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[Phys-L] Where Ravitch Went Wrong



Subscribers to Chemed-L, Phys-L, and STLHE-L have been mercifully
spared by posting-line limitations from my 480-line post "Where
Ravitch Went Wrong" [Hake (2005)], a critique of Ravitch's (2005)
Wall Street Journal commentary "Would You Want To Study at a
Bloomberg School?"

If you're interest in "Where Ravitch Went Wrong" is:

(a) zero or less, please hit DELETE;

(b) slightly greater than zero, please scan the severely truncated
version of Hake (2005) in the APPENDIX;

(c) considerably greater than zero, please click on
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0505&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&P=1521>,
so as to scan the entire post.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>


REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2005. "Where Ravitch Went Wrong," online at
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0505&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&P=1521>.
Post of 23 May 2005 10:36:05-0700 to AERA-C, AERA-J, AERA-K, AERA-L,
American Philosophy, AP-Physics, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, Dewey-L,
Math-Learn, Math-Teach, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, Physhare, POD, RUME,
STLHE-L, TeachingEdPsych, and TIPS.

Ravitch, D. 2005. "Would You Want To Study at a Bloomberg School?"
Wall Street Journal Online, ll May, online to Wall Street subscribers
at <http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111585804108831274,00.html>.
Also "beckered" (in honor of the redoubtable Jerry Becker) into the
AERA-L "Politics and Policy in Education Forum" archives by Hake
(2005) so as to be available to all discussion list subscribers in
the APPENDIX of
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0505&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&P=770>.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
APPENDIX [severely truncated version of Hake (2005)]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ravitch offers this interpretation of Bloomberg's effort to improve
NYC schools [BRACKETED BY LINES "RRRRR. . .]:

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Neither Mr. Bloomberg nor Mr. Klein. . . [Microsoft nemesis and
chancellor of NYC public schools] . . . . knew about the war of words
that had been raging among educators for many years.

ON THE ONE SIDE, BELOVED BY SCHOOLS OF EDUCATION, ARE THE CENTURY-OLD
IDEAS OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION, NOW CALLED "CONSTRUCTIVISM.". . . . .
.

On the other side are those who believe that learning depends on both
highly skilled teachers and student effort, that students need
self-discipline more than self-esteem, that accuracy is important,
that in many cases there truly are right answers and wrong answers .
. . ., and that instructional methods should be chosen because they
are effective, not because they fit one's philosophical values.

Messrs. Bloomberg and Klein embarked on school reform knowing nothing
of this heated debate. . . . . The city's elementary mathematics
program, Everyday Math, has been criticized by university
mathematicians who complain that it neglects basic computational
skills.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IMHO, Ravitch should take the time to carefully research the issues
instead of shooting from the hip so as to promote "The Needless War
Between Traditionalists and Progressives" [Bickman (2004)]. In
addition, Ravitch displays little understanding of the "many faces of
constructivism" [Phillips (1995), Hake (2001a)]. Cognitive scientists
Lauren Resnik and Megan Hall (1998) called one such face "knowledge
based constructivism" (KBC).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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