editorially /peaking "No Man is an Island" The interdependencies of disciplines are never so sharply drawn as when a chemistry instructor recognizes that a significant numher of his students are having prohlems because they lack reading skills or when a colleague teaching a modern course in general biology complains that class time must be devoted to reviewing simple concepts of aqueous solution chemistry because his students have not retained the minimal information from their first chemistry course. That our success in teaching students about chemistry may he, in part, dependent upon the level of skills they bring with them is highlighted hy the widespread concern about the declining mathematical, reading, and writing abilities of entering college students. A recent report issued by Ohio State Uni\,ersity vividly illustrates the magnitude of the problem. In 1965, more than 50q ot the incoming freshman demonstrated mathematical skills which indicated that they were ready to study calculus; about 8% showed no skills in algebra and were at-the sixthgrade level or lower. In 1979-just fourteen years later-the numher of high-skills-levelstudents had decreased to 31% and the lowest-skills-level students had risen to 27%. One direct consequence of such trends is that increasing numhers of college and university students are not ahle to undertake strone science courses as enterine freshmen. Not sumrisinelv. .. .. ytudents who do not have early experience in science courses do not tend to elect maiors in science. In the Ohio State experience, for example, only 7% of the students who entered with the lowest level of mathematical skills cot their deerees in science or engineering. A maior reason for the decline in the aualitv . . of students' mathematics preparation is the critical shortage of high school mat hrmatics teachers. The high school teacher shortage has been cited as a major factor in many of the prohlems which students experience as they enter tertiarg-level educational k of asuwey of teacher placement offices systems. ~ h findings hy the National Science Teachers Association published in early 1982 are alarming. There has been a 78% decrease in the numher of "prepared (high school) mathematics teachers" over the past ten years, and a 64% decrease in teachers of the other sciences during this same period. Chemistry and physics were harder hit than biology. The shortage of high school science teachers can he traced to a numher of factors: ~
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Increased opportunities for women in otxer profeasions. A lowered nublic imaee of teachers. The increasing unartmctivencss of teaching as a profession because oi pour pay and problen~swith school disciplmc. Mi~ronceptionsthat teacher surpluses in 50IIlC areas imply teacher surpluses in all areas. Increased opportunities in business and industry, especially for mathematics and computer-sciencemajors.
Similar problems have also recently been rewrted regarding s t ~ d e n t s ~ ~ w r i t skills. i n g More than 50% bf the entering freshmen in the University of California system did not meet thr standards for undergrnduate work in l?nglish cumposition, and about 4Yc of the freshmen in the California Staw I'niversity system were equally ill-prepared in this subject.
The general solution to the problem of declining prerequisite skills of chemistry students (e.g., English, mathematics, and reading) appears to he at least two-tiered. The long-range part of the solution involves the reestablishment of conditions which will encourage ahle persons to consider teaching careers in primary and secondary schools and includes changes in curricular and pedagogical approaches to take maximal advantage of the natural curiosity of children. Colleges and universities also need to develop clear statements of the level of skills students need in order to succeed in their first-year course work. Simply requiring students to complete a specified numher of academic courses in high school to qualify for college admission is not sufficient preparation. An example of an alternative approach is found in the recommended list of "expected competencies" in English, mathematics, and reading which was recently compiled by faculty representing all of the public colleges and universities in California. The expected competencies specify skills college-hound high school students should have and indicate the content of the courses such students should take. In the short term, it would appear that tertiary institutions may need to institute methods and/or expand existing programs designed to help students improve basic skills necessary for successful learning in science courses. As an extreme example, it makes little sense to attempt to teach chemistry to a student who cannot read or comprehend what he reads, a t a first-year college level. I t is highly unlikely that such a student will do well in a conventional general chemistry course, and one wonders a t the wisdom of an institution that would knowingly allow a confrontation that has such a high prohability of ending in disaster for all parties concerned. Remediation a t the tertiary level, although not necessarily acceptable to many on philosophical grounds, has gradually gained acceptance by many institutions. Thus, for example, the University of California at Berkeley reports that it spent $5.5 million for remediation in English and mathematics alone in 1979-80. In attempting to deal with their financial problems, however, a number of institutions have recently reported cutbacks in their remediation programs. If this trend continues, college science instructors may be forced to deal with the problem of remediation in their classes. Indeed, some chemistry instructors have already become engaged in such efforts because of idiosyncratic local problems, and many of them are often frustrated because they "seldom get around to teaching any chemistry." Intensification of the prohlems associated with teaching science to students who do not have minimal skills in English, mathematics, and reading appears inevitable, regardless of the detailed nature of the short and long term solutions that may be implemented. Results of the long term solutions, which must be instituted if real progress is to he made, will not he immediately evident, whereas the financial implications of short term solutions may not be acceptable. This suggests that over the next several years a reasonably large number of teachers and their students may have no choice hut to try to solve their prohlems on an ad hoe basis. "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls." JJL Volume 59 Number 4 April 1982 267
