Science, Maths and Engineering Education in United States

In most of the US colleges and high schools maths, science and engineering subjects are taught wit certain mind set of preparing students to sit through the exams. They are taught exam techniques, how to do short term cramming , are made to learn useless dates  and facts, teaching methodologies are out dated and obsolete, they are prepared to take notes for test preparation, are equipped with problem solving techniques, in short  maths science and engineering education is imparted  is equivalent  to gaming the system.

The educationists believe that the knowledge should be imparted in such a way that learners have a clear logic and the fundamental concepts are clear and fully understood. Key facts and figures are described and explained to learners. Mathematics, science and engineering are such subjects in which learners need to learn multiple perspectives, they have to learn to be focused and should develop sharp analytical skills in order to find answers to the questions presented to them. Teacher has to keep the curiosity alive amongst the learners and help them visualise the possibilities on inventing new techniques or a products keeping in mind the social and ethical implications. Science and mathematics intrigue holistic thinking  and enable learners to practically imply the knowledge and skills.

Surveys on the other hand reveal that maths science and engineering education has severe problems on part of delivery and imparting the knowledge. Students never really learn to do maths, science or engineering. Legendary mathematician Jacques Hadamard asked 100 scientists about how they solved problems presented in mathematics and physics. He found a massive disconnection between the way maths and science is being taught and the way scientists and mathematicians work. Most of the people who participated in the survey said that using the logical, lft brain symbols associated with their work is not always the way things work. They claimed those to be only the tools to communicate the work they do.

What experts do in their practical life is what is not taught in any school delivering science, maths and engineering education. Students are taught about how to talk about their work .This does not mean that not a single person learns the mature and best ways to work out solutions for scientific and mathematical problems. There are plenty of geniuses who learn in spite of all the faulty teachings and may be because of their luck.

The question is what can be done to make things better to impart maths science and engineering education. Schools are initiating efforts to identify the methodologies and research and develop the curriculum in such a way that we do better. Drills and tests should not be testing student’s abilities of rote memory. Instead of checking the tools of communication e.g. code we should be testing their tool of thought e.g. intuition, visualisation.