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                                     %REAL PROBLEMS 731115

     Real  problems  and  dilemmas are to be distinguished
from academic puzzles.   Academic puzzles are designed  to
illustrate  a theory or law  without considering or caring
about relevance,  developmental stages,  previous  science
relevant  experiences,   possible  personal decisions  and
action,   or possible  political action.  Real  meaningful
problems  are chosen to illustrate  a theory or law  while
considering  and  caring  about  the items above and  real
students,  their integrity,  and their emotional responses
to   being  presented  with the problems.   The  types  of
problems which science educators present to their students
often constitutes  one of  the  most  powerful channels of
communication  through which science  educators  influence
the  development  of  their  students'   self-images  with
respect to science, and students'  images of scientists as
persons.

     Real problems  are not well defined and do  not  have
unique  right  answers.   Real problems do not easily lend
themselves to traditional grading practices, and much less
to computer-processed examinations.  Real problems are not
divorced from making value  judgments.  The real problems
of today may not be real problems next year.   A student's
response to a real problem cannot  be evaluated fairly  in
the absence of dialogue with the student, so involving the
student in self evaluation and mutual evaluation. Focusing
on real problems today  may lead to wise  political action
tomorrow. Real problems are threatening to instructors who
lack emotional security. For these and other reasons it is
traditional in institutions  of higher education  to focus
on academic puzzles, rather than upon real problems.

     Science  educators who are accustomed to dealing with
academic  puzzles  may not be free to recognize  the  real
problems  to which their students might help-fully address
themselves.  For this reason it may be impossible for such
educators to plan a helpful course  without dialogue  with
real students.   It may be impossible to plan the syllabus
in advance in any great detail,  because the real problems
may  depend  upon the real students.   For this and  other
reasons---effective   science   education   requires   the
services  of attractive scientists,  rather than of highly
competent technocrats.

                         (c) 1999 by Paul A. Smith in
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