Evidence-based practice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_practice 

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. The movement towards evidence-based practices attempts to encourage and, in some instances, require professionals and other decision-makers to pay more attention to evidence to inform their decision-making. The goal of evidence-based practice is to eliminate unsound or outdated practices in favor of more-effective ones by shifting the basis for decision making from tradition, intuition, and unsystematic experience to firmly grounded scientific research. The proposal has been controversial, with some arguing that results may not specialize to individuals as well as traditional practices.

Evidence-based practices have been gaining ground since the introduction of evidence-based medicine and have spread to the allied health professions, education, management, law, public policy, architecture, and other fields. In light of studies showing problems in scientific research (such as the replication crisis), there is also a movement to apply evidence-based practices in scientific research itself. Research into the evidence-based practice of science is called metascience.

An individual or organisation is justified in claiming that a specific practice is evidence-based if, and only if, three conditions are met. First, the individual or organisation possesses comparative evidence about the effects of the specific practice in comparison to the effects of at least one alternative practice. Second, the specific practice is supported by this evidence according to at least one of the individual's or organisation's preferences in the given practice area. Third, the individual or organisation can provide a sound account for this support by explaining the evidence and preferences that lay the foundation for the claim.

History

For most of history, professions have based their practices on expertise derived from experience passed down in the form of tradition. Many of these practices have not been justified by evidence, which has sometimes enabled quackery and poor performance. Even when overt quackery is not present, the quality and efficiency of tradition-based practices may not be optimal. As the scientific method has become increasingly recognized as a sound means to evaluate practices, evidence-based practices have become increasingly adopted.

Medicine

One of the earliest proponents of evidence-based practice was Archie Cochrane, an epidemiologist who authored the book Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services in 1972. Cochrane's book argued for the importance of properly testing health care strategies, and was foundational to the evidence-based practice of medicine. Cochrane suggested that because resources would always be limited, they should be used to provide forms of health care which had been shown in properly designed evaluations to be effective. Cochrane maintained that the most reliable evidence was that which came from randomised controlled trials.

The term "evidence-based medicine" was introduced by Gordon Guyatt in 1990 in an unpublished program description, and the term was later first published in 1992. This marked the first evidence-based practice to be formally established. Some early experiments in evidence-based medicine involved testing primitive medical techniques such as bloodletting, and studying the effectiveness of modern and accepted treatments. There has been a push for evidence-based practices in medicine by insurance providers, which have sometimes refused coverage of practices lacking systematic evidence of usefulness. It is now expected by most clients that medical professionals should make decisions based on evidence, and stay informed about the most up-to-date information. Since the widespread adoption of evidence-based practices in medicine, the use of evidence-based practices has rapidly spread to other fields.

Education

More recently, there has been a push for evidence-based education. The use of evidence-based learning techniques such as spaced repetition can improve students' rate of learning. Some commentators have suggested that the lack of any substantial progress in the field of education is attributable to practice resting in the unconnected and noncumulative experience of thousands of individual teachers, each re-inventing the wheel and failing to learn from hard scientific evidence about 'what works'. Opponents of this view argue that it is hard to assess teaching methods because it depends on a host of factors, not least those to do with the style, personality and beliefs of the teacher and the needs of the particular children. Others argue the teacher experience could be combined with research evidence, but without the latter being treated as a privileged source. This is in line with a school of thought suggesting that evidence-based practice has limitations and a better alternative is to use Evidence-informed Practice (EIP). This process includes quantitative evidence, does not include non-scientific prejudices, but includes qualitative factors such as clinical experience and the discernment of practitioners and clients.

Versus tradition

Evidence-based practice is a philosophical approach that is in opposition to tradition. Some degree of reliance on "the way it was always done" can be found in almost every profession, even when those practices are contradicted by new and better information.

Some critics argue that since research is conducted on a population level, results may not generalise to each individual within the population. Therefore, evidence-based practices may fail to provide the best solution for each individual, and traditional practices may better accommodate individual differences. In response, researchers have made an effort to test whether particular practices work better for different subcultures, personality types etc. Some authors have redefined evidence-based practice to include practice that incorporates common wisdom, tradition, and personal values alongside practices based on evidence.

Evaluating evidence

Further information: Hierarchy of evidence

Hierarchy of evidence in medicine.

Evaluating scientific research is extremely complex. The process can be greatly simplified with the use of a heuristic that ranks the relative strengths of results obtained from scientific research, which is called a hierarchy of evidence. The design of the study and the endpoints measured (such as survival or quality of life) affect the strength of the evidence. Typically, systematic reviews and meta-analysis rank at the top of the hierarchy while randomized controlled trials rank above observational studies, and expert opinion and case reports rank at the bottom. There is broad agreement on the relative strength of the different types of studies, but there is no single, universally-accepted hierarchy of evidence. More than 80 different hierarchies have been proposed for assessing medical evidence.

