Re: The Benezet-Berman Experiment (LONG!)

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

        In view of item 4., below. (the TIMMS results), isn't this the
wrong question?  I would think that the appropriate investigation would
be: How do the countries that do well teach their students, and should
we be adopting their methods?
                        Regards,
                                        Jack



On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, Richard Hake wrote:

> Please excuse this LONG(1a) cross-posting to PHYSHARE(1b),
> PHYSLRNR(1c), Phys-L(1d), and Math-Teach(1e).
>
> In his 10/2/00 PHYSHARE post "Re: arguments about pedagogy," Nicholas
> Park posed three important questions Q:
>
> Q1.  "Ok, so how do successful experiments like this . . . . The
> Benezet/Berman Experiment (see refs. 2,3) . . . . . inform the way
> everybody else is to be taught?
>
> Q2.  Is whole-scale reform necessary?
>
> Q3.  And if so, don't the standards prevent any movement toward such reform?"
--------------------snip--------------------------------
> 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
> R1. How can the Benezet/Berman Experiment inform the way other
> students are taught?  In my opinion the Benezet-Berman Experiment
> indicates a possible way to drastically improve K-12 education. As
> indicated in ref. 4:
>
> "Students in Manchester, New Hampshire WERE NOT SUBJECTED TO
> ARITHMETIC ALGORITHMS(5) until grade 6. In earlier grades they read,
> invented, and discussed stories and problems; estimated lengths,
> heights, and areas; and enjoyed finding and interpreting numbers
> relevant to their lives. In grade 6, with 4 months of formal
> training, they caught up to the regular students in algorithmic
> ability, and were far ahead in general numeracy and in the verbal,
> semantic, and problem-solving skills they had practiced for the five
> years before.
---------------------------snip---------------------------
> 4. The TIMSS results(16):
>
> "U.S. students worst showing was in population 3. . . . (final year
> of secondary School. . . . .corresponding to U.S. high school
> seniors). . . . . .In the assessment of general mathematics and
> science knowledge, U.S. high school seniors scored near the bottom of
> the participating nations. In the assessments of advanced mathematics
> and physics given to a subset of students who had studied those
> topics, no nations had significantly lower mean scores than the
> United States. The TIMSS results indicate that a considerably smaller
> percentage of U.S. students meet high performance standards than do
> students in other countries."
>
> I would conclude from the Benezet/Berman experiment(2,3) and from
> "1", "2", "3", and "4" above that WHOLE-SCALE REFORM OF THE K-12
> SYSTEM IS NEEDED.
------------------------------snip----------------------------