K-16 Education: Bridging the Two Cultures Divide?

Inquiry in Science and the Humanities, In the Interests of Both?

One of a series of half day conversation among K12 and college/university educators about how to work together to assure better education for all students at all educational levels, with particular reference to science and mathematics.

THIS YEAR'S QUESTIONS:

• Are there problems in education at all levels common to both the sciences and the humanities?
• What role does "inquiry" play in education in the sciences? in the humanities?
• What can science educators learn from humanities educators?
• What can humanities educators learn from science educators?

Open to all interested K-12 teachers, college faculty, students. Coffee and lunch provided. For further information contact Paul Grobstein at Bryn Mawr College

Background readings:

• Put a Little Science in Your Life
• The Disadvantages of an Elite Education

Session 1

• Common problems?
• Inquiry as common ground?

Session 2

• What can science educators learn from humanities educators?
• What can humanities educators learn from science educators?

Session 3

• Summary and Recommendations

BACKGROUND:
Though often regarded and treated as separate activities, K-12 and college/university/graduate education are fundamentally and intricately interdependent. Those engaged in college/university/graduate education are themselves the products of K-12 education and K-12 educators are in turn the products of college/university/graduate education. The reciprocal relationships make it hard to imagine meaningful educational innovation without effective exchange of ideas and aspirations between K-12 and college/university/graduate educators.

Given their professional experiences, together with their experiences both as undergraduates and as students in education and other graduate programs, K-12 educators have a particularly advantageous perspective from which to make suggestions about how to improve both K-12 and college/university education. At the same time, college/university/graduate faculty have distinctive perspectives and resources that can be beneficial to K-12 educators. What is needed is greater conversation between the two groups, predicated on the presumption that such exchange is very much in the best interests of both, as well as of more effective experiences at all levels of the educational system.

For earlier conversations in this series see

• Minisymposium 2007
• Minisymposium 2006
• Minisymposium 2005
• Symposia Report, 2003
  • Minisymposium 1
  • Minisymposium 2
• PKAL Regional Network Workshop, 2002
• Minisymposium 2001