Future Educational Principles

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Future Educational Principles

• 4th CeTUSS Workshop
• Uppsala University, December 4-5, 2006
• Trond Clausen
• Høgskolen i Telemark
• IEEE Education Society

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Source A Report of the Presidential Young
Investigator Colloquium on U.S. Engineering,
Mathematics and Science Education for the year
2010 and Beyond.Directorate for Education and
Human Resources, National Science Foundation,
Washington D.C., U.S.A., January, 1992

• PRINCIPLES
• Encourage and reward teaching excellence,
  instructional scholarship, and public service as
  well as research.
• Increase substantially resources for
  instructional innovation and curriculum renewal,
  especially for undergraduate education.
• Assume primary responsibility for public
  understanding of science and technology,
  principally through high quality pre-college
  teacher preparation and lower division
  undergraduate instruction.
• Assure career participation in engineering,
  mathematics, and sciences by all segments of
  society, particularly careers as pre-college or
  college faculty.
• Encourage the development of discovery-oriented
  learning environments and technology-based
  instruction at all educational levels.

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1. Encourage and reward teaching excellence,
instructional scholarship, and public service as
well as research.

• Teachers are facing
• 1. A general lack of support.
• 2. Direct neglect of faculty achievements in
• Teaching.
• Instructional scholarship.
• Public service.
• There is a need to promote a higher quality of
  faculty life that more fully recognizes and
  develops the diverse talents and interests of all
  the faculty.

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2. Increase substantially resources for
instructional innovation and curriculum renewal,
especially for undergraduate education.

• Funding of instructional innovation is
  almost nonexistent and consequences severe
• Inadequate attention to long-term curriculum
  renewal.
• Constricts the number of faculty engaged
  regularly in broad-based instructional
  scholarship.
• Sustains an unfortunate and inaccurate impression
  in minds of many that teaching is unimportant and
  without merit.
• There is a critical need for review of
  existing budget priorities to provide both new
  resources and expansion of current educational
  programs consistent with the coequal importance
  of teaching and research.

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3. Assume primary responsibility for public
understanding of science and technology,
principally through high quality pre-college
teacher preparation and lower division
undergraduate instruction.

• In public opinion
• Knowledge of mathematics and the sciences has
  little to do with everyday life.
• Courses in these fields need only be taken by
  students preparing for engineering or scientific
  careers.
• Remedies
• More efficient communication and cooperation with
  pre-college schools.
• Greater responsibility for public understanding
  of a science and technology through high quality
  instructional offerings to all students and
  participation in science and technology education
  policy.

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4. Assure career participation in
engineering, mathe-matics, and sciences by all
segments of society, particularly careers as
pre-college or college faculty.

• Questions to be asked
• Is science and mathematic dull, tedious,
  uninspiring?
• Or is it something, maybe, limited to those
  with a special talent?
• Is it really inclusive, i.e. takes the needs
  of the society at large into consideration?
• A tentative answer
• In large measure, it is necessary to develop
  both an inviting educational environment and one
  that encourages all students to succeed

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5. Encourage the development of
discovery-oriented learning environments and
technology-based instruction at all educational
levels.

• Questions to be asked
• Are we overlecturing our students?
• Does a lecture-based system lead to mass
  production of curricula?
• Do mass produced curricula really stimulate
  student activity and good learning?
• A tentative answer
• Discovery-oriented learning environments
  should be created. Such environments should
  capitalize on the full power of new
  communication, information, and visualization
  technologies.

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Those were the problems of 92!They have been
addressed and solved long ago, I assume.Thanks
for your attention!