Students Becoming Unimaginative Robots?

The Educational Strategy That’s Turning Students into Unimaginative Robots

Darlena Cunha | January 29, 2016

Science and math dominate the contemporary educational landscape in the United States. Almost everyone agrees that the country needs to shape workers with the skills to combat global problems like climate change, cancer and ailing infrastructures. There’s just one problem: a single-minded emphasis on STEM risks turning our young people into robots.
Our intense focus on science, engineering, technology and math may have forced these subjects into a vacuum rather than tying them together with the humanities, according to Jamie Gillooly, a biology professor at the University of Florida. That comes at a cost to students’ creativity and critical thinking—qualities that are just as important in the laboratory as they are in an art studio.

STEM vs. STEAM. Source: http://station1.highcliffe.dorset.sch.uk/autosite/images/PUBHOMEPAGE/StemFocus_Oct14.jpg

<more at http://qz.com/605452/the-educational-strategy-thats-turning-students-into-unimaginative-robots/; related links: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/arts/humanities-committee-sounds-an-alarm.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1 (Humanities Committee Sounds an Alarm. June 18, 2013) and http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400419.2011.627805 (The Creativity Crisis: The Decrease in Creative Thinking Scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Kyung Hee Kima. Creativity Research Journal, volume 23, Issue 4, 2011, pages 285-295. DOI:10.1080/10400419.2011.627805. [Abstract: The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was developed in 1966 and renormed five times: in 1974, 1984, 1990, 1998, and 2008. The total sample for all six normative samples included 272,599 kindergarten through 12th grade students and adults. Analysis of the normative data showed that creative thinking scores remained static or decreased, starting at sixth grade. Results also indicated that since 1990, even as IQ scores have risen, creative thinking scores have significantly decreased. The decrease for kindergartners through third graders was the most significant.])>