Educate to Innovate
May 17, 2011 by cmohamed
Until hearing about the program in class, I was unaware of the initiative the administration of President Obama took to improve the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs in the United States. Although the school system in America is sufficient and successful, it is lacking in science and mathematics compared to various other countries. According to a recent study conducted by PICA, Programme for International Student Assessment, in 2006, “American students ranked 21st out of 30 in science literacy among students from developed countries and 25th out of 30 in math literacy.” I was actually surprised that a powerful and influential country was ranked low in its education programs. It’s not that America ranked poorly in comparison to other country; it’s that it appeared slightly above average. For a country as developed as the United States, it is unacceptable not to be in top five countries.
According to the study from the textbook (p. 452), the data provides the same results as the study conducted by PICA. It shows that the United States performed relatively average in Mathematics in respect to other developed countries. Most of the highest ranked countries were Asian countries. The researchers found that this was because that “Asian children attended school more days each year and spend more hours in school each week.” They also found that the structure of Asian classrooms were different such that it was centrally organized and the teacher instructed the class as a whole at once. The United States were generally more decentralized in that the teacher would often let the children work independently. Although independent study, in theory, sounds affective, it seems that children don’t always allocate this independent time reasonably and often slack off. Perhaps if America were to adapt the same methods as the Asian countries, and give up their unacceptable methods, the new initiative for stronger science and mathematics might be successful.
As technology increases, it only makes sense that the education in school would adapt with more updated curriculum. From my experience, I never had a technology or engineering class. I thought the mathematics was sufficient, but I was never really pushed to take science classes beyond the required courses. With a solid engineering background, experts believe that children will use that knowledge and solve problems in any field of work they potentially will do. The President has teamed up with several organizations to try and enforce the STEM program into the school system. The schools would need to provide a motivation for the children to face the difficult task of these classes. If the programs prove to be successful, perhaps America will rise up as the top educated country one day and educate the next generation to lead.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/educate-innovate
http://www.oecd.org/document/2/0,3343,en_32252351_32236191_39718850_1_1_1_1,00.html
