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Re: Homework (Was Measure of student understanding)



There are many "trans-scientific" questions if I may coin a term. Many
are questions for which an answer needs to be found so that policy
decisions can be made. This is one of those...do we change how we teach
not knowing what the long term benefits or losses may be, when the short
term effects are challenged by some and accepted by others.

To act with the best information we have is not to act on faith, but to
make our best judgement. To think any decision is more definitive than
that is, I think, to be a Machian positivist.

Jack, since you are ANL you probably know the the question concerning
the max average radiation dosage person can experience before permanent
changes begin to occur...I recall there is some technical name for it
which I don't recall. The is a trans-scientific question. When the
dosages get low, the signal to noise ratio is so low that there would be
enough money, mice, or people to do the definitive experiment....so
we make our best judgement and go forward.

We may have to do this in the education case as well, but in either case
it is no more a religious exercise than any other decision based on
inductive knowledge.

cheers,

joe

On Thu, 2 May 2002, Jack Uretsky wrote:

My suggestion is that nobody knows and the use of conceptual tests is
basically a religious exercise - based on faith.
Regards,
Jack


On Wed, 1 May 2002, Hugh Haskell wrote:

At 21:42 -0500 4/30/02, Jack Uretsky wrote:

But Hugh's answer avoids the question asked by both Rich and myself. What
is the predictive value of the conceptual tests?

The reason I avoided the question is that I have no idea what the
answer is. Those who use some of the PER-produced teaching schemes
and measure the results using the tests, claim that the gains shown
by those tests are more persistent than those made on students taught
using the traditional methods--at least for a year or so. I have no
idea if this effect persists any longer than that, or what relevance
that has to your questions.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. 219-284-4662
Associate Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556