Applications

Medicine

Further information: Evidence-based medicine

Evidence-based medicine is an approach to medical practice intended to optimize decision-making by emphasizing the use of evidence from well-designed and well-conducted research. Although all medicine based on science has some degree of empirical support, evidence-based medicine goes further, classifying evidence by its epistemologic strength and requiring that only the strongest types (coming from meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials) can yield strong recommendations; weaker types (such as from case-control studies) can yield only weak recommendations. The term was originally used to describe an approach to teaching the practice of medicine and improving decisions by individual physicians about individual patients. Use of the term rapidly expanded to include a previously described approach that emphasized the use of evidence in the design of guidelines and policies that apply to groups of patients and populations ("evidence-based practice policies").

Whether applied to medical education, decisions about individuals, guidelines and policies applied to populations, or administration of health services in general, evidence-based medicine advocates that to the greatest extent possible, decisions and policies should be based on evidence, not just the beliefs of practitioners, experts, or administrators. It thus tries to ensure that a clinician's opinion, which may be limited by knowledge gaps or biases, is supplemented with all available knowledge from the scientific literature so that best practice can be determined and applied. It promotes the use of formal, explicit methods to analyze evidence and makes it available to decision makers. It promotes programs to teach the methods to medical students, practitioners, and policymakers.

A process has been specified that provides a standardised route for those seeking to produce evidence of the effectiveness of interventions. Originally developed to establish processes for the production of evidence in the housing sector, the standard is general in nature and is applicable across a variety of practice areas and potential outcomes of interest.

Mental health

To improve the dissemination of evidence-based practices, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP, Division 53 of the American Psychological Association) maintain updated information on their websites on evidence-based practices in psychology for practitioners and the general public. An evidence-based practice consensus statement was developed at a summit on mental healthcare in 2018. As of June 23, 2019, this statement has been endorsed by 36 organizations.

Metascience

Main article: Metascience

There has since been a movement for the use of evidence-based practice in conducting scientific research in an attempt to address the replication crisis and other major issues affecting scientific research. The application of evidence-based practices to research itself is called metascience, which seeks to increase the quality of scientific research while reducing waste. It is also known as "research on research" and "the science of science", as it uses research methods to study how research is done and where improvements can be made. The five main areas of research in metascience are methodology, reporting, reproducibility, evaluation, and incentives. Metascience has produced a number of reforms in science such as the use of study pre-registration and the implementation of reporting guidelines with the goal of bettering scientific research practices.

Education

Main article: Evidence-based education

Evidence-based education (EBE), also known as evidence-based interventions, is a model in which policy-makers and educators use empirical evidence to make informed decisions about education interventions (policies, practices, and programs). In other words, decisions are based on scientific evidence rather than opinion.

EBE has gained attention since English author David H. Hargreaves suggested in 1996 that education would be more effective if teaching, like medicine, was a "research-based profession".

Since 2000, studies in Australia, England, Scotland and the US have supported the use of research to improve educational practices in teaching reading.

In 1997, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development convened a national panel to assess the effectiveness of different approaches used to teach children to read. The resulting National Reading Panel examined quantitative research studies on many areas of reading instruction, including phonics and whole language. In 2000 it published a report entitled Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and its Implications for Reading Instruction that provided a comprehensive review of what was known about best practices in reading instruction in the U.S.

This occurred around the same time as such international studies as the Programme for International Student Assessment in 2000 and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study in 2001.

Subsequently, evidence-based practice in education (also known as Scientifically based research), came into prominence in the U.S. under the No child left behind act of 2001, replace in 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act.

In 2002 the U.S. Department of Education founded the Institute of Education Sciences to provide scientific evidence to guide education practice and policy .

English author Ben Goldacre advocated in 2013 for systemic change and more randomized controlled trials to assess the effects of educational interventions. In 2014 the National Foundation for Educational Research, Berkshire, England published a report entitled Using Evidence in the Classroom: What Works and Why. In 2014 the British Educational Research Association and the Royal Society of Arts advocated for a closer working partnership between teacher-researchers and the wider academic research community.

Reviews of existing research on education

The following websites offer free analysis and information on education research:

• The Best Evidence Encyclopedia is a free website created by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education's Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (established in 2004) and is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. It gives educators and researchers reviews about the strength of the evidence supporting a variety of English programs available for students in grades K–12. The reviews cover programs in areas such as Mathematics, Reading, Writing, Science, Comprehensive school reform, and Early childhood Education; and include such topics as the effectiveness of technology and struggling readers.
• The Education Endowment Foundation was established in 2011 by The Sutton Trust, as a lead charity in partnership with Impetus Trust, together being the government-designated What Works Centre for UK Education.
• Evidence for the Every Student Succeeds Act began in 2017 and is produced by the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University School of Education. It offers free up-to-date information on current PK-12 programs in reading, writing, math, science, and others that meet the standards of the Every Student Succeeds Act (the United States K–12 public education policy signed by President Obama in 2015). It also provides information on programs that do meet the Every Student Succeeds Act standards as well as those that do not.
• What Works Clearinghouse, established in 2002, evaluates numerous educational programs, in twelve categories, by the quality and quantity of the evidence, and the effectiveness. It is operated by the federal National Center for Education Evaluation, and Regional Assistance, part of the Institute of Education Sciences
• Social programs that work is administered by Arnold Ventures LLC's Evidence-Based Policy team. The team is composed of the former leadership of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization advocating the use of well-conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in policy decisions. It offers information on twelve types of social programs including education.

