Check your comprehension. ~ Do you think if women and men can realize their potential at full?

~ Do you think if women and men can realize their potential at full? Why?

~ Is the portion of students from poorer backgrounds as big as the portion of people from poorer backgrounds in the society?

~ What power does the University Funding Council have?

Today many university science and technology departments, for example at Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Imperial College London, and Strathclyde, are among the best in Europe. The concern is whether they will continue to be so in the future. Academics' pay has fallen so far behind other professions and behind academic salaries elsewhere, that many of the best brains have gone abroad. Adequate pay and sufficient research funding to keep the best in Britain remains a major challenge.

As with the schools system, so also with higher education: there is a real problem about the exclusivity of Britain's two oldest universities. While Oxbridge is no longer the preserve of a social elite, it retains its exclusive, narrow and spell-binding culture. Together with the public school system, it creates a narrow social and intellectual channel from which the nation's leaders are almost exclusively drawn. In 1996 few people were in top jobs in the Civil Service, the armed forces, the law or finance, who had not been either to a public school or Oxbridge, or to both.

The problem is not the quality of education offered either in the independent schools or Oxbridge. The problem is cultural. Can the products of such exclusive establishments remain closely in touch with the remaining 95 per cent of the population? If the expectation is that Oxbridge, particularly, will continue to dominate the controlling positions in the state and economy, is the country ignoring equal talent which does not have the Oxbridge label? As with the specialisation at the age of 16 for A levels, the danger is that Britain's governing elite is too narrow, both in the kind of education and where it was acquired. Significantly fuller popular participation in the controlling institutions of state is overdue.

Check your comprehension

~ What causes the “brain drain’ from Great Britain?

~ Why is the exclusivity of Britain's two oldest universities a real problem for the society?

Further information

State education: http://www.dfee.gov.uk

Private education: http://www.isis.org.uk

Text 3

Чучалин А.И. Американская и болонская модели инженера: сравнительный анализ компетенций

Анализ требований к компетенциям показывает, что в американской Результаты модели бакалавр-инженер должен обладать «принципиальными анализа знаниями», уметь «анализировать, решать и оценивать результаты решения комплексных инженерных задач», «осуществлять коммуникации и нести ответственность за принятие решений по всему комплексу инженерной деятельности», демонстрировать «знания для решения проблем устойчивого развития», быть «лидером команды».

В болонской модели от бакалавра-инженера требуется лишь обладать «системными профессиональными знаниями в определенной области наук», способностью их применять «для разработки и реализации проектов, удовлетворяющих заданным требованиям», иметь «навыки работы в мастерской и лаборатории», способность «осуществлять подбор и использовать необходимое оборудование, инструменты и методы», «работать как член команды». И только магистр-инженер в болонской модели должен обладать «глубокими принципиальными знаниями», уметь «решать неизвестные ранее задачи», создавать «концептуальные инженерные модели, системы и процессы», применять «инновационные методы для решения инженерных задач», разрабатывать «новые идеи», принимать «неизвестные ранее проектные решения», планировать и проводить «аналитические исследования», «интегрировать знания для решения комплексных практических задач», быть способным «эффективно функционировать в качестве лидера группы».

Unit 2

Science matters! The importance of scientific literacy.

It is well understood that literacy plays a major role in the career and personal life of individuals and in the degree of success they achieve. According to Statistics Canada, "Traditionally, literacy has referred to the ability to read, understand, and use information. But the term has come to take on broader meaning, standing for a range of knowledge, skills and abilities relating to reading, mathematics, science and more. This reflects widespread and deep changes that have taken place in technology and in the organization of work over the past quarter century. The ability to use and apply key mathematics and science concepts is now necessary across a wide range of occupations."

But Exactly How Important is Literacy?

Literacy is fundamental for learning in school. It has an impact on an individual's ability to participate in society and to understand important public issues. And it provides the foundation upon which skills needed in the labour market are built.

Technology, and the science behind it, permeates all aspects of out lives, from how we work and communicate to what we shop for and how we pay out bills. The complexity of today's world means that individuals need to have some level of proficiency in reading, mathematics and science in order to understand and participate fully in economic and social life.

A population's literacy skills also have a bearing on how well a country performs economically. The world we live in today is vastly different from that of a generation ago. Technological change has transformed the way in which work is done; competition in many industries is global in nature; and the industrial structure of the Canadian labour market has rapidly evolved from a manufacturing and agricultural base to one based on services. These changes have, in turn, brought rising skill requirements. Countries that are successful in endowing their populations with strong skills are usually in a better position to meet the economic challenges of operating in a globalized information economy.

Finally, having a population that has strong literacy skills also places a country in a better position to meet the complex social challenges that it faces. For example, strong literacy skills are linked to better health outcomes for individuals. A highly literate population will be better able to deal with issues of governance in a highly diverse society. And informed debate is needed to help us determine how best we can allocate scarce resources across competing priorities, such as education, health, investment in infrastructure and social programs.

What is Scientific Literacy? Some Definitions

Statistics Canada in their study of the performance of Canada's youth in science, reading and mathematics as part of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) defines scientific literacy as: "An individual's scientific knowledge and use of that knowledge to identify questions, to acquire new knowledge, to explain scientific phenomena, and to draw evidence-based conclusions about science-related issues, understanding of the characteristic features of science as a form of human knowledge and enquiry, awareness of how science and technology shape out material, intellectual, and cultural environments, and willingness to engage in science related issues, and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen."

The Council of Ministers of Education defined scientific literacy as "an evolving combination of the science-related attitudes, skills, and knowledge, students need to develop inquiry, problem-solving and decision-making abilities, to become lifelong learners, and to maintain a sense of wonder about the world around them."

Robert Hazen in his paper entitled "Why Should You Be Scientifically Literate" puts it more simply as: "a mix of concepts, history, and philosophy that help you understand the scientific issues of our time". To Hazen, a long-time advocate and leading promoter of scientific literacy, it means a broad understanding of basic concepts (see The Joy of Science, The Teaching Company, 2009). (6) Scientific literacy is definitely not the specialized, jargon-filled esoteric lingo of the experts and Hazen notes that one doesn't have to be able to synthesize new drugs to appreciate the importance of medical advances! Scientific literacy is rooted in the most general scientific principles and broad knowledge of science. Hazen considers the scientifically literate citizen as one who possesses facts and vocabulary sufficient to comprehend the context of the daily news. Put another way, "If you can understand scientific issues in magazines and newspapers (if you can tackle articles about genetic engineering or the ozone hole with the same case that you would sports, politics or the arts) then you are scientifically literate". There are two important but separate aspects of scientific knowledge that should not be confused, doing science, which is the practice of scientists and using science, which in one way or another in actuality or potentially is in the domain of everyone. It is here that scientific literacy plays such a vital role.

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