School and the World of Work

School Science and Mathematics, Mar 2004 by Flick, Lawrence B, Lederman, Norman G

Mention the relationship between academic curricula and the workplace and you are likely to find science and mathematics educators markedly divided over the merits of aligning the requirements of school and work. There are those who sense that US business has inappropriately influenced the content and structure of educational standards. They will say that an overemphasis on economic interests has created an environment of high stakes testing and accountability modeled after business, affording narrow criteria that severely limit content and threatens the very foundations of US public education. Others argue that teachers and the structure of schools do not prepare students for meeting the intellectual and practical demands of the world of work. They charge that students do not have skills necessary for competing in the current job market, thus threatening the very foundations of our economy.

There is a natural relationship between school and work. Students graduate and enter the workforce succeeding, in part, on their ability to apply knowledge and skills learned in school (and elsewhere) and on their ability to learn (partially developed in school) new knowledge and skills. But the kinds of skills and knowledge required in the workplace and the relationship between school and work has changed in ways that this polarized debate does not recognize. The discussion needs to change. Because the role of technical knowledge and skill have attained a level of importance in so many jobs, as science and mathematics educators we are in particular need of reexamining our thinking about the relationship between school and work. Readers are invited to examine two major programs of research and analysis dealing with this important issue. Resnick and Wirt (1996) presented reports that provided the foundation for the highly influential What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000 (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991). Csikszentmaihalyi and Schneider (2000) reported on a large longitudinal study funded by the Alfred P. Slone Foundation on how adolescents form ideas about future schooling and work.

Despite gains in science and mathematics course taking since A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence, 1983), fewer students are actually able to translate their schooling into rewarding, family-wage jobs. A larger proportion of students, rather than finishing high school, is taking a GED. High school completions have remained unchanged or have dropped in the last quarter century. The economic fortunes of students with GEDs are not very different from high school dropouts. We discussed this issue in our editorial two years ago, Science and Math for All? (Flick & Lederman, 2002). The important observation to be made based on recent research in counseling, cognitive, and educational psychology is that there is good reason to believe that students will learn better and more and be more persistent in school if they see a real connection between school skills and the skills needed to succeed in world outside of school, particularly employment. But doesn't this imply reverting back to a view, rejected by many in education fields, in general, and science and mathematics, in particular, that schooling is to be "dumbed down" or at least restricted to address the needs of the entry level workplace? Aren't we interested in broader educational goals designed to enrich students' lives and support their enjoyment of and fascination with the beauty and challenge of scientific and mathematical endeavors?

The response to this charge is that the nature of the workplace and the demands on workers have changed. While the general education of young people is broader than what is necessary to support employment, in recent years the cognitive and social skills required in the modern workplace overlaps with the higher level skills promoted by contemporary research in science and mathematics education. National standards in science and mathematics supported by similar research in psychology and education suggest that students of a wide range of abilities can be taught higher levels of cognitive functioning through meaningful, complex tasks.

In science, reformers have identified the central importance of developing the skills necessary to carry out guided, but open-ended scientific investigations and evaluate these products of science through an understanding the nature of science. Similarly in mathematics, students should appreciate the processes and varied solution approaches to illstructured, challenging mathematical problems. Recommendations typically include that these tasks be sufficiently complex as to require students to use skills in group process. Because the methods of approaching these problems are not laid out directly by the teacher ahead of time and the nature of the specific solution is not clear, students must also employ skills in critical evaluation of each others work, revising ideas and reflecting on their own point of view in light of hearing and interpreting what others think.