A variety of other organizations offer information on research and education.

American Association for the Advancement of Science

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Science

William T. Golden Center for Science and Engineering
Abbreviation	AAAS
Pronunciation	Triple-A S
Founded	September 20, 1848 (177 years ago)
Focus	Science education and outreach
Location(s)	William T. Golden Center for Science and Engineering Washington, D.C., U.S.
Members	120,000+
Website	www.aaas.org
Formerly called	Association of American Geologists and Naturalists

Washington, D.C., office of the AAAS

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. AAAS was the first permanent organization established to promote science and engineering nationally and to represent the interests of American researchers from across all scientific fields. It is the world's largest general scientific society, with over 120,000 members, and is the publisher of the well-known scientific journal Science.

History

Creation

The American Association for the Advancement of Science was created on September 20, 1848, at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was a reformation of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists with the broadened mission to be the first permanent organization to promote science and engineering nationally and to represent the interests of American researchers from across all scientific fields. The society chose William Charles Redfield as their first president because he had proposed the most comprehensive plans for the organization. According to the first constitution which was agreed to at the September 20 meeting, the goal of the society was to promote scientific dialogue in order to allow for greater scientific collaboration. By doing so, the association aimed to use resources to conduct science with increased efficiency and allow for scientific progress at a greater rate. The association also sought to increase the resources available to the scientific community through active advocacy of science. There were only 78 members when the AAAS was formed. As a member of the new scientific body, Matthew Fontaine Maury, USN was one of those who attended the first 1848 meeting.

At a meeting held on Friday afternoon, September 22, 1848, Redfield presided, and Matthew Fontaine Maury gave a full scientific report on his Wind and Current Charts. Maury stated that hundreds of ship navigators were now sending abstract logs of their voyages to the United States Naval Observatory. He added, "Never before was such a corps of observers known." But, he pointed out to his fellow scientists, his critical need was for more "simultaneous observations". "The work," Maury stated, "is not exclusively for the benefit of any nation or age". The minutes of the AAAS meeting reveal that because of the universality of this "view on the subject, it was suggested whether the states of Christendom might not be induced to cooperate with their Navies in the undertaking; at least so far as to cause abstracts of their log-books and sea journals to be furnished to Matthew F. Maury, USN, at the Naval Observatory at Washington."

William Barton Rogers, professor at the University of Virginia and later founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offered a resolution: "Resolved that a Committee of five be appointed to address a memorial to the Secretary of the Navy, requesting his further aid in procuring for Matthew Maury the use of the observations of European and other foreign navigators, for the extension and perfecting of his charts of winds and currents." The resolution was adopted and, in addition to Rogers, the following members of the association were appointed to the committee: Professor Joseph Henry of Washington; Professor Benjamin Peirce of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Professor James H. Coffin of Easton, Pennsylvania, and Professor Stephen Alexander of Princeton, New Jersey. This was scientific cooperation, and Maury went back to Washington with great hopes for the future.

In 1850, the first female members were accepted: astronomer Maria Mitchell and entomologist Margaretta Morris. Science educator Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps was elected in 1859.

Early growth and post-Civil War dormancy

By 1860, membership increased to over 2,000. Although the AAAS became dormant during the American Civil War (their August 1861 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, was postponed indefinitely after the outbreak of the first major engagement of the war at Bull Run), the association recovered after the end of the hostilities.

In 1866, Frederick Barnard presided over the first meeting of the resurrected AAAS at a meeting in New York City. Following the revival of the AAAS, the group had considerable growth. The AAAS permitted all people, regardless of scientific credentials, to join. The AAAS did, however, institute a policy of granting the title of "Fellow of the AAAS" to well-respected scientists within the organization.

At the same time, the recovered AAAS faced competition from several newly established learned societies, such as National Academy of Sciences (founded in 1863), the American Chemical Society (1876), Archaeological Institute of America (1879), Modern Language Association (1883), American Historical Association (1884), Geological Society of America (1888), National Geographic Society (1888), American Physical Society (1899), which drew away some of AAAS members. Also, the reputation of the AAAS was somewhat tarnished, because its 3rd president Alexander Dallas Bache used the Society as a lobbying tool for his agency, the US Coast Survey. Several prominent scientists lost interest in the AAAS, and the society's influence declined.

Twentieth century

The next turning point in the AAAS history was the partnership with journal Science, which became the society's official publication in 1900, and provided the AAAS with some revenue through subscription and advertising. The AAAS become the sole owner of Science in 1946. The post–World War II big science, driven by major scientific and technical breakthroughs (such as space flight, nuclear power and the discovery of DNA) brought in an increased public interest in science in the USA, and thus growing sales of the journal, which were further multiplied by shrewd businesses decisions by its editors Dael Wolfle (1954-1970) and William D. Carey (1974-1985). Another important event for the society was the establishment of its Congressional Fellowship program in 1973, which was kick-started by a US$10,000 donation from William T. Golden.

