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Chicago Tribune
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Jim Nowlan: With the Chinese outpacing our tech advances, has our ‘Sputnik moment' come and gone?
In 1957, my high school science teacher stopped me in the corridor between classes. 'Do you know what just happened, Jim? Russia has sent a satellite into orbit around the earth!' He was shaken, and so was America. The haunting beeps emanating from Sputnik echoed around the globe — America's supremacy in military technology had been eclipsed by our rival. Response was quick and substantial. Funding for the relatively new National Science Foundation was more than doubled. American education doubled down on science and technology. In a few years, America had landed a rocket on the moon. The competition for tech supremacy continues. In recent months, Chinese tech company DeepSeek released an artificial intelligence model that is apparently faster and cheaper and uses much less electricity than our own technology. Once again, we should be shaken — but this time not surprised. In the early 2000s, I became a visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, one of China's best. On the morning after my arrival, a Saturday, I came out of my 'foreign expert' guest quarters to stroll the leafy street outside. I saw several neatly uniformed youngsters on the sidewalks. When I saw my host professor on Monday, I asked about this. 'Oh, our children go to school on Saturdays, until noon,' she responded. And, I might add, during the school week, students have at least one more hour of instruction per day than in the U.S. and go to school for up to 245 days each year, versus our 175 to 180. Not surprisingly, Shanghai youngsters fare much better on math achievement than do American youngsters, as well as do students in most developed nations. I sense that if Shanghai parents were told their children could not go to school on Saturdays, there would be riots in the streets. And that if American parents were told their children had to go to school on Saturdays — and for another hour each weekday — there would be riots in the streets. The short American school day and year are still basically rooted in the 19th century agrarian needs to have the kids available to work the farm in the summers. In 1983, alarmed by stagnant and weak educational achievement, educators issued the 'A Nation at Risk' report, aimed at spurring student achievement. Four decades later, a Stanford University analysis by Margaret Raymond, founder and director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, notes that American student learning is still stagnant or in decline. So, I am amazed to read that many school districts have gone to or are contemplating a four-day school week. Alas. We need more time on task, not less. With four times the U.S. population, China has more high honor students than we have students. In the early 2000s, there were about 10 million Chinese enrolled in higher education in that country, while 20 million Americans studied at colleges and universities. Today, there are more than 50 million Chinese enrolled in higher education, a fivefold increase, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, whereas in America, our numbers have declined to about 19 million. Again, back to my teaching at Fudan. I recall walking around the campus one early morning with Gu Yu, my assistant teacher; it was 6:30 or 7. We came upon a gaggle of young people standing in front of the entrance to a major building. 'What's going on there?' I asked Gu Yu. 'Oh, those are students, waiting for the library to open.' China's paramount leader, Xi Jinping, has the goal of achieving supremacy in science and technology for his country. Operating by central planning, Xi can, certainly in the short term, devote to high education all the resources he deems necessary. An August 2024 article in Scientific American by Saima Iqbal chronicled dangerous decline in American research, 'while Chinese research surges.' President Donald Trump's blocking of billions in research grants for our major universities is like cutting off his nose to spite his face. I heard from Chinese friends that Xi, who twice visited Iowa in his younger years to study American farm practices, considers our nation decadent. And that he aspires to repay the West for the humiliations we visited upon his country and their revered Empress Dowager Cixi in the 19th century, as Western nations carved up a technologically inferior China for commercial purposes. What to do? America's strengths include: one, our tradition of cutting-edge research, largely at our major universities, and two, the opportunity America provides for people to achieve. On a recent Amtrak trip, my seatmate, a young Korean who grew up in Turkey and now studies artificial intelligence in Minnesota, assured me the American Dream is still alive in the minds of young people around the world. There are not enough smart Americans alone to remain supreme in scientific research. Right now, two-thirds of the workers in Silicon Valley are foreign-born, according to a recent report in the Mercury News, the Valley's newspaper. We need to expand and leverage our research capacities and, combined with the lure of American opportunity, attract the absolute best and brightest (the top 1%) to our shores — and retain them here. We sure could use another Sputnik moment.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Civics education has long been neglected in Oklahoma schools to the detriment of our society
