[CESElist] Promoting Student Inquiry Session at Fall AGU
smossavi6585 at charter.net
smossavi6585 at charter.net
Tue Jul 31 22:54:22 MDT 2007
Tom,
You ask a good question which I will try to answer based on my impressions and
experiences working with MN state universities compared to schools in NY, New
England and Tulane in New Orleans.
The over riding factor involved in MN is something you get a good sense of when
listening to Garrison Keillor in a Prairie Home Companion with the tales from
Lake Wobegon where all the children are above average, etc. Minnesota is a state
that views itself as having a strong educational system...a view held so
strongly that data is neither sought nor accepted that might contradict this
premise. While this is certainly not true of all Minnesotans, particularly those
that have spent time in other parts of the country,...it is a dominant
characteristic within the state university system from which most teachers
receive their training. Many of these institutions actively seek to hire faculty
regionally if not entirely from within their own state's boundaries, often
breaking the academic taboo of hiring their own graduates in LARGE numbers.
Ideas from other institutions outside MN are resisted if not outright rejected
as not fitting with MN value and ways of doing things. The result is a closed
minded academic culture in which no problem is perceived to exist, thereby
averting any change. (By contrast...the MN Department of Natural Resources takes
a strong role in professional development of Earth Science teachers through
summer workshops. Of course...the DNR is responsible for lands and minerals and
has an active interest in promoting strong public education about the earth
sciences. The education folks in MN, by contrast, fundamentally don't get the
earth science argument...just as they struggle with the concept that MN schools
increasingly serve non-English speaking students who don't fit the MN model. As
long as MN and its students look good compared to the Dakotas, MN is happy not
to look further beyond its borders. (Interestingly...there is silence in
comparisons to Wisconsin the Canadian provinces whose students arrive in MN
colleges generally better prepared than MN's own children. It's an inconvenient
truth that is left unspoken and therefore ignored.) MN suffers from
provincialism combined with an unhealthy dose of arrogance which is allowed to
persist in the large part of the population with no interest in ever leaving the
state!
New York schools, by contrast, for years have had to deal with strong school
systems in New England and the mid-Atlantic states with whose graduates NY
students must compete for jobs. NY has also had to deal with ethnic and cultural
diversity which precludes the notion that there is one RIGHT way to do things
which cannot be questioned by "outsiders".
Working at Tulane has really provided an eye opening experience here, when one
looks at what should and should not be taught in science classes regarding
intelligent design, etc. Tulane students...drawn from a national audience, show
a view of science education related to controversial issues different from the
pre-service teachers coming out of the MN state university system. While the
data have not yet been published...the vast majority of Tulane students stress
the separation of church and state as a factor in education. In the MN state
schools examined, a MAJORITY of the pre-service teachers would teach creationism
and intelligent design in science classes despite being MORE familiar with the
standards than the Tulane students.
MN's problem is not hostility to earth science or even science per se. It is an
unwillingness to look to the wider world and its practices to ground truth their
judgements of their education system. Such bubbles exist in other areas of the
country I am sure and form a VERY strong argument for a greater role in
education for national standards and accrediting agencies.
Does this help? Dean Moosavi
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