Advocacy

Alan I. Leshner, AAAS CEO from 2001 until 2015, published many op-ed articles discussing how many people integrate science and religion in their lives. He has opposed the insertion of non-scientific content, such as creationism or intelligent design, into the scientific curriculum of schools.

In December 2006, the AAAS adopted an official statement on climate change, in which they stated, "The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society....The pace of change and the evidence of harm have increased markedly over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions is now."

In February 2007, the AAAS used satellite images to document human rights abuses in Burma. The next year, AAAS launched the Center for Science Diplomacy to advance both science and the broader relationships among partner countries, by promoting science diplomacy and international scientific cooperation.

In 2012, AAAS published op-eds, held events on Capitol Hill and released analyses of the U.S. federal research-and-development budget, to warn that a budget sequestration would have severe consequences for scientific progress.

Sciences

AAAS covers various areas of sciences and engineering. It has 24 sections, each with a committee and its chair. These committees are also entrusted with the annual evaluation and selection of Fellows. The sections are:

• Agriculture, Food & Renewable Resources
• Anthropology
• Astronomy
• Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences
• Biological Sciences
• Chemistry
• Dentistry and Oral Health Sciences
• Education
• Engineering
• General Interest in Science and Engineering
• Geology and Geography
• History and Philosophy of Science
• Industrial Science and Technology
• Information, Computing, and Communication
• Linguistics and Language Sciences
• Mathematics
• Medical Sciences
• Neuroscience
• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Physics
• Psychology
• Social, Economic, and Political Sciences
• Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering
• Statistics

Governance

AAAS officers and senior officials in 1947. Left to right, standing: Sinnott, Baitsell, Payne, Lark-Horovitz, Miles, Stakman; sitting: Carlson, Mather, Moulton, Shapley.

The most recent Constitution of the AAAS, enacted on January 1, 1973, establishes that the governance of the AAAS is accomplished through four entities: a President, a group of administrative officers, a Council, and a board of directors.

Presidents

Main article: President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Individuals elected to the presidency of the AAAS hold a three-year term in a unique way. The first year is spent as president-elect, the second as president and the third as chairperson of the board of directors. In accordance with the convention followed by the AAAS, presidents are referenced by the year in which they left office.

Geraldine Richmond is the president of AAAS for 2015–16; Phillip Sharp is the board chair; and Barbara A. Schaal is the president-elect. Each took office on the last day of the 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting in February 2015. On the last day of the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting, February 15, 2016, Richmond will become the chair, Schaal will become the president, and a new president-elect will take office.

Past presidents of AAAS have included some of the most important scientific figures of their time. Among them: explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell (1888); astronomer and physicist Edward Charles Pickering (1912); anthropologist Margaret Mead (1975); and biologist Stephen Jay Gould (2000).

Notable presidents of the AAAS, 1848–2005

• 1849: Joseph Henry
• 1871: Asa Gray
• 1877: Simon Newcomb
• 1880: Joseph Lovering
• 1882: J. William Dawson
• 1886: Edward S. Morse
• 1887: Samuel P. Langley
• 1888: John Wesley Powell
• 1901: Charles Sedgwick Minot
• 1927: Arthur Amos Noyes
• 1929: Robert A. Millikan
• 1931: Franz Boas
• 1934: Edward L. Thorndike
• 1935: Karl T. Compton
• 1942: Arthur H. Compton
• 1947: Harlow Shapley
• 1951: Kirtley F. Mather
• 1972: Glenn T. Seaborg
• 1975: Margaret Mead
• 1992: Leon M. Lederman
• 2000: Stephen Jay Gould

Administrative officers

There are three classifications of high-level administrative officials that execute the basic, daily functions of the AAAS. These are the executive officer, the treasurer and then each of the AAAS's section secretaries. The current CEO of AAAS and executive publisher of Science magazine is Sudip Parikh. The current Editor in Chief of Science magazine is Holden Thorp.

Sections of the AAAS

The AAAS has 24 "sections" with each section being responsible for a particular concern of the AAAS. There are sections for agriculture, anthropology, astronomy, atmospheric science, biological science, chemistry, dentistry, education, engineering, general interest in science and engineering, geology and geography, the history and philosophy of science, technology, computer science, linguistics, mathematics, medical science, neuroscience, pharmaceutical science, physics, psychology, science and human rights, social and political science, the social impact of science and engineering, and statistics.

Affiliates

AAAS affiliates include 262 societies and academies of science, serving more than 10 million members, from the Acoustical Society of America to the Wildlife Society, as well as non-mainstream groups like the Parapsychological Association.

The Council

The council is composed of the members of the Board of Directors, the retiring section chairmen, elected delegates and affiliated foreign council members. Among the elected delegates there are always at least two members from the National Academy of Sciences and one from each region of the country. The President of the AAAS serves as the Chairperson of the council. Members serve the council for a term of three years.

The council meets annually to discuss matters of importance to the AAAS. They have the power to review all activities of the Association, elect new fellows, adopt resolutions, propose amendments to the Association's constitution and bylaws, create new scientific sections, and organize and aid local chapters of the AAAS. The Council recently has new additions to it from different sections which include many youngsters as well. John Kerry of Chicago is the youngest American in the council and Akhil Ennamsetty of India is the youngest foreign council member.

