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many ways we join forces to meet the needs of the young children in
our schools. The Old Dominion University student mentioned above
is going to be able to continue her progression in her program due to
the collaborative efforts from the state. As we begin a new academic
year, we do so knowing that the support from the state is there with
us. We encourage those at the state level to continue operating in this
manner and we offer our expertise to further support the collaborative
educational work of the Commonwealth.
Dr. Jane S. Bray is Dean for the Darden College of Education at Old
Dominion University and Dr. Leigh Butler is Assistant Dean for the
Darden College of Education at Old Dominion University.
Engagement
in
deeply-absorbed
searches for that which is just beyond our
intellectual and emotional understanding is
central to the core of our nature as humans.
Through such journeys of discovery in
which the generation and testing of ideas is
emphasized, we learn to connect with our
personal and shared humanity, experiencing
in the process discovery of selves, of
community, and eventually of all we survey.
As faculty members in teacher education
programs throughout the Commonwealth
continue to renew their focus on STEM-related fields (Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) two primary themes are
consistently emphasized: 1.) acknowledgement of the inherent value
of freeing youthful minds for contemplating stirring imaginings—
encouraging purpose-filled exploration of wondrous ideas, as Eleanor
Duckworth might put it, and 2.) reinforcement of the importance of
focusing our capacities for rich and incisive intellectual comprehension
about “what is”, and breath-taking notions about “what could be”
toward addressing those issues that most deeply vex us. In both
contexts, our programs invite future teachers to contemplate the
significance of instilling in students a willingness—an eagerness
even—to make as intimate acquaintance as possible with all that the
earth and the universe beyond has to offer.
STEM specialists in Virginia’s teacher education programs help
aspiring and practicing teachers understand that in order for students
in their classrooms to discover the many “incredible things waiting to
be known” of which Carl Sagan encouraged us to dream, they must
help liberate youthful spirits for questing and for discovering that
which helps resolve, if even momentarily or incompletely, students’
countless wonder- and passion-filled inquiries about the “whys” and
“what ifs” of their surroundings. As classroom teachers gradually
master increasingly effective, researched-based strategies for helping
their students experience engaging and memorable ways of observing
and interacting with their surroundings, they inspire their students to
explore fearlessly. In this fashion, errors, unknowns, and uncertainties
become instructional stepping stones—constructive pathways by which
students and teachers alike draw closer to greater insight, possibility,
appreciation, and truth.
The most consequential contributions to our profession, to
our communities, and to society will not be the new discoveries
and innovative applications that future generations of teachers and
their students will help develop, but in how their discoveries and
accomplishments contribute to the attainment of a more ideal human
condition. Humanity’s most worthy accomplishments will not be
measured in terms of its most celebrated scientific achievements, but
in terms of how it applies its knowledge to address the core issues of
our time—waste and depletion of our natural resources, world hunger,
scarcity of clean water, impure air, deaths from curable diseases,
extreme poverty, and inequity of opportunity across gender and class.
The good news: accelerating technologies—the defining and ongoing
innovations of our age: biotechnology, the computer, nano-technology,
the internet—afford opportunities like never before to help us address
these issues.
This much can be said with certainty: The future of nations and
of species is going to be dependent on the generation of bold ideas and
on inventive application of STEM-related enterprises to the problems
which most challenge humankind. Moreover, these are the enterprises
that we will depend upon to continue providing the economic stimulus
for the Commonwealth and for the nation. The lab-, field, and
classroom-based investigations, discoveries, and accomplishments of
scientists, engineers, and educators are the hammer, plow, and steam-
driven industries of tomorrow.
Along with our partners in P-12 schools, Virginia’s teacher
educators stand in formation with our colleagues in business, science,
health care, and industry in calling for a renewal of efforts to support
exploration, education, and investment in science, mathematics,
engineering, technology, and other domains that are critical to the
knowledge economy—investments of intellectual and imaginative
“currency” that will allow us to create and sustain the best possible
prospects for the well-being of communities here in Virginia, across
America, and in societies the world over.
Let our success and our reputation be judged a decade, a generation,
or a hundred years hence on nothing so much as by how well we shall
have joined forces to address the world’s most profound problems—
on how successful, for example, we shall have been in addressing the
needs of the lost, the left, and the least among us, and on how well we
shall have treated people a world away with whom, as Bill Gates has
noted, we have nothing in common but our humanity—that, and shared
occupancy and tentative purchase on the surface of a small planet afloat
on the cosmic sea.
Phil Wishon is the Dean of the College of Education at James
Madison University and President Emeritus of the Virginia
Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.
A Critical Focus of STEM-Related Studies
By Phil Wishon
who may present opportunities that will serve to destroy what the
Commonwealth has developed so well. Ensuring that the regulatory
process is followed is another method to continue the forces for
collaboration. While we enter challenging fiscal times, collaboration
among all groups will strengthen our availability of collective thoughts
and shared resources. Legislators and staffers are encouraged to call
upon VAC-TE, ATE, and VEC for expertise and guidance. The wealth
of knowledge in these organizations can provide yet another avenue for
guaranteeing the continuation of the collaborative efforts.
The Commonwealth of VA has cause to celebrate this particular
strength. We are often the envy of colleagues across the nation for the
Fine Art Photographer
Seasons House on Trumpington Court
Chester eld, VA 23838-2110
804.739.1955
WANDA JUDD
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