🚀 go-pugleaf

"amy lynn young-leith" <alyoung@kiwi.ucs.indiana.edu> writes:

>Look at how people are taught in our educational system:  "This *is*
>the right answer.  Remember it and place it on the test.  Those other
>things that people are trying are just crap.  I don't want to hear
>about them, because *this* is right."  

   I hope that you just were exposed to a rather poor subset of all
the possible teachers. In my own courses, I definitely try to avoid
a situation where students are just expected to "remember facts".
However, a good number of students have been so strongly affected by
the regurgitation approach that it can be a real struggle to actually
get them to think. The number of times I have had students say "just
give me the answer - don't bug me with that 'why' stuff..." often
leaves me rather depressed. Critical thinking is such a hard thing
to teach...
 
   Now, if we could only figure out a reliable way to get the good
students back with the good teachers...


Dave Halliwell
Department of Geography
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta