teaching of science and math, was titled "Preparing the Next Generation: New Standards for Science and Math Education."
Dr. Alberts started by describing the close relationship which exists in Israel between practicing scientists and the Israeli schools. A great deal of time and effort and money are devoted to the improvement of science education, largely through teacher development. Indeed, the professional development of teachers is funded in Israel to the tune of $100 million a year. The equivalent amount in this country would total $6 billion a year [can you imagine such a bonanza?]. This is the kind of effort that would be required to effect serious change.
The challenge in the United States is more difficult because, unlike Israel, we do not have a top-down system of education such as exists, not only in Israel, but in most foreign countries. Instead, we have thousands of separate school districts, with almost complete autonomy.
Dr. Alberts stated that American scientists are not willing to work in schools, as the Israeli scientists do. At most, probably no more than 5% currently engage in such activities, yet their input is sorely needed.
Alberts considered that the problem of science in the United States is defined by industry. Most high school graduates lack critical thinking and problem solving skills. As a result, the country does not have enough employable workers. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why so much of American manufacturing is done in Asia.
Alberts did not feel that we can blame the schools. Probably teaching has improved but, as he put it, "the height of the bar has changed." Our vitality depends on our human capital, he went on. At present there is a mismatch between the world of work and our educational system.
Alberts listed the new basic skills that must be taught and characterized them as of two kinds. The ones he called the hard skills -- basic math, critical thinking, improved reading -- and the soft skills -- learning to work well in groups and to communicate both orally and in writing.
Science education could be a wedge for revitalizing all our skills, Alberts maintained, if only we did the following: first, maintain curiosity and a thirst for knowledge; second, enable all children to acquire problem solving and critical thinking skills, so that they can be productive and competitive; and third, help the United States remain a world leader in the generation of new scientific knowledge and technology.
The recent international science and math tests indicate that, once again, our students are below average in math and only average in science -- findings with grave implications for the future of the United States. When students just memorize facts for an exam, these facts do not stick. "You only remember what you have to struggle to acquire," Alberts pointed out.
In the present state of American education Alberts saw both good news and bad news. The good news is that we have clearly demonstrated that we do know how to teach science and math and that we do know that all children can learn at a higher level. The bad news is that current teaching results not in understanding but in alienation. There is unfortunately a very stable system of interlocking parts that are mutually supportive: deadly curricula, exams that support the textbooks, textbooks that support the exams. Kids give up and they are not supported by their peers. A study of 20,000 sixth through tenth graders in Wisconsin and California reported that only 15% of students said their peers would think better of them if they did well in school.
Science education standards envision science education for all, with science as a core subject from kindergarten on, taught as inquiry-based learning and not as definitions to be memorized. But having standards is not enough, Alberts admitted. Fundamental changes in teaching must accompany the standards. In the United States, math teachers were shown not to be teaching to the math standards (unlike teachers in Japan), nor were they engaging students in the kind of independent thinking the standards require. Obviously teacher development is sorely needed.
Dr. Alberts placed a great deal of the blame on the rigid requirements set by colleges and universities which demand high scores on SAT II tests as a prerequisite for admission. As long as they do this, parents will not be willing to allow teachers to change their teaching methods for fear the students will not be able to get into the colleges which require the SAT II scores. In essence, colleges are repressing change through their rigid entry requirements.
Although Alberts' talk was purportedly about the new standards in science and math education, it was really more about the factors which are impeding the implementation of these standards. The rigid system of textbook-based exams and exam-based textbooks. The dominance of SAT II tests based on such textbook knowledge. The rigid entrance requirements set by colleges and universities -- requirements which, in effect, demand proficiency in these textbook-based exams. These tests are as far removed from critical thinking and inquiry-based instruction as it is possible to be. Pressures from parents who feel that the old system has to be followed as long as SAT IIs count so strongly as determinants for admission. Finally, and this Dr. Alberts emphasized repeatedly, the unfulfilled need for vastly improved staff development for all teachers.
A rather pessimistic list of stumbling blocks in the path of the implementation of the standards -- or so it seemed to this listener.
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