kefallinia, 5-6 july 2004 symposium on advanced technologies in education the role of the research...

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

The Role of the Research Center The Role of the Research Center in Science Inquiry in Science Inquiry

and and the Transfer of Knowledge.the Transfer of Knowledge.

George K. Fanourakis

N.C.S.R. ‘Demokritos’

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

What is science ?

Scientific knowledge: the collective product of individual contributions of scientists, purified and extended by mutual criticism and intellectual cooperation.

Science: the collection of disciplines which produce scientific knowledge

Scientists: A really peculiar bunch of people educated and trained to a certain attitude to nature.

They strive to produce sensible knowledge and obtain consensus with all fellow scientists.

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Entities established and supported by the society to advance the sciences by producing

new scientific knowledge.

Scientific Research Centers

Since it is widely believed that science does good

CERN Magnetic tomography with spin polarized 3He

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

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Schematic encapsulation of organic contaminants in the nanocavities of dendrimers.

Analysis of black painting of pithos

Some more benefits to society

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

New Scientific Knowledge

The Research Centers continuously:

Produce new knowledge understand nature

Develop and Advance Technology

The high levels of new knowledge higher education

The basic levels of the new knowledge must flow to the secondary education system

The new knowledge global consensus established knowledge

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

The importance of secondary educationSecondary education produces the future citizen

The future citizen must be properly shaped such as to:

understand the world around (laws of nature)

able to cope with the technological progress

able to have an educated opinion as policy maker

How is this done ? Is it done ? NO, or too little

The knowledge gap between scientists and normal people will widen the few possessing the knowledge and the many who do not

Will we have the comeback of Egyptian priesthood ?

The new knowledge must be transferred at the secondary level

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Is there a knowledge gap ?

There is enormous scientific and technological progress in the last century the amount of knowledge doubles every 5 years

The emerging citizen is left behind, suspicious of every new technology which claims to benefit society. Or … any competent technocrat can easily cheat him.

The Research centers spend more and more time and effort to ‘outreach’ activities to try to explain to the people their work and its importance.

The secondary education textbooks are not up to date.The teachers are not trained to cope with the teaching of the new knowledge

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Assume wise leaders !

Obviously the cooperation of the producers of the new knowledge is required

Emphasis on teaching of what is considered important

Training of the teachers at specific time intervals

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Research methodology in Secondary Education

Back in 1988 my group at INP made the following observation:

A student ready to learn (‘acquire new knowledge’) is similar to

the scientist trying to acquire new knowledge.

One acquires efficiently new knowledge the other does not

The students do it by studying their books, helped by the teacher

The scientists do it by active research designing and conducting experiments and analyzing their data,

communicating and discussing the results

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Experimentation in schools – ΣΕΠΠΕ programs

We had the opportunity to implement and test this idea in Greek high schools in two different projects

1. Devise instrumentation and design experiments for students which use the research methodology to obtain learning

2. Use a real telescope connect it to the internet and design experiments which use the research methodology for teaching

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Scattering table

Two examples

A new role for the Research InstitutesProducers of educational technology

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Searching for gravitational microlensing

A new role for the Research InstitutesProducers of educational technology

Two examples

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Learning is a dynamical process

The neuro and cognitive sciences are actually able to ‘see’ a living brain as it learns and showed that learning does not occur with the traditional mechanistic way.

The brain does not function serially but processes the various kinds of information in parallel.

Learning is not accumulation of information but the mechanism of construction of concepts through processing multiple representations of knowledge.

The brain is not a hard disk to store information but a ‘plastic’ neural network which learns better when in the learning process the body and all the senses participate.

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Tele-Education / Tele-ResearchLarge Scientific Instruments in schools

Kefallinia,5-6 July 2004

Symposium on Advanced Technologies in Education

Research Institutions: what for ??

• Create New Scientific Knowledge

• Apply Scientific Knowledge to benefit society

• Train young scientists in the Scientific Way

• Transfer results and techniques of Applied Science to Industry

• Transfer the new knowledge to Educational Institutions

There is also something very important that the research institutes can do for the secondary education

• Devise methods to improve learning