Liberal Arts Colleges and Science Education

Abstract

I'm tired of seeing letters from faculty at small liberal arts colleges (for example, [18 Oct., p. 326][1]) piously proclaiming that they, and they alone, are the only ones capable of reforming the way science is taught at colleges and universities. Although many faculty at research universities do not place much value on teaching, there is a growing cadre of faculty at such institutions who are strongly committed to undergraduate teaching and to the improvement of science education. In many departments and even across entire campuses, these groups are beginning to reach the critical mass needed to bring about substantial change. Although there are many reasons why reform at research institutions has lagged behind change at small liberal arts colleges, one of the most important is that the magnitude of the problems at large universities dwarfs that at small colleges. Indeed, it is not all that difficult to teach effectively when one is dealing with a class of 20 students, carefully selected for their homogeneity. It is another matter completely to deal with 100 to 250 students with a full range of abilities, backgrounds, and learning styles. If faculty at small, liberal arts colleges truly want to contribute to the improvement of science education on the national level, they should join with faculty at larger institutions to find ways of adapting the successes of small institutions to the realities of large ones. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.274.5286.324c