Methods of Education

[marjai]

I overheard a conversation today at work. A woman was talking about her son's teacher. This teacher's method was to allow her students to work on a problem, even if they were doing it wrong, till they finished. Then she would work with them to show them how to work the problem correctly. My coworker felt this was a waste of time. "What is he

Comments

[fatfred]

I'd say that he's learning how to figure things out for himself instead of expecting to have answers handed to him on a silver platter.
Grrrrr.

[newguynick23]

Doesn't that follow the same principle of a kid putting a penny in the electrical outlet? I mean, if they don't learn for themselves, then they'll just keep trying.

Whoever invented the outlet covers should be shot.

[marjai]

up to a point.
As I understand it, up to a certain age infants / young toddlers flat out have no impulse control. Their brains just aren't capable of 'learning from mistakes' yet.

[kalilove]

this is true. I think its a good concept but being a child of mass produced over worked burnt out public school I was part of the group that was alowed to experiment before, in theory, being "taught" the correct way to do things. I have little doubt that this plays a big part in why i can't spell, do math or know grammer rules worth a damn.

This is prolly something that works on a small scale but in a larger public school I can see this going poorly.

[marjai]

At that point, the failure was in the execution. Words like "in theory" then "taught" being in quotes implies that the teacher wasn't getting the important bit done. But I'm not a teacher and couldn't possibly imagine the difficulty of doing the job correctly and well in today's education environment.

[hedwig_augusta]

learning a foreign language that can be kinda mathmatical in how the grammar is set up, a teacher can explain something over and over and i might not get where I am messing up. However, when I see the red pen where i'm messing up, it gets my attention. You have it right- it is the process of learning that makes it stick.

[madshutterbug]

Learning how to think. As others mention, learning to do something the 'correct' way by rote is one thing. One learns a certain set of actions, and in those specific circumstances those actions will result in correct completion of a task.

But what about analysing the circumstances? What about taking one set of learned behaviors and realising that they apply to this set of problems as well? This is learning how to think.

And, while many people don't realise it, knowing how to think is actually what one is paying a Registered Nurse for, rather more than that blood pressure check or immunization injection. Why is that check or immunization necessary? What risks are we taking by implementing that? Do those risks outweigh the benifits... or vice versa?

Learning how to think.