GS Chandy
Posts:
4,348
From:
Hyderabad, Mumbai/Bangalore, India
Registered:
9/29/05
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Re: Topic 5 - The Beginning of the End
Posted:
Oct 9, 2012 2:48 AM
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Robert Hansen (RH) posted Oct 9, 2012 4:48 AM:
>
> It's the same issue. Consider...
>
> Be able to poke holes.
> Be able to scrape.
> Be able to pry.
> Be able to twist.
>
> I am describing what a screwdriver can do. If I
> wanted to teach you about screwdrivers I would start
> with a screwdriver, not its use cases. Likewise, to
> teach you arithmetic I would start by teaching you
> arithmetic, not its use cases. I think I am going to
> clean that up and call it the fundamental rule of
> teaching.
>
> That is the problem with designing a curriculum
> around a list of standards. If teachers would just
> teach arithmetic first, and well, most of the use
> cases will follow. The rest will follow as you start
> applying arithmetic to problems. What is the point of
> teaching students the multiplication facts, and at
> the same time, the distributive property? What are
> they going to distribute? Every topic of this series
> is approached in this manner. Garbled with half a
> dozen use cases of something that hasn't even been
> fully taught yet.
>
> Bob Hansen
>
I once had a chemistry teacher who informed us very true and necessary things like:
- -- This is a test-tube
- -- This is a beaker...
+++
- -- This is air
- -- This is nitrogen
(Much to everyone's surprise - but not our teacher's - they both looked the same!)
+++
...
...
(and so on). [That's a bit of an exaggeration - but only slightly so].
I'm afraid none of us learned much chemistry.
Suggestion:
The better way to enable learning would be to provide an instance of the 'thing' in question AND to demonstrate its properties/uses/use cases.
To me, the above seems obvious and utterly commonsensical. Above all, instead of going by RIGID rules, let the rules be made by the learner's needs, his/her curiosity.
What that chemistry teacher did was ALL WRONG! (As is what RH is suggesting).
GSC
("Still Shoveling Away!" - with apologies if due to Barry Garelick for any tedium caused; and a humble suggestion that all such tedium would be avoided by simply not looking at any message that is purported to be from GSC)
Message was edited by: GS Chandy
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