Should Global Competitiveness Be the Main Driver of Education Reform?

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent discussion-list post “Should Global Competitiveness Be the Main Driver of Education Reform?” The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: EDDRA2’s Michael Paul Goldenberg pointed to a guest post by Gerald Coles “Educating to Compete in the ‘Global Economy’: Creating Idiot Savantism” at http://bit.ly/NdBMLd. Coles, in turn, pointed to Diane Ravitch's “Flunking Arne Duncan” at http://bit.ly/Ks75SY. Ravitch wrote: “. . . . the nation forgot that education has a greater purpose than preparing our children to compete in the global economy.”

I agree with Coles and Ravitch that “global competitiveness” should not be the main driver of education reform. In a discussion list post “Is the 'Skills Slowdown' the Biggest Issue Facing the Nation?” at http://bit.ly/9kIHAW, I countered David Brooks’ claim http://nyti.ms/LfJp1K that it was, arguing that the “Threat to Life on Planet Earth” was the biggest issue facing the nation.

Likewise, I think the “Threat to Life on Planet Earth,” and NOT “global competitiveness,” should be the main driver of education reform, contrary to the themes of NRC reports: (a) Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Future of 2007 at http://bit.ly/a3g4P3; (b) Is America Falling Off the Flat Earth?" of 2007 at http://bit.ly/qwdyDu; and (c) Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5 of 2010 at http://bit.ly/dtQhbS.
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To access the complete 23 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/KtxakF.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
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“The global population is precariously large, and will become much more so before peaking some time after 2050. Humanity overall is improving per capita production, health, and longevity. But it is doing so by eating up the planet’s capital, including natural resources and biological diversity millions of years old. Homo sapiens is approaching the limit of its food and water supply. Unlike any species before, it is also changing the world’s atmosphere and climate, lowering and polluting water tables, shrinking forests, and spreading deserts. Most of the stress originates directly or indirectly from a handful of industrialized countries. Their proven formulas for prosperity are being eagerly adopted by the rest of the world. The emulation cannot be sustained, not with the same levels of consumption and waste. Even if the industrialization of the developing countries is only partially successful, the environmental aftershock will dwarf the population explosion that preceded it.”
- E.O. Wilson (1998)

“The paleoclimate record makes it clear that a target to keep human made global warming less than 2°C, as proposed in some international discussions, is not sufficient - it is a prescription for disaster. . . .[[my italics]]. . . Assessment of the dangerous level of CO2, and the dangerous level of warming, is made difficult by the inertia of the climate system. The inertia, especially of the ocean and ice sheets, allows us to introduce powerful climate forcings such as atmospheric CO2 with only moderate initial response. But that inertia is not our friend - it means that we are building in changes for future generations that will be difficult, if not impossible, to avoid.”
- James Hansen & Makiko Sato (2011)

REFERENCES [All URL’s accessed on 30 May 2012, most shortened by http://bit.ly/.]
Hake, R.R. 2012. “Should Global Competitiveness Be the Main Driver of Education Reform?” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/KtxakF. Post of 30 May 2012 19:44:01-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are also being transmitted to several discussion lists.

Hansen, J.E. & M. Sato. 2011. “Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change,” 20 July, online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.0968v2; to appear in Berger, Mesinger, and Sijaci, eds., Climate Change at the Eve of the Second Decade of the Century: Inferences from Paleoclimate and Regional Aspects: Proceedings of Milutin Milankovitch 130th Anniversary Symposium (Springer, in press), a popularization of this paper is online as a 213 kB pdf at http://1.usa.gov/AuzXMw.

Wilson, E.O. 1998. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Knopf. Amazon.com information at http://amzn.to/JQXfrq, note the searchable “Look Inside” feature.

Re: Student engagement

Some blog followers may be interested in a recent discussion-list post of the above title [Hake (2009a)]. The abstract reads:

ABSTRACT: Jack Uretsky, in a Phys-L post "Re: Student engagement" wrote:

“American education has produced a number of physics Nobelists. How many were products of physics courses that would be approved by PER enthusiasts?”

My answer: "Probably near zero. BUT SO WHAT?" Physics Education Researchers (PER's) have attempted to design courses which enhance the learning of the vast majority of AVERAGE students, not potential Nobelists. Why the emphasis on the “average student” rather than the “exceptional student”? Because most exceptional students will learn on their own, even despite the (for them) usually helpful but unnecessary “interactive engagement.”

