An earlier PKAL report, Then, Now & In the Next Decade, contrasted current realities and future scenarios in respect to America's undergraduate STEM learning environment.  It suggested that although recent reforms (from the mid-1980’s) made a significant difference, they should be seen only as pilots for the critical larger-scale work yet to be accomplished.  The report anticipated a future in which institutional cultures are different: where goals for student learning are set, used for benchmarks against to measure programs, and drive the development of human, financial and physical infrastructures consistent with those learning goals; it was a future in which STEM faculty design curricular programs assuming all students can learn STEM and adapt the research-based pedagogies to make it happen.  2009 was anticipated as a future of collaborations that cut across boundaries of discipline, sector and geography, building networks of agents of change at the institutional and national level.

Where are we now?   What is the current reality and what can we anticipate will happen in the next decade?

A recent essay, Looking Back and Looking Ahead, in AA&CU’s Liberal Education, by Jeanne Narum, PKAL Director, sketched some initial answers to those questions. Postings on PKAL’s web site in coming months will explore further issues relating to shaping the future of undergraduate STEM, moving from analysis to action.  We also invite your attention to PKAL’s new web site.

Then, Now & In the Next Decade »