“Science and religion are different ways of knowing the world”
Professor Bruce Alberts, the Editor-in-Chief of the Science magazine was in Thiruvananthapuram recently to participate in a ‘retreat’ of young scientists organised by the Department of Science and Technology.
G. Mahadevan
spoke to him. Excerpts:
There is a great rush for engineering and medical courses and a dearth of researchers in India. Your comments.
This is a very unfortunate situation. Science is a great career; students can do a lot of things in science. In Singapore, teaching is a highly paid profession.
There the Ministry of Education respects teachers and tries to put in place a system that is good for them. Young talents should be paid well and should be respected if they are to come into teaching or research.
If outstanding talents don’t come into teaching, society is in deep trouble. In the US-style, top-down method of management, teachers are sometimes treated as though they are not professionals.
Teachers of Math for instance find that they have many other high-paying jobs to choose from.
Does the inculcation of a scientific temper lead to atheism?
There are two different ways of knowing the world — science and religion. Booklets brought out by the National Academy of Sciences point out that religion cannot contribute to a scientist’s understanding of the world; about how an organism works, for instance.
Likewise, science does not study such things as the ‘meaning of life’ or the ‘philosophy of life.’ In short the inculcation of a scientific temper in people does not lead them to be atheists. There are many scientists who are religious but who believe in evolution.
What are your views on science education and the science of education?
It is critical that society studies the effects of different ways of teaching, of different curricula, in schools and colleges. Often those who teach science do not know what they want by way of outcomes.
The ‘Taking Science to Schools’ report published by the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) lists four ‘strands’ of learning science; (1) know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world; (2) generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations; (3) understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge and (4) participate productively in scientific practices and discourse.
It is important to find out whether all these four strands are present in the learning of science in schools and colleges. Only the first strand can be taught using textbooks.
The other three strands require ‘active learning’ by students who should be taught to work as a team, to be sceptical and to enquire into the evidence of things. This is very critical for a society.
All this is so far from what we are doing now. It is also important to note the kinds of attitudes that students have about science and whether they understand how science views the world.
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