On the other hand, the fate of life on planet Earth is in the hands and minds of the masses of “average students” who, at least in democracies, control national policy - see e.g., ”The Threat to Life on Planet Earth Is a More Important Issue Than David Brooks' 'Skills Slowdown’ “ [Hake (2009b)].

To access the complete 19 kB post please click on http://tinyurl.com/yajuwsa.

REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy http://tinyurl.com/create.php.]

Hake, R.R. 2009a. “Re: Student Engagement,” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://tinyurl.com/yajuwsa. Post of 8 Dec 2009 to AERA-L, AP-Physics, Net-Gold, Physhare, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, & Physoc. The abstract only was sent to several discussion lists.

Hake, R.R. 2009b. " 'The Threat to Life on Planet Earth' Is a More Important Issue Than David Brooks' 'Skills Slowdown', " online at http://tinyurl.com/l28ojd with a provision for comments.

"The Threat to Life on Planet Earth" Is a More Important Issue Than David Brooks' "Skills Slowdown"

In the following two discussion list posts I argue that the"Threat to Life on Planet Earth" is a more important issue facing the Nation than David Brooks' "Skills Slowdown":

1. "Is the 'Skills Slowdown' the Biggest Issue Facing the Nation?" [Hake (2008a)] - ABSTRACT (see that article for the references):

G.S. Chandy of the Math-Teach list has called attention to David Brooks' Op-Ed piece titled "The Biggest Issue."  Brooks wrote: "I point to these two research projects . . . ["The Race Between Education and Technology" (Goldin & Katz, 2008) and "Schools, Skills, and Synapses" (Heckman, 2008). . . . because the SKILLS SLOWDOWN IS THE BIGGEST ISSUE facing the country. . . .  this slow-moving problem, more than any other, will shape the destiny of the nation. . . . America rose because it got more out of its people than any other nation.  That stopped in 1970. Now, other issues grab the headlines and campaign attention. But this tectonic plate is still relentlessly and menacingly shifting beneath our feet."  I argue that a bigger issue and a more menacing tectonic plate, seldom mentioned by editorialists such as Brooks, economists such a Goldin, Katz, and Heckman; and select committees - see, e.g., "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" [NAP (2007)] is the "Threat to Life on Planet Earth."

2. "Is the 'Skills Slowdown' the Biggest Issue Facing the Nation? - ADDENDUM" [Hake (2008b)] - ABSTRACT [see that article for references other than Hake & Mallow (2008)]:

Eugene Geis (2008) of the PHYSOC list pointed out a serious deficiency in my previous post "Is the 'Skills Slowdown' the Biggest Issue Facing the Nation?", writing "You could've attempted a paraphrasing of your concept of the 'Threat to Life on Planet Earth' . . . ." Rather than attempting to paraphrase the 22 references in Part 2 of Hake & Mallow (2008), I list seven of those references that reflect the work of Al Bartlett, James Duderstadt, Arjun Makhijani, Bill McKibben, Craig Nelson, Gus Speth, and Edward Wilson. 

REFERENCES

Brooks, D. 2008. "The Biggest Issue," New York Times, 29 July; online at 

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/opinion/29brooks.html?ref=opinion>. Because this piece may soon be available only to subscribers, I have copied an annotated and referenced version into the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://tinyurl.com/5ofthx>.  Such copying is in accord with "fair use" of copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law.  For more information go to <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml>.

Hake, R.R. 2008a. "Is the 'Skills Slowdown' the Biggest Issue Facing the Nation?" online on the OPEN! AERA-D archives at <http://tinyurl.com/afg744>.  Post of 4 Aug 2008 to AERA-D and other discussion lists.

Hake, R.R. 2008b. "Is the 'Skills Slowdown' the Biggest Issue Facing the Nation? - ADDENDUM," online on the OPEN! AERA-D archives at <http://tinyurl.com/cytr2h> . Post of 5 Aug 2008 to AERA-D and other discussion lists.

Hake, R.R.  & J.V. Mallow. 2008. "Gender Issues in Science/Math Education (GISME)," over 700 Annotated References & 1000 URL's: Part 1 - All references in alphabetical order; Part 2 - Some references in subject order; both online at ref. 55 at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>, and on this blog at 

<http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/2008/11/gender-issues-in-sciencemath-education.html>.