Board of directors

The board of directors is composed of a chairperson, the president, and the president-elect along with eight elected directors, the executive officer of the association and up to two additional directors appointed by elected officers. Members serve a four-year term except for directors appointed by elected officers, who serve three-year terms.

The current chairman is Gerald Fink, Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor at Whitehead Institute, MIT. Fink will serve in the post until the end of the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting, 15 February 2016. (The chairperson is always the immediate past-president of AAAS.)

The board of directors has a variety of powers and responsibilities. It is charged with the administration of all association funds, publication of a budget, appointment of administrators, proposition of amendments, and determining the time and place of meetings of the national association. The board may also speak publicly on behalf of the association. The board must also regularly correspond with the council to discuss their actions.

AAAS Fellows

Main article: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

The AAAS council elects every year, its members who are distinguished scientifically, to the grade of fellow (FAAAS). Election to AAAS is an honor bestowed by their peers and elected fellows are presented with a certificate and rosette pin. To limit the effects and tolerance of sexual harassment in the sciences, starting 15 October 2018, a Fellow's status can be revoked "in cases of proven scientific misconduct, serious breaches of professional ethics, or when the Fellow in the view of the AAAS otherwise no longer merits the status of Fellow."

Meetings

Formal meetings of the AAAS are numbered consecutively, starting with the first meeting in 1848. Meetings were not held 1861–1865 during the American Civil War, and also 1942–1943 during World War II. Since 1946, one meeting has occurred annually, now customarily in February.

Awards and Policy Fellowships

Each year, the AAAS gives out a number of honorary awards, most of which focus on science communication, journalism, and outreach – sometimes in partnership with other organizations. The awards recognize "scientists, journalists, and public servants for significant contributions to science and to the public's understanding of science". The awards are presented each year at the association's annual meeting.

In addition to the aforementioned Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science program, AAAS offers a similarly-sounding but completely unrelated AAAS Policy Fellowship Programs, which provide Ph.D. scientists and M.S. engineers with opportunities to serve in the federal government. These policy fellows spend one or two years working for the executive (130 positions), legislative (5 positions) or judicial (1 position) branches.

Currently active awards include

• Award for Science and Diplomacy
• ASU–Science Prize for Transformational Impact
• Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science
• The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology
• Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Children's Science News
• Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Magazine
• Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Newspapers (< 100,000 daily circulation)
• Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Newspapers (> 100,000 daily circulation)
• Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Online
• Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Radio
• Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Television
• Leadership in Science Education Prize for High School Teachers
• Marion Milligan Mason Award: Women in the Chemical Sciences
• Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science (previously AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology, established 1987)
• Mentor Award
• Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement
• Newcomb Cleveland Prize
• Philip Hauge Abelson Prize
• Public Engagement with Science Award
• Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award
• John McGovern Lecture
• William D. Carey Lecture
• Golden Goose Award

Inactive Awards

• AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books (inactive as of 2024)

Publications

The society's flagship publication is Science, a weekly interdisciplinary scientific journal. Other peer-reviewed journals published by the AAAS in the "Science family of journals" are Science Signaling, Science Translational Medicine, Science Immunology, Science Robotics and the interdisciplinary Science Advances. They also publish the non-peer-reviewed Science & Diplomacy. The society previously published the review journal Science Books & Films (SB&F). AAAS also publishes on behalf of other organizations through the Science Partner Journals (SPJ) program, with a focus on online-only open access journals.

SciLine

SciLine is a philanthropically funded and editorially independent service for journalists and scientists. Its launch was announced in an October 27, 2017 article in Science by founding director Rick Weiss, former communications chief at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and science reporter at the Washington Post. Its stated mission is to increase the amount and quality of research-backed evidence in news stories by connecting U.S. journalists to scientists and to validated scientific information.

Reporters in the United States can access SciLine's services, which include expert-matching, general media briefings, expert quote sheets, and quick fact sheets. As of July 2021, SciLine had fulfilled approximately 2,000 requests from 650 journalists through its expert-matching service.

SciLine's financial supporters include the Quadrivium Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation, and the Heinz Endowments. AAAS provides in-kind support.

EurekAlert!

In 1996, AAAS launched the EurekAlert! website, an editorially independent nonprofit news release distribution service covering all areas of science, medicine and technology. EurekAlert! provides news in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, and, from 2007, in Chinese.

Working staff journalists and freelancers who meet eligibility guidelines can access the latest studies before publication and obtain embargoed information in compliance with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation Fair Disclosure policy. By early 2018, more than 14,000 reporters from more than 90 countries have registered for free access to embargoed materials. More than 5,000 active public information officers from 2,300 universities, academic journals, government agencies, and medical centers are credentialed to provide new releases to reporters and the public through the system.

In 1998, European science organizations countered Eurekalert! with a press release distribution service AlphaGalileo.

EurekAlert! has fallen under criticism for lack of press release standards and for generating churnalism.

