Science Education

David F. Brakke
College of Science and Mathematics
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Assoc. Women in Science Magazine 30 (1)

Higher education in America originally was designed to serve an elite class and train members of the clergy. Although access to higher education has expanded enormously over the last 60 years and training in the classics, Greek, and Latin has nearly disappeared, some of the original notions persist. Many institutions continue using conventional means of measuring student potential and promise to identify and admit top-notch students. These individuals become our focus in major and graduate programs in a surprisingly wide range of institutions. Our universities, while increasingly undertaking professional education, nonetheless largely adopted a German model of graduate education. The resulting programs have produced scores of Nobel laureates and lured scientists from around the world as students and faculty. But while we concentrated on identifying the best, the masses have often been ignored or underserved. One consequence is the current lack of skilled employees in the domestic workforce to meet the demands of the information technology and bioinformatics markets.

The ability to speak multiple languages formerly was a sign of an advanced liberal education, traditionally an upper-class pursuit. Immigrants, by contrast, often shunned their native languages. Graduate schools had foreign language requirements to access science in other languages. Today, English is the universal language of science and being bilingual is less frequently connected with facility in French or German learned in universities than with recent immigration. In fact, the populations of the U.S. and many other countries are increasingly diverse, which puts additional pressures on our educational systems. In a K-12 school district in the relatively small city of Harrisonburg, Virginia, for example, students speak more than 25 different native languages; those in large school districts; e.g., Minneapolis, Minnesota, may speak as many as 90 or more. In other geographic regions, native Spanish speakers represent a significant majority. It is essential to bring these immigrant populations into our educational programs under the assumption that all students can learn, thereby creating a culture of high expectations.

We have made higher education more accessible largely through community colleges and regional or metropolitan, comprehensive institutions, which are now training most of the teachers and an increasing fraction of the scientific and technical workforce. We have also responded to a progressively more diverse population and made notable strides in establishing science and mathematics standards for K-12 schools. Nonetheless, we face serious hurdles in achieving science and mathematics literacy for all students in response to increasing globalization. Consider how, historically, access to science or information often was controlled by a small group and used for political, military, or economic gain. The universal language of science as communicated through mathematics and reproduced by experimentation or data analysis frequently was compromised in the process. Some barriers to information transfer certainly have come down. And yet, because ethnic and religious divisions and strife persist, we still fall short of a fully functioning global community despite expanded travel, broadened communication, increased mobility, and large-scale human migrations.

Most profoundly, information technology is redefining the global community irrespective of historic boundaries and divides. Information is affordable and accessible to an exponentially increasing portion of the world's population. Computer expertise is not required to tap into a wealth of information instantly and with ease. Technology is at our fingertips. While the World Wide Web might be considered an unorganized compilation of information of widely varying quality, there is little question that it has made information available to a global audience. The implications and opportunities for science, education, and society are profound and changing constantly.

There is little that can exceed an experience in a different region, country, or continent. We learn not only about cultures and history, but also about how societies have adapted to their environmental conditions. Nothing can replace firsthand observation, and we delight in such opportunities. However, there may be ways that we can use the power of technology to expand the dimensions of our science while simultaneously providing valuable assistance to science and society in other countries.

First, we can make education accessible. Technology certainly can enable us to deliver some programs in a most convenient way. It is unlikely that some programs could be delivered regardless of enhanced video-streaming, but others might be. However, as we proceed down this path we should recognize the extraordinary value of interaction between a gifted teacher or mentor and a motivated student. Technology is not a solution in itself, but requires careful implementation. Although internet-based programs are proliferating, simply throwing coursework on the Web and making it available anytime, anyplace, and for a price does not guarantee an education. Corporations bond with higher education institutions in a lucrative, for-profit market. Lacking any overall plan for higher education in the U.S. or ongoing professional education of a workforce, one need only to open up any inflight magazine or search the Web for an entire educational network being developed outside of our recognized institutions, including partnerships of "name brand" universities and others operating in for-profit corporations.

Second, we can make information available to those who need it. As illustrated by environmental disasters around the world that have been triggered by war and ethnic strife, disease, mineral and oil extraction, or power production in its various forms, there are many opportunities for science to operate in a global context. Information technology allows us to conduct investigations as never before and to communicate our results far and wide. We should also keep in mind that sound information is essential for management and that education can be liberating. Apart from some noted research efforts, I see little evidence of intergovernmental cooperation or planning at this level. Extraordinary opportunities exist for collaboration with scientists in other countries on situations that may be of local, regional or global concern.

Third, we might be persuaded by demographic and other data, such as the educational attainments of populations around the world (including our neighbors to the south in Mexico and Latin America, where relatively few complete high school), that we must help train professionals and other leaders, and that our own economies are dependent upon other countries. Projected population growth and economic status at current educational attainment for Mexico or the Hispanic population in Texas are startling and come with enormous implications. Unless current trends change, forecasts for Texas are for a rapidly shrinking Anglo population and expanding Hispanic population. The racial mix is not the issue. At current levels of income and educational achievement, predictions would suggest a large, relatively uneducated Hispanic population with a much lower level of education and income distribution than the Anglo population. Fortunately, there are model institutions, such as the University of Texas at El Paso, serving and educating the Hispanic population and training the K-12 teachers that will be so essential.

Fourth, we should not overestimate the potential for technology in educating people around the globe and sharing information while underestimating cultural gaps and language barriers. The ability to send and receive information is one, very significant step. However, communicating effectively in another cultural context is considerably more difficult to achieve. We must be aware of how to be involved in science and education in other countries without simply inserting our own approaches.

Fifth, as our higher education institutions enter the world outside their campuses, especially at remote or global sites, we enter a marketplace. We cannot ignore the market or business nor should we expect business to finance our explorations in global education. We are in effect competitors, unless we find effective ways to cooperate with business and industry, bringing business, higher education and technology together.

Finally, technological change is continuing at a speed that is difficult to grasp. While we may not be able to achieve all of our goals regarding data visualization or using technology in our classrooms, the power of computing, the ability to transmit information, and the number of people connecting to networks continues to expand at a rapid rate. We are challenged to foresee the potential possibilities and pitfalls, yet it is difficult for our social systems to keep pace with such rapid change. A recent crash of a Sun server brought down eBay. Computer viruses proliferate. With interconnectedness and ease of access also come calls for greater restriction on information, development of information security, and increasing dependence on networks for basic services, commerce, and education.

Our charge for the future is to harness the power of technology to good purpose. In some ways, ours is a period not unlike the Industrial Revolution, with phenomenal rates of change stretching social structures and institutions in myriad new directions. Today, we face another set of challenges with an increasingly global economy, rapidly changing demographics, an explosion of unsorted information, and expanding power to mine and potentially control that information. The wonderfully liberating features of easy access and use are accompanied by overwhelming bits of data without apparent structure or purpose, and of uneven quality. While we increasingly depend on information access using technology, our educational, social, and governmental institutions have not yet found ways to manage for future outcomes. In this election year, we have seen politicians debate who did or invented what. Perhaps some attention should be focused on how information from the internet and the "new" economy can be used to conduct science that serves society, and how to use those results to improve human, ecosystem, and global health. I would settle for some conversation about the challenges and how we might approach them, with attention to the new kinds of leadership and creative, collective thinking that will be required for the future.