VIDEO: On the Importance of Good Teaching
Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that universities in the Islamic world needed better teaching in the sciences to foster better research.
The remarks came in a video produced by Muslim Science, which sponsors a task force on the teaching of science in the Muslim world. The task force held a symposium of international experts in December 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia.
In his remarks to the assembled experts, Najam said:
“We’ve got stuck as if science is just about writing papers, impact, and publishing. Science is really a way of thinking. It’s an attitude in society that says we are open to questioning, we are open to inquiry, we are open to doubt. When you have that society where everyone is questioning, where everyone is trying to find out a better way, that’s when you get the enthusiasm and dynamism that brings real change.”
You can view the video here.
Adil Najam served as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore. In 2009, Najam was appointed to serve on the UN Committee for Development Policy, a 24 member panel that advises the UN Economic and Social Council.
In addition to Boston Univeristy, Najam has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Massachusetts, and at the Flecther School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts Univeristy. He has written over 100 scholarly papers and book chapters and serves on the editorial boards of many scholarly journals.