STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

This list of assumptions circumscribes my view of higher education:

1. Understanding the natural sciences is important for specialists and laypersons alike.
2. Basic knowledge of the natural sciences is accessible to most undergraduate students.
3. The facts, concepts, and methods of the natural sciences are meaningful and can be presented in a meaningful way.
4. There is a natural hierarchy of information in the natural sciences and, therefore, it is possible to identify some of the content of the sciences as more important to teach than is other content.
5. It is often repeated that one forgets most of that which is learned.  As a counterbalance to that statement it should be remembered that learning is permanent - after one has learned something he or she is never the same again.
6. Science is not a method.  Science is not an organized body of knowledge.  Science is a dynamic interaction between information and the processes which generate that information.  It should be taught accordingly.