🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1995Jul27.170529.1@magill.unisa.edu.au>,
 <kerrb@magill.unisa.edu.au> wrote:
>Anyone know anything about authentic assessment?
>I received an invite to a talk and am wondering whether to go. It sounds
>interesting. 

>Talk is by Dinah Gieske of the Coalition of Essential Schools. She is a teacher
>at University Heights High School, New York.

>The blurb for the talk goes like this, the expected outcomes from this approach
>are:-

>* effective expression and communication
>* self-awareness and self-esteem
>* taking responsibility and preparing for the future
>* social interaction and effective citizenship
>* critical thinking and problem solving
>* cultural and historical involvement
>* valuing and ethical decision making

Where is the basic knowledge of mathematics, science, geography, history?
This is basic knowledge, which can then be applied; teaching it as application
only makes the knowledge difficult to recognize.  Those who take social
science end up not being able to recognize geography and history.

I do not see how one can doe much about decision making without knowing
quite a bit about the world.  Even in universities, there are courses in
"science and public policy" where the professor and the students do not
even know enough science to know their ignorance.

Teach the fundamentals.  What is fundamental is what one can use to build
on and to attack other problems.  Arithmetic is not fundamental for
mathematics, while algebraic notation is.  Facts are not as fundamental
in science as structure; the facts hang on the structure.  Although it
is my field, I would find it very difficult to tell the jurors in the 
Simpson case the basic mathematics and probability they need to be able
to handle the statements made by oversimplifying experts; they lack the
fundamentals.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu	 Phone: (317)494-6054	FAX: (317)494-0558