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Re: meaningful standards (fwd)
Posted:
May 30, 1995 12:28 PM
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Steve: The question that I have with the Basics idea is... When does
tomorrow come? When do the specifics finally appear? In other words,
students learn whole numbers so they can do fractions, fractions so they
can do algebra, algebra so they can do precalculus, precalculus so they
can do calculus, ad infinitum. I have heard calculus teachers say, don't
worry about understanding, they'll get that in real analysis. Just
wondering... Gary Martin, Univ. of Hawaii
On Tue, 30 May 1995, Steve Means wrote:
> In discussing this with my students just now, they introduced a slight
> shift in terminology. They think that education is progressive, from
> Basic to Specific. The Basics, which are learned earlier in school,
> tend to have more general application to support the specific learning
> and tasks encountered as the educational demands become focused on
> specific career objectives.
>
> The human mind depends on making generalizations, on making information
> more compact.
>
> It is NOT significant learning to be given a formula (a generalization)
> and then be prompted to find the missing values and compute an answer
> (unless the lesson is on substitution and/or computation).
>
> Period Two Algebra with Trig Students 1995
>
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