Ethnomathematics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomathematics 

In mathematics education, ethnomathematics is the study of the relationship between mathematics and culture. Often associated with "cultures without written expression", it may also be defined as "the mathematics which is practised among identifiable cultural groups". It refers to a broad cluster of ideas ranging from distinct numerical and mathematical systems to multicultural mathematics education. The goal of ethnomathematics is to contribute both to the understanding of culture and the understanding of mathematics, and mainly to lead to an appreciation of the connections between the two.

Development and meaning

The term "ethnomathematics" was introduced by Brazilian educator and mathematician Ubiratan D'Ambrosio in 1977 during a presentation for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Since D'Ambrosio put forth the term, there has been debate as to its precise definition.).

The following is a sampling of some of the definitions of ethnomathematics proposed between 1985 and 2006:

• "The mathematics which is practiced among identifiable cultural groups such as national-tribe societies, labour groups, children of certain age brackets and professional classes".
• "The mathematics implicit in each practice".
• "The study of mathematical ideas of a non-literate culture".
• "The codification which allows a cultural group to describe, manage and understand reality".
• "Mathematics…is conceived as a cultural product which has developed as a result of various activities".
• "The study and presentation of mathematical ideas of traditional peoples".
• "Any form of cultural knowledge or social activity characteristic of a social group and/or cultural group that can be recognized by other groups such as Western anthropologists, but not necessarily by the group of origin, as mathematical knowledge or mathematical activity".
• "The mathematics of cultural practice".
• "The investigation of the traditions, practices and mathematical concepts of a subordinated social group".
• "I have been using the word ethnomathematics as modes, styles, and techniques (tics) of explanation, of understanding, and of coping with the natural and cultural environment (mathema) in distinct cultural systems (ethnos)".
• "What is the difference between ethnomathematics and the general practice of creating a mathematical model of a cultural phenomenon (e.g., the "mathematical anthropology" of Paul Kay [1971] and others)? The essential issue is the relation between intentionality and epistemological status. A single drop of water issuing from a watering can, for example, can be modeled mathematically, but we would not attribute knowledge of that mathematics to the average gardener. Estimating the increase in seeds required for an increased garden plot, on the other hand, would qualify".
• "N.C. Ghosh included Ethnomathematics in the list of Folk Mathematics" Vide : Lokdarpan- a Journal of the Department of Folklore, Kalyani University and Rabindra Bharati Patrika- a Journal of Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India. Lokashruti - a Journal of Govt. of West Bengal, India.

Areas

Numerals and naming systems

Numerals

Some of the systems for representing numbers in previous and present cultures are well known. Roman numerals use a few letters of the alphabet to represent numbers up to the thousands, but are not intended for arbitrarily large numbers and can only represent positive integers. Arabic numerals are a family of systems, originating in India and passing to medieval Islamic civilization, then to Europe, and now standard in global culture—and having undergone many curious changes with time and geography—can represent arbitrarily large numbers and have been adapted to negative numbers, fractions, and real numbers.

Less well known systems include some that are written and can be read today, such as the Hebrew and Greek method of using the letters of the alphabet, in order, for digits 1–9, tens 10–90, and hundreds 100–900.

A completely different system is that of the quipu, which recorded numbers on knotted strings.

Ethnomathematicians are interested in the ways in which numeration systems grew up, as well as their similarities and differences and the reasons for them. The great variety in ways of representing numbers is especially intriguing.

Names for numbers

This means the ways in which number words are formed.

English

For instance, in English, there are four different systems. The units words (one to nine) and ten are special. The next two are reduced forms of Anglo-Saxon "one left over" and "two left over" (i.e., after counting to ten). Multiples of ten from "twenty" to "ninety" are formed from the units words, one through nine, by a single pattern. Thirteen to nineteen are compounded from tens and units words in one way, and the non-multiples of ten from twenty-one to ninety-nine are compounded from tens and units words in a different way. Larger numbers are also formed on a base of ten and its powers ("hundred" and "thousand"). One may suspect this is based on an ancient tradition of finger counting. Residues of ancient counting by 20s and 12s are the words "score", "dozen", and "gross". (Larger number words like "million" are not part of the original English system; they are scholarly creations based ultimately on Latin.). There were historical inconsistencies in the way the term "billion" was used between American English and British English. These have since been reconciled, and modern English speakers universally refer to 1,000,000,000 as 'one billion'.

German

The German language and Dutch language counts similarly to English, but the unit is placed before the tens in numbers over 20. For example, "26" is "sechsundzwanzig", literally "six and twenty". This system was formerly common in English, as seen in an artifact from the English nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence": Sing a song of sixpence, / a pocket full of rye. / Four and twenty blackbirds, / baked in a pie. It persists in some children's songs such as "One and Twenty Archived 2019-03-23 at the Wayback Machine."

French

In the French language as used in France, one sees some differences. Soixante-dix (literally, "sixty-ten") is used for "seventy". The words "quatre-vingt" (literally, "four-twenty", or 80) and "quatre-vingt-dix" (literally, "four-twenty ten" 90) are based on 20 ("vingt") instead of 10. Swiss French and Belgian French do not use these forms, preferring more standard Latinate forms: septante for 70, huitante (formerly octante) for 80 (only in Swiss French) and nonante for 90.

