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Re: Symposium - Growth and Success of "mathe 2000"
Posted:
Oct 26, 2012 1:11 PM
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Well, that, of course. But, as the been doing for the last 2-3
decades, my old advice remains appropriate. If you, as an employer,
need someone competent in these areas, hire Asian. Replace "hire"
with "recruit" if you have responsibilities regarding new students
for your college or university, especially at the postgraduate
level. I've probably told this before because it's been about 15
years since my son was a PhD in chemistry at Princeton and was
telling me about the talk he was going to give at a big-gun biology
conference on the work of his team of students working under the same
professor. I asked him how he was chosen to give the talk for the
group and he said with some self-deprecating humor but too much
truth, "Because I speak English."
Why a biology conference? Because a deep knowledge of pure chemistry
is required for understanding the fundamental processes of
biology. He was also amused at the fact that he had (has) never
taken a biology class after high school. However, he did learn to
read and to "math". You know, that highly misleading, monkey-see,
monkey-do, directly taught stuff that shows up so easily
traditional standardized tests.
Wayne
At 12:48 AM 10/26/2012, Haim wrote:
>Jerry P. Becker Posted: Oct 22, 2012 9:43 AM
>
> >For instance, in the US there have been, since
> >the launch of the NCTM Standards in the 1980s
> >(National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,
> >1989, 2000), highly emotional debates between
> >opponents and advocates of the reform-based
> >approach to elementary school mathematics;
> >between traditionalists, who still believe that
> >the emphasis of math education should be on the
> >direct teaching of fixed, step-by-step procedures
> >for solving various types of math problems, and
> >reformers, who favor a more inquiry-based
> >approach in which pupils are exposed to
> >real-world problems that help them develop deep
> >conceptual understanding, number sense, reasoning
> >and problem-solving skills, and positive affects
> >towards mathematics. Only in 2008, the National
> >Mathematics Advisory Panel, created by president
> >George Bush himself, succeeded, at least to some
> >extent, in stopping that national war (United
> >States Department of Education, 2008).
>
> So, what do you think, Wayne? Is it worth pointing out, again,
> that as a description of the Math Wars even the punctuation is
> wrong in Lieven Verschaffel's precis? Or, after more than 20 yrs,
> there is nothing left to discuss except how to jettison the
> Education Mafia out of the business of public education?
>
>Haim
>No representation without taxation.
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