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Re: plug and chug

Jack Uretsky wrote:

Are you really declining to take "yes" for an answer? I've
already said that I'm happy with any rewording of the problem that makes
the intent clearer.

Hi Jack,

Sorry if I misunderstood, but I don't remember reading that. Anyway
it looks like we are in basic agreement so I won't "nitpick" any
further.

I also agree with John Clement that one can and should at times use
one's professional judgment to make subtle adjustments in problem
wordings that, while absolutely unambiguous, are also specifically
intended to elicit incorrect answers based on well known
misconceptions. Doing so allows those misconceptions to be directly
confronted AND promotes improvement in "reading" skills. I think
this is what good teachers do all the time. But I think it would be
unethical to *deliberately* inject ambiguity, self-contradiction,
overspecification, etc., unless the main point of a problem is to
identify those elements.

--
John Mallinckrodt mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm