Imlisanen Jamir
Engaging students in science and helping them develop an understanding of its ideas has been a consistent challenge for both science teachers and science educators alike.
Many science teachers hope to infuse their students with a love of science and, ultimately, inspire some to pursue it. However, there is growing concern that science is failing to engage young people, resulting in fewer choosing it as a career. Policymakers also express concerns about the ‘skills gap’ resulting from a lack of students pursuing qualifications in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and project that this will leave the country short of skills vital to economic growth.
The Governor of Nagaland has recently instituted an award to encourage the students of Nagaland to excel in the study of basic sciences. The award known as ‘Governor’s Excellence Award in Science Study of HSSLC Examination’ will be given to the best six students in science stream.
The awards include 3 each for excelling students from the Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics (PCM) and Physics, Chemistry & Biology (PCB) combinations. In both the categories the first, second and third winners will get Rs 1,00,000; Rs 50,000; Rs 25,000 respectively.
This is a noble initiative which is a part of the process to encourage young people in the State to take up the sciences. But this can only be a part of a multipronged process.
No doubt science can be an exciting subject, yet a difficult one to teach, simply because science, as both a body of knowledge and a way of reasoning or thinking, is different from everyday knowledge and thinking (leaving aside the linkage to science as a mode of experimental inquiry).
Attempts to change that dynamic are what needed to truly effect change in students’ attitudes towards the sciences. The need to be increasingly focused on teachers, particularly the way they are trained and how they interact with students. It includes ways for teachers to encourage student enquiry, feed their curiosity, and deepen their understanding of scientific concepts.
Improving outcomes will require a shift in the classroom from a teacher-centred approach to one that helps students work through concepts themselves.
It is important, to point out that more attention should be paid by the science education community to the development of students' imagination, by seriously considering the role of the narrative mode of thinking and the development of romantic understanding in the context of school science education.
Regardless of the fact that the history of science has provided ample evidence that scientific discovery and scientific understanding are indeed imaginative endeavours, in the context of education in general, especially early childhood education, the value of imagination needs to be reclaimed.
Comments can be sent to imlisanenjamir@gmail.com
