A National Workshop to be held in May 2007 on Research and Undergraduate Education at the Intersections of Culture, Mind, Brain, & Development

在过去的四分之一个世纪里，与文化，心灵，大脑和发展（CBD）有关的领域之间的传统学科界限一直在侵蚀。神经科学、心理科学和社会科学之间长期存在的相互作用和整合的障碍已经开始瓦解。 学科整合不仅本身构成了严峻的挑战，而且还有望提出新的问题，推动未来最具创新性的研究。 在实现这些目标之前，必须满足开发和组织综合性本科课程的挑战，这些课程将更好地进行通识教育和未来研究人员的培训。 本次研讨会将重点关注跨学科研究的新趋势以及这些趋势对本科课程开发的影响。 跨学科研究和本科教育的领导者将参加研讨会，在传统上强调不同理论立场和方法的领域进行富有成效的参与。 将特别强调发展观点，这是超越传统的未解决和过于简单化的紧张关系的关键，如先天与后天，共性与特异性，以及大脑与文化。 讲习班的活动将包括关于当前研究的会谈、专门讨论社区建设和问题定义的小组会议、示范跨学科课程和课程介绍以及阐明未来议程的最后巩固会议。 研讨会将提出四个目标。 首先，将编写总结CBD交叉点知识实质的最终报告，以及本科教学改革议程，并培养未来研究人员对跨学科观点的欣赏。 第二，将建立一个网站，其中包括研讨会的成果和《生物多样性公约》界不断作出贡献的规定。 第三，将出版一本载有讲习班论文的编辑本。 第四，研讨会的成果、建议和模型将在全国性学术会议和与会者所在院校进行展示。研讨会将促进当代科学最重要前沿之一的新问题、跨学科观点、理论、方法和发现在本科教育中的渗透。讲习班的一个重点是普通教育，将有助于教育公民能够明智地面对生物科学和社会科学融合所产生的深刻的道德和社会问题。进化论、分子生物学和神经科学在对心灵和文化的科学理解中发挥着越来越大的作用，这威胁到了自由意志、个人责任、价值观、生与死、可允许的医疗技术、人类起源和生命本身的意义等传统观念。减少自然科学、社会科学和人文科学课程之间的分歧的变化是必要的，以帮助学生有效地处理这些问题，而不是通过回避或完全拒绝相关科学。研讨会的第二个重点是高层次的本科教学，将通过制定战略来促进学生在文化，思想，大脑和发展的交叉点的兴趣和准备，以加强研究生培训和科学研究。需要新的高级本科课程和研究经验来让学生掌握前沿知识，开始研究生涯。

Over the past quarter-century, the traditional disciplinary boundaries among fields concerned with Culture, Mind, Brain, and Development (CBD) have been eroding. Long-standing barriers to interactions and integrations among the neural, psychological, and social sciences have begun to collapse. Disciplinary integration not only poses serious challenges in and of itself, but also promises to raise new questions that will drive the most innovative research of the future. Before these ends can be achieved, the challenges of developing and organizing integrative undergraduate curricula that will better both liberal education and the training of future researchers must be met. This workshop will focus on emerging trends in interdisciplinary research and the implications of these trends for undergraduate curriculum development. Leaders in both interdisciplinary research and undergraduate education will attend the workshop to engage in a productive engagement across fields that have traditionally emphasized different theoretical stances and methods. A special emphasis will be placed on developmental perspectives, which are a key to moving beyond traditional unresolved and oversimplified tensions, such as nature vs. nurture, universals vs. specificity, and brain vs. culture. Workshop activities will include talks on current research, small-group sessions devoted to community building and issue definition, presentations of model interdisciplinary courses and curricula, and final consolidating sessions for articulating an agenda for the future. The workshop will produce four objectives. First, a final report summarizing the intellectual substance of CBD intersections will be written, as will an agenda for changes in undergraduate teaching and fostering appreciation for interdisciplinary perspectives in future researchers. Second, a website comprising the results of the workshop and provisions for ongoing contributions from the CBD community will be created. Third, an edited volume containing papers from the workshop will be published. Fourth, workshop findings, recommendations, and models will be presented at national academic conferences and at the home institutions of workshop participants.The workshop will promote the infusion into undergraduate education of new questions, interdisciplinary perspectives, theories, methods, and findings that are at one of the most critical frontiers of contemporary science. One workshop focus, on general education, will contribute to the education of a citizenry that can intelligently confront the profound moral and social issues that are arising from the convergence of biological and social science. The growing role of evolutionary theory, molecular biology, and neuroscience in the scientific understanding of mind and culture threatens traditional conceptions of free will, individual responsibility, values, life and death, permissible medical technologies, human origins, and the meaning of life itself. Changes that reduce the divisions among natural science, social science, and humanities curricula are required to prepare students to deal with these issues productively, rather than through avoidance or outright rejection of the relevant science. A second focus of the workshop, on upper-level undergraduate instruction, will enhance graduate training and scientific research by developing strategies to promote the interests and preparation of students at the intersections of culture, mind, brain, and development. New upper-level undergraduate courses and research experiences are needed to launch students on research careers armed with the cutting-edge knowledge.