The Education-Innovation Gap

Researchers analyze the education-innovation gap, or the time delay between publication of new knowledge and entry of that knowledge into classrooms.

Analyzing syllabi and academic articles using natural language processing, researchers review the education-innovation gap in higher education. They find wide variation across syllabi, concluding that coverage of frontier knowledge is inconsistent and that teachers who are also researchers tend to cover more frontier knowledge. Researchers also find that the education-innovation gap is smaller for more selective schools that are better funded and tend to serve more socioeconomically-advantaged students.

Abstract and Citation

Biasi, Barbara, and Song Ma. The Education-Innovation Gap. 17 May 2020, https://songma.github.io/files/bm_edu_inno_gap.pdf.

Abstract

This paper documents differences across higher education courses in the coverage of frontier knowledge. Applying natural language processing (NLP) techniques to the text of 1.7M syl- labi and 20M academic articles, we construct the “education-innovation gap,” a syllabus’s rel- ative proximity to old and new knowledge. We show that courses differ greatly in the extent to which they cover frontier knowledge. Instructors play a big role in shaping course content; instructors who are active researchers teach more frontier knowledge. More selective and bet- ter funded schools, and those enrolling socio-economically advantaged students, teach more frontier knowledge. Students from these schools are more likely to complete a doctoral degree, produce more patents, and earn more after graduation.

Publication Link

https://songma.github.io/files/bm_edu_inno_gap.pdf

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