Prof.
K. P. Mohanan discusses the key challenges for India’s science education, and
how to help a significant number of these students develop into high-caliber
scientists.
The 21st century seems to have brought to India a
new optimism, a confidence that it can become a global economic superpower
alongside the US and China, and an eagerness to achieve this as quickly as
possible.
Government agencies in control of funds are aware
that an important prerequisite to economic growth is innovation and leadership
in science and technology. They are also aware that India has sufficient human
resources to be channeled into knowledge production. Finally, they are aware
that the key to becoming world leaders in science and technology lies in a
drastic transformation in education. The time is ripe, then, to rethink and
transform science education in India.
At present, there are three key features of the
Indian scene that are highly valued in the field of science education. First,
unlike many funding agencies, the Indian government recognizes the value of
pure science, without unduly worrying about its immediate application and the
potential for short-term economic benefits. Second, it is aware that scientific
talent should also be sought in rural and economically disadvantaged sections
of Indian society. Third, many education circles are abuzz with discussions of
the ‘scientific temper’ – the spirit of rational inquiry in the pursuit of
science. The Indian constitution explicitly states that Indian citizens have
the responsibility to acquire the scientific temper as a prerequisite to
collective nation building.
About five years ago, the government of India set up
five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) – at Bhopal,
Kolkata, Mohali, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram – with a specific brief: to
attract scientific talent from among the youth and to nurture them to become
world-class researchers in science. The integrated five-year bachelor’s and
master’s program at these institutions, along with the PhD program, is designed
to guide students along the research path right from the beginning of their
undergraduate education.
Despite the welcome attention, there are two major
challenges with this approach. First, knowing how to select students with the
potential to make important contributions to the growth of science. And second,
implementing the kind of education that will develop and strengthen such
potential, so that a significant subset of those students will become genuine
scientific researchers.
The most difficult problem in identifying scientific
talent is the enormous number of potential applicants to science programs.
Currently, eligibility for application to the IISERs is determined by a ‘merit
list’ consolidated from three channels: a joint entrance examination conducted
by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs); a test conducted by Kishore
Vigyan Protsahan Yojna, a national scheme for encouraging scientific talent;
and performance in the 12th-grade board examinations.
But gathering a merit list from these channels has
its own drawbacks. In particular, selection is based primarily on tests that
assess students’ familiarity with knowledge concepts and their ability to apply
these concepts to standard textbook scenarios. Consequently, scientific talent
is equated with doing well in tests, while the qualities of mind needed for
scientific research are not assessed. This process emits the wrong signals to
society regarding the nature of scientific research, and students are attracted
who may not have the appropriate aptitude. It discourages and filters out
students whose strengths may not lie with meaningless memorization and
mechanical application, but whose potential for scientific research would
emerge if they were exposed to the excitement of scientific inquiry.
In addition to these limitations, the IIT joint
entrance examination poses a problem insofar as it relies on the
multiple-choice-question format, which students must complete at high speed.
This effectively discourages the exercise, and therefore the assessment, of
thinking abilities and creativity. Furthermore, the content’s unrealistically
high difficulty level, combined with the odds of scoring well through trained
guessing, has resulted in the mushrooming of ‘coaching factories’ that train
students to do well in these exams without either understanding the content or
possessing scientific ability.
There have been many voices – from leaders in
industry, politicians and even from among IIT faculty and alumni – expressing
concern about the serious flaws of these tests and the mind-numbing effects of
their preparation for students. The government is aware of the problems, yet
the tests continue without any change. One solution is to design entrance exams
that test the students’ thinking ability and potential to develop scientific
inquiry abilities. For example, enhanced multiple-choice questions could be
designed, which require students to spend longer thinking about each question
and where wrong answers are penalized. Although detailed critiques of the
current entrance tests do exist, and alternatives developed, authorities are
yet to take up these options.
The second challenge is educating students in such a
way that a significant number develop into high-caliber scientists. Three key
areas call for special attention.
First, introducing
students to scientific inquiry – and to rational inquiry in general – from the
beginning of their undergraduate education and helping them develop the
capacity for independent inquiry. This ability would then serve as the
foundation for developing research skills during graduate studies, and for
thinking and decision making in their professional and personal lives. The
spirit of scientific inquiry (‘the scientific temper’) would be a natural
outcome of the pursuit of these abilities.
Second, developing the
capacity for scientific inquiry must be trans-disciplinary – it must focus on
those aspects of (scientific) inquiry that are shared across disciplinary
boundaries.
Third, India must focus
on counteracting the growing trend of fragmentation in education and research,
promote multidisciplinary research and facilitate the productive
cross-pollination of ideas that transcend disciplinary boundaries. This
requires the design of a curriculum embedded in an integrated
trans-disciplinary perspective of (scientific) knowledge and inquiry. This in
turn calls for an infrastructure of human knowledge that facilitates
trans-disciplinary connections and the integration of knowledge across
specializations, disciplines and even across traditional groupings like
‘natural sciences’, ‘social sciences’ and ‘humanities’.
Based on these three ideas, a new conception of
education is emerging at institutes like IISER-Pune. Compulsory courses in
mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology are complemented by compulsory
courses on rational inquiry to help students develop the capacity for knowledge
construction, validation and evaluation across a broad terrain of domains. These
range from mathematics and physics to philosophy, history and art. India’s
science education system might also consider another strategy whereby faculty
members audit each other’s courses and discuss their teaching to make
connections across courses. This would help students understand how seamlessly
the different courses flow into one another.
A well-developed science education program can help
India grow into an economic superpower by nurturing India’s youth to become
world-class researchers – not only in engineering and technology, but also in
pure science. To do this, relevant programs should encourage an integrated,
inquiry-oriented scientific education grounded in a trans-disciplinary
perspective of inquiry and knowledge. This approach demands an equal emphasis
on (scientific) knowledge and (scientific) inquiry, and combining
specialization in different disciplines with a broad-based multidisciplinary
and trans-disciplinary education.
As these initiatives are refined and strengthened,
the lessons that are picked up along the way can be extended throughout the
education system in general – in India and abroad.
Source: East Asia Forum.
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