Students work on an art project on April 8, 2024. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice) Ever since I was a child, Oklahoma schools have struggled in terms of teaching history and civics. Even when I was too young to understand what Joseph McCarthy's 'Red Scare' was, I could sense that educators remained intimidated by what I learned was rightwing propaganda. And when I became a teacher at John Marshall High School in the early 1990s, school systems were pressured to use Texas-approved textbooks that were designed to comply with the teach-to-the-test mindset fostered by the Reagan administration's 'A Nation at Risk' campaign. After the House Bill 1017, known as the Education Reform Act of 1990, however, our teachers saw incremental improvements in teaching and learning – even in government classes. But, the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and the Obama administration's Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 especially undercut civics instruction. As districts were forced to focus on math and reading test scores, social studies was largely ignored. Although I was actively involved in resisting data-driven, competition-driven reforms, I must admit that I was too diplomatic when defending civics. I silently worried that our abandonment of social studies could be the most destructive result of corporate school reforms. But I was reluctant to criticize colleagues who gave up on the fight, and I didn't say aloud that our failure to teach government and history could help undermine American democracy. Today, however, our democracy is clearly in danger. At a time, for instance, when a president claims that he can seek a third term and seems to think he can ignore federal courts, a solid understanding of the Constitution is necessary. Moreover, today's students are anxious and feel disengaged and powerless in a world challenged by rapid changes in the climate, demography and technology. Fortunately, Lindsey Cormack's 'How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It's Up to You to Do It)' gives me hope. She offers practical – and bipartisan – approaches for discussing political issues and governmental processes that are very similar to what worked in John Marshall classrooms. And guess what? Cormack doesn't dump the entire challenge on schools and educators. Cormack builds on the traditions of parents taking on the role of discussing government and politics at the dinner table and encouraging their children to get involved in community and local government activities. The book reminds me about the ways my high school students, their communities and I taught each other how to actively participate in our democracy. Our academics shifted focus during presidential or mid-term elections, or when state or local politics dominated the headlines, or even when extreme events, like the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, or wars in Iraq and Afghanistan occurred. When English classes started reading Ralph Ellison's 'The Invisible Man,' I would teach about his experiences growing up in Oklahoma City. The students were especially insightful when guest lecturers visited, and during field trips to places like art museums, the 'Deep Deuce,' where Ellison grew up, and the state Capitol. This was especially true when a veteran of the Sit-In movement joined us in repeated trips to the Capitol. Legislators were always enthralled by the students' wisdom. Above all, student saw high-level instruction as a sign of respect, and responded by learning in a holistic and meaningful way. But in recent years, I've seen a shift in how we teach because of corporate school reformers teach-to-the-test mandates. It was only a few years ago, I was so hopeful that schools, families and communities would come together so we could nurture a commitment to civics education and our 21st century democracy. Now, I worry that our failures to teach civics and history have helped undermine our society's commitment to political institutions. I fear lawmakers will be unable to gather the courage to stand up to rightwing attacks on schools by state Superintendent Ryan Walters and his supporters that aim to mandate history standards such as 'identifying discrepancies in the 2020 election,' the 'halting of ballot-counting in select cities,' 'the security risks of mail-in balloting' and 'the unprecedented contradiction of 'bellwether county' trends.' I'm also concerned that our leaders won't have the gumption to push back against the Trump administration's focus on defunding promising education and nonprofit programs. Because it will take a village and diverse strategies to build on our communities' strengths and to raise and educate our children. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Observer
25-03-2025
- Science
- Observer
AI in classrooms: Five risks and real solutions
