Korea’s science education lags behind other nations

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Korea’s science education lags behind other nations

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Students at Changdong High School in northern Seoul examine the metal ionization process through an experiment. Only 160 out of 1,500 high schools nationwide fulfill the standards of science education. By Kim Sang-seon

At a high school in Gwanak District one recent afternoon, a daily science lesson appeared to be nothing more than a time to relax, with a third of the students in the class fixated on their smartphones.

“It’s hard to get the students’ attention because they don’t really listen to something that is not related to the College Scholastic Ability Test [CSAT],” said Kim, a science teacher at the school who only gave his surname.

The science curriculum in the 10th grade is not directly linked to questions in the science segment on the college entrance exam, so students tend to put more effort into other test-centered subjects like math and English.

In addition, they are required to choose either a humanities- or science-centered track by the end of 10th grade. In Korea, the number of liberal arts high school students far outpaces that of general science students. So for those who choose the humanities sequence, science class is almost completely ignored.

But Kim’s students, and many in their position, also have an opinion.

Science class, they say, is often filled with obscure concepts that aren’t accompanied by any sort of lab work, which forces students to only memorize terms and theories.

Prominent figures and scholars around the world in recent years have emphasized the importance of science in the modern world, stressing the importance of young people’s contributions in those fields.

Developed nations like the United States and many countries in Europe are aggressively seeking to create a climate in which the teaching of STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and math - is highly valued.

In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announced an initiative for major improvements in STEM education efforts. Part of that plan includes preparing 100,000 STEM teachers proficient in those fields over the next decade. The U.S. National Research Council identifies a set of 14 indicators to measure progress in STEM education, including how much time teachers devote to science instruction.

While other nations are trying to address the declining level of interest in science in schools and universities, the Korean government is struggling just to keep up with the shift.

Some education experts have called for the abolishment of the long-established two-track system because humanities students aren’t likely to take science studies seriously. Advocates argue that all high school students should be required to complete general levels of both science and social sciences.

But the Ministry of Education postponed that discussion until 2018, apparently fearing the aftermath of their decision. So for now, the issue remains tabled.

Disintegrated move

Science education in Korea hit a major snag this year when the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology was divided in two at the onset of the Park Geun-hye administration. Since the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning branched off from the Ministry of Education, some programs devoted to supporting STEM teachers have disappeared altogether.

Kim Se-hee, a science teacher at Deokjang Middle School in Gyeonggi, was disappointed when she learned that the state-run NASA program is no longer offered by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. She had an opportunity to visit NASA last year thanks to the program, which is designed to train science teachers at the institute.

Kim recalled that the experience “immensely inspired her.”

“I learned that complex principles in astronomy could be taught more easily using miniature space crafts and a model of the solar system,” said Kim.

But the training session has been scrapped since the ministry split in two.

“Now the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning views science from an industry perspective, and the Education Ministry always views science as a segment on the CSAT,” said Roh Seok-ho, a science teacher at Changdong High School in Seoul.

“There is no specific department to manage the long-term direction of science education in this fast-paced, technologically advanced society,” he said.

The two related departments also sometimes express conflicting voices on science education policy, which blocks effective planning and implementation. When discussing the trial run of an experiment-oriented lab program, the Science Ministry wanted the initiative to be implemented across 17 schools during the first phase, but the education authority hoped to test the program in just 10 schools across the region.

The measure is aimed at teaching students science by inviting them to participate in lab experiments and modeling projects, a significant departure from text-based lectures.

The budget issue also divides the two ministries.

The Science Ministry stands firm with its position that it is unable to fund instructive programs at schools, saying the Education Ministry is responsible for that kind of budget.

“Anything related to school programs is within the realm of the education authority,” said a source at the Science Ministry. “But we’d like to send some experts in the science field and offer the program the support it needs to implement the lab program.”

The Ministry of Education, however, balked at the decision, saying it was nonsense that the Science Ministry would not participate in funding a science education program.

“We can’t understand their position,” said an official who requested to remain anonymous.

The two departments also failed to see eye to eye on computer science education.

Most academic high schools currently don’t offer computer science-related subjects as part of their regular curriculum. The Science Ministry mentioned last month that it was considering adopting the subject as a segment on the college entrance exam, but the Education Ministry denied the plan.

“It’s impossible to bring that subject into the CSAT,” said Lee Young-chan, an official at the ministry. “We’ve never discussed the issue with the Science Ministry.”

Lagging behind

While Korea is stumbling, other nations are pushing to revamp and strengthen computer science and programming courses across all grade levels.

The current information and communications technology (ICT) curriculum in British schools will be replaced by a more organized computer science and programming course, designed with the help of universities and industry experts. The course is mandatory for all schools in Britain.

Tablet PCs are also on the cusp of revolutionizing the way students are taught computer science.

At the Anson Primary School in the London borough of Brent, all students are armed with tablet PCs, studying their lessons through an electronic whiteboard. A teacher links a tablet computer to a video projector, which connects to a streaming video on the Internet that allows instructors to draw, highlight and interact with whatever is on students’ screens.

With conferencing services and the newest wireless video systems, students can share their screens with the instructor as well as the entire class. The tablet-based lecture has been offered in most of the classes since 2006.

The school explained that the investment for the new teaching method was made to better prepare students in the long run. “Our future economic performance as a nation depends heavily on our ability to incorporate modern technology to our advantage,” said school personnel of the primary school in a statement.

Likewise, Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois, seeks to teach science through courses offered by innovative teaching faculty.

One of the school’s teachers, Mark Vondracek, who graduated from the University of Illinois with a doctoral degree in high energy particle physics, developed an education program with other STEM experts.

One of his lessons involves a remote radioactivity experiment in which students have access to university resources via the Internet.

Following Japan’s 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, residents were ordered to evacuate as far as possible to avoid radiation poisoning.

At the time, Vondracek’s students wondered, “How far would they need to go to avoid any hazardous effects?”

So he had his students conduct an experiment on how radioactivity levels are affected by distance. Using iLAB, an experimental online laboratory program created by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his students could safely carry out the experiment by accessing a Geiger counter and a radioactive sample housed in a laboratory at the University of Queensland in Australia.

His innovative teaching methods were well received by students.

“It’s really exciting because I can grasp a concept by conducting an experiment and seeing the results with my own eyes,” said student Max Goldsmith.

Evanston Township High School’s approach goes hand in hand with what the U.S. government is trying to do: recruiting high-flyers with leadership potential and placing them in public schools.

But the situation is markedly different in Korea. In 2007, the Ministry of Education went about nurturing creative talents by setting up well-equipped laboratories in all schools, but it has since scaled back. At the same time, building laboratory classrooms is also no longer mandatory.

“Setting up laboratories is essential for schools to teach science more effectively,” said Son Jeong-woo, a physics professor at Gyeongsang National University. “But only 130 schools - most of which are science-specialized high schools - have a lab or experiment room that meets the standards of the Education Ministry.”

“Most schools don’t care because this issue is not directly linked with the college entrance test,” he added. “Most teachers now are mainly emphasizing the rote memorization of theories and formulas.”

BY YOON SEOK-MAN [ejpark@joongang.co.kr]
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