Failure and Public Education

It’s not a secret public education is often looked down upon. If it isn’t for what teachers are excluding from their curriculums, then it’s how over-crowded the classrooms are or the grades students and their schools are getting. Public education is becoming synonymous with failure or somehow ‘less than something else.’ Though many acknowledge the faults of public education, few people are able to provide reasonable solutions to the problems. Even less are willing to analyze what factors are causing difficulties in the first place.

Dr. Michal Marder will speak on ‘Failure and Public Education’ this Wednesday, January 8th in the Physical Sciences building room 161 at 4 pm. In his talk Dr. Marder will discuss his ideas on why public education is failing and how mistaken theories are putting it at risk. Listeners can expect to gain a greater understanding of the current state of public education, a few of its’ faults and how to move forward to create a better system for students and teachers.

Dr. Marder is executive director of the UTeach Natural Sciences Program, a university program preparing undergraduates (and graduates) in teaching secondary math and sciences, at the University of Texas at Austin. He helps introduce inquiry-based or problem-solving techniques into undergraduate teaching. Dr. Marder also looks to implement a new series of undergraduate degree plans involving computation or calculation.