Teaching Science Badly – and Well

``... overemphasizing vocabulary can be dangerous. Understanding is the main purpose of science teaching but many teachers think that their job is to make students learn big words. This detracts from science as a process and jeopardizes learning, particularly in a linguistically fractured country like ours...``
its really strange to note that in Punjab (for example), where majority of people live in rural areas and speak only and only punjabi, the students are taught in urdu which they cant understand in most of the cases..they have to try hard for learning big words of another language and when they start understanding they r forced again to learn another language i.e english. no one knows how many of them gets chance to enter the ``understanding phase`` which is the main purpose of science teaching. arent we just wasting time, money n energies in a useless exercise or if not useless, we r not serving the main purpose for sure..i m not sure that in how many countries the medium of instruction at primary level is a languge thats is other than the students` mother tongue...there may have some political reasons for teaching urdu and some economic or market reasons for teaching english but my point is that cant this all be achieved by imparting quality education of urdu and english as two independent and seperate subjetcs so that the other subjects like social studies, ethics, religious tudies and specially the science may be taught in one`s mother tongue...offcourse we should keep teaching science in english and urdu where there r no problems as to understanding them.

Re: # 130

zeemax,

...... i have known tehsin before he ruined his eyes by playing with his peepee and ruined his mind by reading socrates ...... but even at his worst he is a better man than you, and if you are not careful he will make you cry like a little girl from jamia hafsa ............

#129 by hamidm2

Brilliant ! How come the best of your ire is reserved for poor tehsinabbasi? Perhaps you don`t like socrates ... hmmm ....

Re: # 112

tehsin gadhay,

``By this logic 40 percent of Muslims who are sent to America for higher education should be humanities graduates. You are crazy if you think any of them go back with such degrees``

... oye bewakoof ! ........ we don`t want people with humanities degrees to go back ! ....... remember syed qutub?..... he came to america to get a humanities degree and this is what he learned about you :

`` Jazz is his preferred music, and it is created by Negroes to satisfy their love of noise and to whet their sexual desires ... ``

......... then he went back to join hassan al-banaa`s al-qaeda ......... and if i am not mistaken, hassan turabi, another shining light of al-qaeda, has a phd in law from the sorbonne ......... and let`s not even talk about sir muhammad allama iqbal who studied philosophy in germany and returned to cause more havoc than masadi can ever dream of ..........

............ look, you imbecile, the islamic world is full of scholars who can recite socrates and aristotle backwords - the libraries in qum are reputed to hold every single piece of garbage written by western philosophers and the ayatollahs have read all of them ........ from what i understand, any ayatollah-in-training can run cirles around most philosophy professors at harvard ......... but what has that brought them ?......... as long as they continue to believe in the book, all other knowledge is superfluous ........

...... and stop making nonsensical statements like :``great science graduates like you who went back to their respective Muslim countries, did not bring about a scientific revolution in their societies``......... first of all, in case you didn`t notice, most great science graduates like me do not go back - heck, even mediocre ones like urstruly stick around to work on designing horns for jeeps .......... but the few that do go back keep the lights on (albeit intermittently) , build the motorways, teach at lums and agha khan, work at nespak and descon, and most importantly make atom bums and the missiles to take them to kolkata ........

................and people like dr hoodbhoy risk their life and limb everyday to save one or two young minds a year (mention hoodbhoy`s name to any jamatia in islamabad and you will see what i am talking about - it is a wonder the man is still alive )......... a good friend of mine who gave up a very successful career in industry in the us to go back and teach computer science in pakistan summed it up for me when he said, `` i have accomplished more in the last two years here than i accomplised in fifteen years of research at cray and ibm - i have trained half a dozen brillliant bachas`` ......... of course he was disappointed that he is still unable to save their souls which their parents sold to the devil`s nemesis .......... the faculty at agha khan medical college is another good example - they have raised the standard of medical education to the point where their graduates can simply walk into the best residency programs in the us ...... it might not be a `revolution`, but it sure beats the heck out of what all thiose ma`s in islamiyat, pultical scance, philasaphy and sociolology have accomplised .......... i believe sheikh rashid has an ma in pulitical scance from gordon college !

.......... now get out of the house, read the wsj and the ny times instead of the greenwich time and jewish news, and for god`s sake stop reading socrates - you are getting insufferable ......... i might have to come up there and beat the crap out of you ........... but really, we should stop quibbling amongst ourselves while civilization is threatened by the likes of zeemaz, urstruly, osama, and masadi ...........

Excellent commentary, Naved. Mammon`s our new God. Increasingly, all else shall flow from and to Him,... science/knowledge included.