Welsh

Counting in Welsh combines the vigesimal system (counting in twenties) with some other features. The following system is optional for cardinal numbers nowadays, but mandatory for ordinal numbers.

Examples of numbers in Welsh

14	pedwar ar ddeg	four upon ten
15	pymtheg	five-ten
16	un ar bymtheg	one on five-ten
20	ugain	score
37	dau ar bymtheg ar hugain	two on five-ten on score
57	hanner cant a saith	half hundred and seven
77	dau ar bymtheg a thrigain	two on five-ten and three-score
99	cant namyn un	hundred less one

Chinese

Number words in Chinese are assembled from the words for "one" through "nine" and words for powers of ten.

For example, what is in English written out as "twelve thousand three hundred forty five" is "一万二千三百四十五" (simplified) / "一萬二千三百四十五" (traditional) whose characters translate to "one ten-thousand two thousand three hundred four ten five".

Mesopotamia

In ancient Mesopotamia, the base for constructing numbers was 60, with 10 used as an intermediate base for numbers below 60.

West Africa

Many West African languages generally base their number words on a combination of 5 and 20, derived from thinking of a complete hand or a complete set of digits comprising both fingers and toes. In fact, in some languages, the words for 5 and 20 refer to these body parts. The words for numbers below 20 are based on 5 and higher numbers combine the lower numbers with multiples and powers of 20.

Finger counting

Main article: Finger counting

Many systems of finger counting have been, and still are, used in various parts of the world. Most are not as obvious as holding up a number of fingers. The position of fingers may be most important. One continuing use for finger counting is for people who speak different languages to communicate prices in the marketplace.

In contrast to finger counting, the Yuki people (indigenous Americans from Northern California) keep count by using the four spaces between their fingers rather than the fingers themselves. This is known as an octal (base-8) counting system.

The history of mathematics

This area of ethnomathematics mainly focuses on addressing Eurocentrism by countering the common belief that most worthwhile mathematics known and used today was developed in the Western world.

The area stresses that "the history of mathematics has been oversimplified", and seeks to explore the emergence of mathematics from various ages and civilizations throughout human history.

Some examples and major contributors

D'Ambrosio's 1980 review of the evolution of mathematics, his 1985 appeal to include ethnomathematics in the history of mathematics and his 2002 paper about the historiographical approaches to non-Western mathematics are excellent examples. Additionally, Frankenstein and Powell's 1989 attempt to redefine mathematics from a non-eurocentric viewpoint and Anderson's 1990 concepts of world mathematics are strong contributions to this area. Detailed examinations of the history of the mathematical developments of non-European civilizations, such as the mathematics of ancient Japan, Iraq, Egypt, and of Islamic, Hebrew, and Incan civilizations, have also been presented.

The philosophy and cultural nature of mathematics

The core of any debate about the cultural nature of mathematics will ultimately lead to an examination of the nature of mathematics itself. One of the oldest and most controversial topics in this area is whether mathematics is internal or external, tracing back to the arguments of Plato, an externalist, and Aristotle, an internalist. On the one hand, Internalists such as Bishop, Stigler and Baranes, believe mathematics to be a cultural product. On the other hand, externalists, like Barrow, Chevallard and Penrose, see mathematics as culture-free, and tend to be major critics of ethnomathematics. With disputes about the nature of mathematics, come questions about the nature of ethnomathematics, and the question of whether ethnomathematics is part of mathematics or not. Barton, who has offered the core of research about ethnomathematics and philosophy, asks whether "ethnomathematics is a precursor, parallel body of knowledge or precolonized body of knowledge" to mathematics and if it is even possible for us to identify all types of mathematics based on a Western-epistemological foundation.

Political math

Further information: Anti-racist mathematics

The contributions in this area try to illuminate how mathematics has affected the nonacademic areas of society. One of the most controversial and provocative political components of ethnomathematics is its racial implications. Ethnomathematicians purport that the prefix "ethno" should not be taken as relating to race, but rather, the cultural traditions of groups of people. However, in places like South Africa concepts of culture, ethnicity and race are not only intertwined but carry strong, divisive negative connotations. So, although it may be made explicit that ethnomathematics is not a "racist doctrine" it is vulnerable to association with racism.

Another major facet of this area addresses the relationship between gender and mathematics. This looks at topics such as discrepancies between male and female math performance in educations and career-orientation, societal causes, women's contributions to mathematics research and development, etc.

Some examples and major contributors

Paulus Gerdes' writings about how mathematics can be used in the school systems of Mozambique and South Africa, and D'Ambrosio's 1990 discussion of the role mathematics plays in building a democratic and just society are examples of the impact mathematics can have on developing the identity of a society. In 1990, Bishop also writes about the powerful and dominating influence of Western mathematics. More specific examples of the political impact of mathematics are seen in Knijik's 1993 study of how Brazilian sugar cane farmers could be politically and economically armed with mathematics knowledge, and Osmond's analysis of an employer's perceived value of mathematics (2000).

