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Re: Pedagogy



At 15:10 -0400 5/8/04, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

What about pushing this approach even
further. Pretend making realistic mistakes
(acting as if they occurred naturally) and
then analyze them. What is wrong with
simulating "false starts, dead ends, etc."
to promote learning?

I see two problems with it. First one has to be a pretty good actor
to pull it off without sounding forced. Those of us who don't have
those skills should avoid making intentional mistakes. The second is,
what do you do if you get to the end and nobody has caught your
mistake? Then it's an even harder acting job to wiggle out of that.
If you admit that you staged it to see if they were following, you
lose credibility, and the students will just tune out.

Of course the "Just checking to see if you were paying attention"
joke is usually worth a few smiles, if not done too often, but it
should only be done in obvious jest and when you really did make a
mistake. I don't think any of us has to worry about creating
intentional mistakes. We all make enough to keep this scheme going
indefinitely.

Hugh
--

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

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