They reflect PKAL's basic tenet that focusing on what works is the main ingredient for planting the seeds for reform. A community must have a common aim, and the common aim of the educational community is the truth. It is not necessary that the members of the community agress with one another. It is necessary that they communicate with one another, for the basis of community is communication. That it is critical to ask the right questions , at the beginning and at every stage of reform, and that the focus of the questioning should be students.
Scientists love doing science.
Science is a human enterprise, internally connected, and linked also with the world, with other disciplines, with social and political forces. Beliefs and actions regarding science have important consequences. That the community must have a driving vision of what works . An appreciation of what is happening in science today, and of how great a distance lies ahead for exploring, ought to be one of the rewards of a liberal arts education. The reform of higher education cannot be limited, nor can even its main feature be limited, to the correction of abuses.