Dear TB-ers,
Jennifer raises a question that I have tried to discuss several times with various groups, but never with much success. When almost all factual information is available at a student's fingertips (that being the location where
most of our students seem to have a smartphone connected by a skin graft), how much factual information do we need to teach in class? I maintain that in each discipline there is some basic store of factual information that someone needs in order to understand
reference material. To use Jenninfer's example, once you know the basic outline of English history, knowing all the kings and queens in order is unnecessary. For example, when having a conversation it is helpful to know off the top of your head that Queen
Victoria was not around for WWI, but it is not necessary to know the names of all her children and who they married.
I think the role of a teacher in the 21st C is to provide a big picture of history (or whatever discipline) into which the student can integrate information from the global library as needed. It is more important to teach critical
thinking than to teach a catalog of facts. The problem is that critical thinking is harder to teach. It requires the teacher to be fully engaged with the student, whereas just listing a group of facts is much easier.
To summarize, I would argue that in each discipline there is a store of facts that one must have in order to be considered educated in that discipline, but it is much smaller than what we have taught in the past. Will our classes
look like this in the future?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYMd-7Ng9Y8
Cordially,
Harry
Harry E. Pence
SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
SUNY Oneonta
From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Withington, Jennifer
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2012 1:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: NYTimes.com: Is Algebra Necessary?
Dear TB-ers,
An interesting statement on the state of education and on college curricula.
I agree more with the comments made at the end of the article than with the author’s point of view. Just because students have trouble with a topic or it doesn’t appear relevant doesn’t mean we should drop it.
I had to memorize the kings and queens of England from William the Conqueror to QE II. I can’t say this has really come in handy after the exam. Could we drop that and all those dates of wars from the curriculum?
Perhaps a discussion point for a meeting this semester.
Dr. Jennifer Withington
Asst. Professor of Biology
SUNY Oneonta
116 Science I
Oneonta, NY 13820
607-436-3421
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