Science editor calls for changes in science education at Baker Institute event

Science editor calls for changes in science education at Baker Institute event

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Scientific education should enable “our citizens to be resistant to the temptations of talk radio,” which espouses “simplistic answers to complex questions,” said the editor-in-chief of Science Magazine.

	BRUCE ALBERTS

Bruce Alberts, who has been editor of one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals since 2007, spoke at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy Feb. 9. “It is critically important that science, and scientists, achieve a much higher degree of influence throughout both their nations and the world,” he said.

Alberts listed three goals for science education. First, it should enable all children to acquire the problem-solving, thinking and communication skills of scientists, so that they can be productive and competitive in the new world economy. Second, Alberts called for the creation of a “scientific temper” — a phrase he attributed to former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru — with scientifically trained people in many professions ensuring the rationality and tolerance essential for a democratic society. And third, the United States should generate new scientific knowledge and technology by casting the widest possible net for talent.

Alberts, who is a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, served as the president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and chair of the National Research Council for two terms (1993-2005).

Citing the National Science Education Standards, a set of guidelines for science education in U.S. primary and secondary schools established by the National Research Council in 1996, Alberts said students should be expected to know, use and interpret scientific explanations; generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations; understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge; and participate productively in scientific practices and discourse. “We should all unite around this redefinition of science education,” he said.

Alberts offered a mixed view on current efforts to teach science to American schoolchildren. The No Child Left Behind Act required all states to conduct science assessments. “It is much easier to test for science words than for science understanding and abilities,” Alberts cautioned. “Bad tests are forcing a trivialization of science education and drive most students, including many potential scientists, away from science.” Good tests, he said, motivate good teaching and learning.

The answer, Alberts maintained, is to make a science out of science education by utilizing what we have learned from the field of psychology. “The goal,” he said, “is to use knowledge of what increases student learning — based on scientifically obtained evidence — to create a continuously improving education system at all levels.”

He called for the creation of field sites, akin to teaching hospitals for educators, where researchers, teachers and designers work together to “observe, explain, document, replicate and evaluate practice as a source of new knowledge.” And finally, he backed teacher empowerment. “Our best science teachers need to have more influence on the education system,” he said, from school districts to the state and federal government.

The event was hosted by the Baker Institute’s Science and Technology Policy Program and is part of its Civic Scientist Lecture Series funded by Marathon Oil Corporation, which highlights scientists and engineers who move beyond the lab to influence public policy.