The Tough Road to Better Science Teaching

This article, "The Tough Road to Better Science Teaching," in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Jeffrey Brainard examines the difficulty in upgrading teaching and learning methods in science classes. There will be a live, online discussion of this topic at 1 pm Eastern on Wednesday, August 1, 2007.

For decades introductory science courses have relied largely on lectures and tests that reward memorization of facts and formulas, an approach that has driven away many talented students. While new teaching models have shown success in engaging and retaining undergraduates, they have yet to be widely adopted in academe. For one thing, the tenure system rewards good research above good teaching. For another, faculty members have final say over their own courses, and some are resistant to change. Other professors are unaware of the new methods, in part because the federal government has provided only limited financial support for getting the word out.

Proponents of the new models have come up against particularly strong resistance at the nation's research universities, which award most of the undergraduate degrees in science and engineering.