The write-up on `good science` is very timely aside from this issue being of a degree of importance which often goes unrecognized. Dr Hoodbhoy has, however, not quoted the study which gives such high marks to the state of science education in India. While it is good to receive a laudatory comment from the `other side` and that too from a person of his eminence, the findings of the uncited study are highly suspect. Evidence available from sources like reports of various Boards of Education, a review carried out by the Indian Academy of Science and anecdotal evidence of teachers all indicate that despite a few centers of excellence the general state of science education in this country is not too much to right home about. As someone who had something to do with some of the policy aspects of the matter in the 1990s, may I draw attention to a few pointers which may help in a better understanding of the state of science education in India with a few lessons (hopefully) for South Asia and elsewhere in the developing world. They are;
1. First and foremost; science education may be on offer for reasons ascribed in the write-up such as understanding the universe etc, these exalted objetives have somehow disappeared from the perspective. Today, the objective of receiving science education, and of teachers imparting it, from school level onwards, is generally for improving material prospects which often boil down to gaining admissions to institutions of Medical or Technial Education.
2. Precisely for the above reasons, the motivation of students joining courses in Sciences at Under Graduate levels and above, is very poor. Leaving aside the odd `oddball` these students have gravitated to such courses as a poor alternative after having failed to make the grade in the institutions referred above. Accounts from fairly reputed Universities indicate that a majority of students doing Masters` in as elite a discipline as Physics invest most of their time and attention to prepare for tests for admission to Management programmes.
3. The net result is that the College University system retains only the frustrated for a career in research and education. The shool system is in particular a casualty as a career as a school science teacher is not a priority at all. The lady or gentleman joining as a ``Post Graduate Teacher`` is a despairing soul who is where she or he is, for no fault of her/ his. Even for this demoralized lot, the silver lining is to make a minor fortune in private coaching institutions- millionaire school teachers are no longer a rare phenomenon!
The solution does not lie with further improving the material prospects of teachers- service condition of School, College and University Teachers have improved dramatically in the last few decades in India and it is doubtful if further dramatic improvement is sustainable. The issue ironially is of creating a social climate wherein acquiring a knowledge of science is a goal in itself. In short, the reasons for obtaining education in science put forward by Dr Hoodbhoy must be acepted by the society.With such acceptance, admissions to Medical and Engineering Colleges and allied (potentially) money-spinning activities will become `fringe benefits` rather than be-all and end-all of science education.
How could this goal be achieved in the foreseeable future, though, is a question which begs itself. The civil society has clearly failed to bring this matter to the center-stage of its concern. The imperatives of choosing what can be done over what should be done have kept the issue away from the priorities of the political-bureaucaratic system. Theoretical or abstract as it may sound, the only pragmatic option is for lobbies and pressure groups to hammer this point home day in and day out so that the cause of `science for civilization`s sake` is brought home to the people at large- that is the only way the cause advocated by Dr Hoodbhoy can be taken further.
Naved Masood

#99 Hamidm2

Mian, I think that YOU folks are truly the deluded bunch.

(1) Pakistanis have no money of own – it is Uncle Sam pumping in the resources to keep the place running.

(2) When Pakistanis do manage to scrounge up a bit of money, they need to use it to provide a well-deserved boost to the salaries of its brave patriotic khaki warriors – the pride and joy of the ummmmmmaaaah! Little is left.

(3) If any amounts do remain available, those are needed to carry the message of Islam to far-away lands – starting with the neighbor next door, so as to build upon the unblemished track record of improving the life style of the Kashmiris which has been doing so by leaps and bounds since 1989.

(4) Whatever further can be spared is of course needed to replenish the campaign coffers of the Honorable Eatallofus Towns of Brooklyn, New YourK!

Why would ANY patriotic Pakistani want to pay for Science - or even the three R`s!

hamidm to naqshbandi #108 ``all this stuff about `` science and religion occupy two very different spheres of human existence`` is utter nonsense

I beg to differ. You fly a plane based on science, not religion (Except in PIA of course, where they start a flight by mumbling some magic words in arabic which they hope will convince Allah to send a farishta to give the plane that extra lift). But... You enjoy the plane ride based on religion, not science (by getting the peace of mind that comes with knowing that even if the plane doesnt quite make it, it is no big deal because there is more to things then our existence).

Zeemax #81,

``But Hamidm, to change the unpalatable subject and on another point, perhaps you know that the best mathematical and IT talent is neither with Chinese nor the hinjus nor anywhere in the USA. It is in Romania and the Czech Republic .. and neighbouring regions.``

Hmm...could you please tell us about a few recent mathematical breakthroughs that have
emerged from Romania or Czech Republic in recent times ?

Also, what does North Korea acquiring nuclear weapon technology (which is very modular)
have anything to do with their science and engineering competence ?

#120 by Tehsinabbasi

If you can claim to study aristotle and the like deeply, I suggest you do the same with Quran. Unless of-course you think it was written by an illiterate bedouin, in which case you may not deem it to be worthy of further thought.

anil writes <<< The pecking order has been created through the use of knowledge and human mind >>>

Another ignorant response by you. The global pecking order works inspite of the will of the vast majority of humanity, it is not the result of knowledge but a manipulation of knowledge to perverse ends. The human mind and ideas have less to do with it than wealth and power. Knowledge and products of the human mind, through necessity are in its service as hired hands and whores. In our world knowledge and men of knowledge are not determinants but dependant variables, they are acted upon but are quite powerless to act except in enhancing the status quo...

Hamid mian, one man`s criteria for failure might be another`s criteria for success. The fact that waderas that the World Bank is happy to employ feel threatened by a mere sociology lecturer says quite a bit for who won and who lost......think about it

#119 by ramchandar

What part of the content of #115 do you want me to comment upon? All this has been discussed threadbare time and again, and perhaps you`re new but then you can search for those discussions.

#116 by zeemax

“No. I don`t think that`s what Quran means literally.”

Ay Muslim! Try to understand the meaning of Muslim. Muslim means the one who has submitted to Islam and to the will of God. You say I DON’T THINK! Who gave you the right to think when it comes to the Quran ‘literally’. Go back and examine your faith, don’t be blasphemous like me.

Ref#117

Zee you did not comment on the content of #115

Ref#117

Dear Zee

It not victory for faithfreedom.org. It is victory for Pakistani writer Anwar Shaikh and his book Islam - An Arab Imperialism.

#115 by ramchandar

Aah .. that`s at-least one victory for faithfreedom.org ... the power of the internet ..

Congratulations.