In 1983, a US report titled A Nation at Risk sparked a revolution in education. Today, a new challenge looms: generative AI. Unesco estimates 244 million children worldwide lack access to schooling, while those in classrooms face a paradoxical disruptor — AI tools like ChatGPT, which 67 per cent of university students now use for assignments (Stanford University, 2023). Yet history reassures us: education adapts. When calculators entered schools, critics warned of collapsing math skills. Instead, they became tools for deeper exploration. Similarly, generative AI need not undermine learning — if we act decisively. Every semester, I discuss with my students the exciting challenge of how we can benefit from the emerging generative AI tools, such ChatGPT and Deepseek, in improving problem solving and critical skills instead of treating them as the place to go for quick and easy answers. Here are five risks AI poses to education, paired with proven solutions and success stories from Oman and beyond. The first risk is short-cutting critical thinking. Generative AI's instant answers risk replacing deep analysis with quick fixes. At King's College London, a 2023 study showed a 32-per cent improvement in diagnostic accuracy compared to traditional methods, after professors partnered with students to design AI-generated simulations for medical training, analyse synthetic patient data and practice diagnoses in risk-free environments. In Oman, educators noticed students increasingly relying on tools like ChatGPT to draft essays without engaging with core concepts. Here, the solution is to integrate AI as a Collaborative Tool. Oman's Ministry of Education partnered with Microsoft in 2022 to pilot 'AI Co-Lab", a programme training teachers to design assignments where students debate AI-generated content. For example, high schoolers in Muscat use ChatGPT to draft essays on climate change, then work in teams to identify biases, gaps and inaccuracies in the text. After one year, students in the programme scored 28 per cent higher on critical thinking assessments than peers in traditional classrooms, proving AI can fuel, not replace, intellectual excellence. The second risk is outdated accreditation systems. Traditional grading often fails to measure AI-augmented skills like prompt engineering or ethical AI use. What is the solution? Modernise accreditation frameworks. Saudi Arabia's Education and Training Evaluation Commission (ETEC) now requires universities to embed AI literacy into degree programmes. At King Saud University, students earn micro-credentials for mastering AI tools in research, with employers like NEOM and Aramco prioritising these badges in hiring. Another risk is the lecture vs AI Knowledge Gap; Why attend lectures when AI delivers facts faster? One solution could be to prioritise hands-on learning. MIT's 'Introduction to AI' course reduced lecture hours by 50 per cent, assigning students to build AI tools addressing real-world issues, like optimising solar grids in rural India. Post-course surveys noted a 27-per cent rise in conceptual understanding. Similarly, the UAE's Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) slashed lecture hours by 40 per cent, redirecting time to AI-driven projects. Students in Abu Dhabi recently designed a ChatGPT-powered tutor for Arabic grammar, which reduced errors in primary school writing assignments by 33 per cent during trials. A risk that I face every semester is the fact that teachers are left behind. Many of us educators lack training to harness AI effectively. What I hope educational ecosystems do is to invest more in teacher empowerment. For example, Finland's 'AI Educator Grants' award RO 5,000 to teachers developing AI-enhanced lesson plans. One recipient created a ChatGPT-powered debate coach for Helsinki High School, improving students' argumentation skills by 35 per cent in six months. Also, Qatar's 'TeachTech' initiative upskills educators through AI workshops led by Carnegie Mellon University. In Doha, physics teachers now use AI to simulate complex experiments, cutting lab preparation time by 50 per cent while boosting student engagement. The fifth, and last but not least risk is the policy Lag. Bureaucratic delays leave schools unprepared for AI's pace. Here, there is no solution better than fostering agile leadership. Singapore's SkillsFuture initiative partnered with Google to launch AI 'sandboxes' in 30 schools, where teachers test tools like Gemini for personalised feedback. Early data shows a 22-per cent reduction in administrative tasks, freeing educators to mentor. Bahrain's National AI Strategy allocates 20 per cent of its education budget to AI pilot programmes. Whereas, the University of Bahrain, administrators and tech firms co-developed an AI plagiarism detector tailored to Arabic texts, reducing cheating incidents by 45 per cent in 2023. The GCC's proactive stance offers a blueprint. Oman's AI Co-Lab, Saudi Arabia's credential reforms and Bahrain's policy agility prove that AI can elevate education when met with creativity, not fear. As the global edtech market surges towards RO 156 billion by 2025 (HolonIQ), schools worldwide must learn from these pioneers. The lesson? AI is not a threat, it is the next chapter in education's endless story of reinvention.
