🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <hadgraft.24.301C40DE@eng.monash.edu.au>,
Roger Hadgraft <hadgraft@eng.monash.edu.au> wrote:
>In article <3vatp7$211i@b.stat.purdue.edu> hrubin@b.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:

>about authentic assessment:

>>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.

>Is it as simple as this? After all, there is a whole movement (eg Problem 
>Based Learning) which says that learning in context is better. Obviously 
>neither extreme is ideal. We need to practise basic skills (eg arithmetic), 
>but also see it used in meaningful ways (eg banking, shopping, etc). 

This is a movement by the educationists, which will accomplish a little,
but lose too much.  They have never recognized that one can apply A to B
if one understands A, not as a bunch of facts, but also for its linguistic
aspects.  One does not teach children to read in banking or shopping contexts;
there is no more reason to teach mathematics this way.  Just as words can
be used in various contexts, so can mathematical concepts.

One who does not understand concepts as entities in themselves cannot 
comprehend this.  One of the problems with teaching service students,
especially in statistics, is that they do not understand mathematical
communication, but instead look upon it as a collection of procedures.
Even at the college level, the procedures are taught first.  But does
the engineer need to know how to solve the problem, or how to formulate it?

>I suspect 
>that much of the basic skill practice that has gone on over the years (eg 
>learning dates in history) is not very useful. Wouldn't it be better to 
>immerse the kids in history in some meaningful way? Fortunately these things 
>are happneing in our schools.

But the historical ideas tie in with history elsewhere.  Studying Greece
in social studies mixes the geography, history, current economics, the
present European conglomeration, etc.  Ancient Greek history, based on
geography, is necessary to understand much of our civilization, and was
used by those who founded this country.

>>I do not see how one can do 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.

>Agreed. But which 0.000000000001% of the world's knowledge do you teach? My 
>own feeling is that the number 1 factor in learning is student motivation. 

TEACH THE BASICS.  Something is basic if it will help understand the 
structure of the subject, and enable the application to other subjects.
Skills are rarely basic at all.  

The basic mathematics can, and should, be taught in primary school.  
Whatever evidence we have indicates that it is much harder to learn 
later, and the later, the harder.  Consider the problem of a juror
trying to understand the statements about DNA probabilities in the
O. J. Simpson trial.  It might very well take longer than the entire
trial to teach that juror the problems in the mathematics, probability,
and statistics involved in using the DNA evidence.  One cannot start
learning the basics when this much is needed.  
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu	 Phone: (317)494-6054	FAX: (317)494-0558