David Pritchard, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics, and principal investigator in the Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Group, spoke at MIT Thursday about his role in advancing and promoting quality education standards at the higher education level.
Professor Pritchard spoke at length about improving education at MIT and globally. He contends that teacher quality is one of the main issues facing education today, and that teachers better prepared and better equipped to teach our future leaders will have a better chance of success. Included in his analysis is teaching not only content, but life skills and mental habits.
Professor Prichard contends that pedagogy is held in low esteem by university professors, especially in sciences. “Teaching is guided by unexamined assumptions about teaching,” says Pritchard. He continued by explaining that while technology is a welcome addition to the classroom, it needs to include what students want to learn.