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Re: What Does TIMSS Teach Us? (Short)(dependent learners?)



----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Njaa" <Anjaa@AOL.COM>

What is a "Dependent" learner? Is the contention that real scientists
learn
in the traditional way?

Teachers teach. They mediate a subject for the learners in their class.
"Traditionally, especially in a college setting, they mediate through
lecture, through problems, recitations, and through labs. The ones who
thrive in this setting, often become teachers themselves. For them, the
system worked. For the rest of us, it was impentetrable and intimidating.
Reading and understanding a textbook is not the only way to learn
fudamental
physical concepts. New pedagogical techniques, including whiteboards,
socratic questioning in the classroom and the lab, cooperative and
collaborative learning do not in themselves make learners dependent, any
more
than problems that seem obscure until the student sees them done on the
board
for the nth time. How the teacher or professor structures the class
should
determine the opportunities for students to move to independence.

Andrew Njaa

You're right, but what I see is that much of what I associate as the
'learning' process that I went through, is now being formalized into
classroom/lab exercises with a support/feedback system that was not there
when we used to meet in an empty lab every night for 3-4 hours to hammer out
the problems and to discuss the concepts. If the courses are NOT structured
right, then students can easily feel that they have 'done what they need to
do' in these settings. {Strong evidence that students ARE NOT spending the
hours outside of class that they used to.} If you never have to work it out
on your own, to slave over some tough problems without a close-by mentor, if
you never have to READ IT and understand or HEAR IT and understand, then I
don't think you will be ready for the much less structured world outside the
academic walls. How applicable will 'whiteboards, socratic questioning in
the classroom and the lab, cooperative and collaborative learning' be AFTER
graduation. We all know that learning never ends, but look around and see
how it is that you currently learn. Is it not by reading, by attending
lectures, by watching informative TV shows? Aren't these the skills one
MUST perfect to be successful in the 'traditional' courses. Aren't these
the skills one needs for independent and individual learning?

Rick

**************************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Associate Professor of Physics
Department of Chemistry & Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
219-284-4664
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

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