Interdisciplinary Research in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (1987) / Chapter Skim
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1 THE ROLE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
1 THE ROLE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Pages 1-12
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From page 1... ...
The present report summarizes that discussion, gives specific examples of the need for collaborative research, explains why such collaboration is difficult to sustain, and provides some procedures for furthering ito The need to improve the quality of teaching and learning in mathematics, science, and technology education in the United Stales has been well documented (National Science Board Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 1983; National Assessment of Educational Progress, 1983a, 1983b; Hueftle et al., 1983; Bask Force on Education for Economic Growth, 1983; Crosswhite en al., 1985; Jacobson and Doran, 1985; McKn~ght et al., 1987~. The se studies show that effective education in those fields is impeded by minimal high school graduation requirements, the rote learning orientation of science curricula, the bureaucratic structure of educational institutions, and the limited incentives for recruitment and retention of 1
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From page 2... ...
They also include the less obvious choices reflected in the innumerable responsibilities and constraints imposed on schools by parents, professional associations, communities, and public authorities. And they include the choices of American parents in allocating personal resources of time and money to supplementiIlg ~ encouraging, and supporting the educational efforts of schools, as well as in providing extracurricular and recreational activities for children.
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From page 3... ...
Research on teaching and learning is often inattentive to insights and effective practices that are well known to experienced teachers 9 while the practice of coaching is often inattentive deco knowledge that has come from educational research. More is lmown about teaching and learning science and mathematics than is currently being used effectively.
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From page 4... ...
Unders~eandlag and improving education in -science requires three distinct kindle of knowledge. firsts the structures arid processes of the subjects to be taught, seconds the fundamental biological, psychological, linguistic, arid sociological processes involved in learning these subs acts, particularly the development of reasoning skills; and third, the coneex~cs in which teaching and learning talce place, the wide range of formal and informal if mtruceional experiences that are ~ in turn ~ embedded is contexts of interacting social and political institution and north The need for different kinds of knowledge is illustrated by the examples giver in Chapter 2 of important research requiring interdisciplinary collaboration.
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From page 5... ...
Problems of Concern Most of the mayor historical examples of successes in interdisciplinary collaboration resulted from an unusual level of shared concern. When these has been an overpowering sense of urgency about a probleo', as in the case of some issues of national crisis (e .
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From page 6... ...
A research physicist may have a greater stake in literacy in ache physical sciences but may see her contribution to such an effort as being less significant than a publishable research result in physics. And a high school science teacher may see only modest benefit in contributing to a long-term research project when he is confronted with more pressing daily problems of teaching a crass O The fact that exceptionally effective interdisciplinary effort seems to have stemmed from exceptional conditions of shared concern is ~ warning not to expect miracles, but not a cause for despair.
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From page 7... ...
An interdisciplinary project that requires extensive cross-fertilization of ideas at the level of the individual research worker incurs heavy costs of organization, communication, and coordination. Indeed, persons within individual disciplines often see the difficulties of fitting different perspectives together and recognize the cost of coordination and communication more clearly than do those outside the individual disciplines, who may see the need for cross-disciplinary, multispecialty, multiperspective projects, but tend to underestimate the organizational costs of doing them.
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From page 8... ...
This situation argues the need to creat@ incentives for interdisciplinary research that counterbalance the existing adverse reward systems Asid@ from rewards, serious in~cardisciplinary work tends to be painful. Interdisclplinary collaboration involves situation in which roles' repu~catio~, and paradigms have deco be renegotiated or redefined The process is likely to D-ke participants uncomfortable, particularly if they are relatively successful in a discipline or specialty.
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From page 9... ...
The second is that outsiders often lack clarity about the task9 which, when added to the other confusions of interdisciplinary work, gives such work low prospect of success. Yet there are occasions when interdisciplinary work is not only appropriate but also appealing: when ache normal research activities of a disciplinary scientist lead deco important questions unanswerable within that discipline; Then a teacher sees a need for greater comprehension of some specific feature of the learning process; or when a policy analyst wants advice on a well-defined problem of learning technology.
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From page 10... ...
We believe there are three different ways by which the problems of inadequate conceits can be confronted: creating ~ general sense of crisis; identifying a subgroup of relevant people who, for particularistic reasons, are more concerned than the average scientist; and substituting other mechanism for the motivational cohesion produced through shared concern Specifically, a sys~cematic program eight be created, directed toward the scientific co~i~y, explaining the magnitude of the problems within mathematical science' and ~cec~ology education and indicating the impor~cance of interdisciplinasy collaborative efforts deco confront those problems. Such a program might address the scientific community in general or identify subgroups of scientists and others witch par~cicular concern about education.
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From page 11... ...
Also, sponsoring agencies need to make a special effort to provide adequate funding for the extra costs of interdisciplinary projects and commit themselves to program and resource stability. Tempting as it is to reorganize program as educational priorities replace each other, successful interdisciplinary collaboration takes time to build.
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From page 12... ...
A third possibility is a program Of grants and fellowships that will encourage able young scientis~cs and educators to acquire the tools of another specials ant enable established professionals to provide leadership for ineerdiseiplinary research O Chapter 4 provides further suggestions on pertinent program al~cernatives.
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