The mathematics of different cultures

The focus of this area is to introduce the mathematical ideas of people who have generally been excluded from discussions of formal, academic mathematics. The research of the mathematics of these cultures indicates two, slightly contradictory viewpoints. The first supports the objectivity of mathematics and that it is something discovered not constructed. The studies reveal that all cultures have basic counting, sorting and deciphering methods, and that these have arisen independently in different places around the world. This can be used to argue that these mathematical concepts are being discovered rather than created. However, others emphasize that the usefulness of mathematics is what tends to conceal its cultural constructs. Naturally, it is not surprising that extremely practical concepts such as numbers and counting have arisen in all cultures. The universality of these concepts, however, seems harder to sustain as more and more research reveals practices which are typically mathematical, such as counting, ordering, sorting, measuring and weighing, done in radically different ways (see Section 2.1: Numerals and Naming Systems).

One of the challenges faced by researchers in this area is the fact that they are limited by their own mathematical and cultural frameworks. The discussions of the mathematical ideas of other cultures recast these into a Western framework in order to identify and understand them. This raises the questions of how many mathematical ideas evade notice simply because they lack similar Western mathematical counterparts, and of how to draw the line classifying mathematical from non-mathematical ideas.

Some examples and major contributors

The majority of research in this area has been about the intuitive mathematical thinking of small-scale, traditional, indigenous cultures, including Aboriginal Australians, the indigenous people of Liberia, Native Americans in North America, Pacific Islanders, Brazilian construction foremen, and various tribes in Africa.

Games of skill

An enormous variety of games that can be analyzed mathematically have been played around the world and through history. The interest of the ethnomathematician usually centers on the ways in which the game represents informal mathematical thought as part of ordinary society, but sometimes has extended to mathematical analyses of games. It does not include the careful analysis of good play—but it may include the social or mathematical aspects of such analysis.

A mathematical game that is well known in European culture is tic-tac-toe (noughts-and-crosses). This is a geometrical game played on a 3-by-3 square; the goal is to form a straight line of three of the same symbol. There are many broadly similar games from all parts of England, to name only one country where they are found.

Another kind of geometrical game involves objects that move or jump over each other within a specific shape (a "board"). There may be captures. The goal may be to eliminate the opponent's pieces, or simply to form a certain configuration, e.g., to arrange the objects according to a rule. One such game is nine men's morris; it has innumerable relatives where the board or setup or moves may vary, sometimes drastically. This kind of game is well suited to play out of doors with stones on the dirt, though now it may use plastic pieces on a paper or wooden board.

A mathematical game found in West Africa is to draw a certain figure by a line that never ends until it closes the figure by reaching the starting point (in mathematical terminology, this is a Eulerian path on a graph). Children use sticks to draw these in the dirt or sand, and of course the game can be played with pen and paper.

The games of checkers, chess, oware (and other mancala games), and Go may also be viewed as subjects for ethnomathematics.

Mathematics in folk art

One way mathematics appears in art is through symmetries. Woven designs in cloth or carpets (to name two) commonly have some kind of symmetrical arrangement. A rectangular carpet often has rectangular symmetry in the overall pattern. A woven cloth may exhibit one of the seventeen kinds of plane symmetry groups; see Crowe (2004) for an illustrated mathematical study of African weaving patterns. Several types of patterns discovered by ethnomathematical communities are related to technologies; see Berczi (2002) about illustrated mathematical study of patterns and symmetry in Eurasia. Following the analysis of Indonesian folk weaving patterns and Batak traditional architectural ornaments, the geometry of Indonesian traditional motifs of batik is analyzed by Hokky Situngkir that eventually made a new genre of fractal batik designs as generative art; see Situngkir and Surya (2007) for implementations.

Mathematics education

Ethnomathematics and mathematics education addresses first, how cultural values can affect teaching, learning and curriculum, and second, how mathematics education can then affect the political and social dynamics of a culture. One of the stances taken by many educators is that it is crucial to acknowledge the cultural context of mathematics students by teaching culturally based mathematics that students can relate to. Can teaching math through cultural relevance and personal experiences help the learners know more about reality, culture, society and themselves? Robert (2006)

Another approach suggested by mathematics educators is exposing students to the mathematics of a variety of different cultural contexts, often referred to as multicultural math. This can be used both to increase the social awareness of students and offer alternative methods of approaching conventional mathematics operations, like multiplication (Andrew, 2005).

Examples

Various mathematics educators have explored ways of bringing together culture and mathematics in the classroom, such as: Barber and Estrin (1995) and Bradley (1984) on Native American education, Gerdes (1988b and 2001) with suggestions for using African art and games, Malloy (1997) about African American students and Flores (1997), who developed instructional strategies for Hispanic students.

Criticism

Some critics claim that mathematics education unduly emphasizes ethnomathematics in order to promote multiculturalism while spending too little time on core mathematical content, and that this often results in pseudoscience being taught. Richard Askey examined Focus on Algebra (an Addison-Wesley textbook criticized in an op-ed by Marianne M. Jennings) and among other shortcomings found it guilty of repeating debunked claims about Dogon astronomy.

More recently, curriculum changes proposed by the Seattle school district drew criticism to ethnomathematics. Some people judged the proposed changes, which involved a framework for blending math and ethnic studies, for incorporating questions like "How important is it to be right?" and "Who gets to say if an answer is right?"