Is it necessary to know where the walls of the box are, or even to know
there is a box, in order to think outside the box? I find it difficult
to encourage students to "think outside the box" when it is pretty clear
that some of them don't even see the box.
This is a little bit like the question, "If a tree falls in a forest and
no one is there to hear it, was there a sound?" But I think the
"outside the box" question has more meat.
Certainly the most important goal is to get students to think at all.
However, if you finally get them thinking, but their backgrounds are so
poor they don't see the box, then they have no idea if they are inside
or outside.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Chair of Sciences
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu