I’ve been teaching for over two decades, but haven’t yet posted much on my theoretical view of school. Talking recently to an entering education Ph.D. student has inspired me to fill that gap. The obvious usual purpose for school is to help people learn how to do useful tasks in life. And the obvious way to help with that is to show students various useful tools, show examples of their use, and then have students practice trying related tasks with related tools. Finally, score students on how well they do these practice tasks, to help others judge their suitability for various positions.
re: "The obvious usual purpose for school is to help people learn how to do useful tasks in life."
Could there be a better, less obvious purpose we could examine? Perhaps the transfer of not just the skills to do useful tasks, but also the values and ideas necessary to be a thoughtful member of a democratic society (I know I'm venturing to a subset of societies' education goals, but I think it's worth examining) capable of participating in the political conversation? Or is that outside the scope of education?
Related to this is the insistance many professors have for making students come and listen to them. I understand the need to discourage new students from just totally slacking off (tho I tend to think students need to learn how they can learn and when I was a ug this was handled with a couple P/F terms) but so many profs seem to feel this is just a matter of respect or laziness.
From my pov it's morally wrong to base the grade on anything but the student's mastery of the material (tho in practice I have to compromise and give some slight credit based on effort...but no reason to make a large component).
To get back to my point I think it's hard to convince anyone of any view of what's good/bad to require for students when it's still normal for profs to give students bad grades even if they can ace the final if the student doesn't jump through their hoops. Before we can get anywhere with this it seems like we need a consensus about or at least more attention to the question of what one's responsibility and goals are as an instructor. I mean if many profs believe the goal is to make students shoe they can jump through hoops that makes it hard to get anywhere.
Papers that serve as assignments but also have the adaptability to morph into proposals enlighten students to hidden injustices and pushes them too build a framework for creating innovative solutions while addressing the main issue (imo) of why people are deterred from completing class work to the best of their ability: the fear of a worthless expenditure of labor. The possibility that some 'homework' could turn into a business is an awesome motivator.
It does make excellent commentary though.
(Also, as a high school student, I can corroborate his impression of how school generally works.)
How else would be a thoughtful member without doing some related tasks?
This is an important point. Training students to do particular tasks is not the primary goal of most education.
https://www.researchgate.ne...
https://www.discoursemagazi...
re: "The obvious usual purpose for school is to help people learn how to do useful tasks in life."
Could there be a better, less obvious purpose we could examine? Perhaps the transfer of not just the skills to do useful tasks, but also the values and ideas necessary to be a thoughtful member of a democratic society (I know I'm venturing to a subset of societies' education goals, but I think it's worth examining) capable of participating in the political conversation? Or is that outside the scope of education?
Related to this is the insistance many professors have for making students come and listen to them. I understand the need to discourage new students from just totally slacking off (tho I tend to think students need to learn how they can learn and when I was a ug this was handled with a couple P/F terms) but so many profs seem to feel this is just a matter of respect or laziness.
From my pov it's morally wrong to base the grade on anything but the student's mastery of the material (tho in practice I have to compromise and give some slight credit based on effort...but no reason to make a large component).
To get back to my point I think it's hard to convince anyone of any view of what's good/bad to require for students when it's still normal for profs to give students bad grades even if they can ace the final if the student doesn't jump through their hoops. Before we can get anywhere with this it seems like we need a consensus about or at least more attention to the question of what one's responsibility and goals are as an instructor. I mean if many profs believe the goal is to make students shoe they can jump through hoops that makes it hard to get anywhere.
http://hanson.gmu.edu/teach...
Can you publish any of your course materials online?
Papers that serve as assignments but also have the adaptability to morph into proposals enlighten students to hidden injustices and pushes them too build a framework for creating innovative solutions while addressing the main issue (imo) of why people are deterred from completing class work to the best of their ability: the fear of a worthless expenditure of labor. The possibility that some 'homework' could turn into a business is an awesome motivator.
When I saw this title, I initially assumed it would be a commentary on this book review:
https://astralcodexten.subs...