In a 3/23/98 09:28:38 posting of the above title, Rick Tarara wrote:
=93 ... let me suggest that the solution ...(to deficient student
learning)... is to teach students to 'learn' in a more honest, more
intellectual mode.... What I am suggesting is that what might be more
beneficial than new techniques in physics instruction are new techniques
in training young people HOW to study in general and HOW to learn new
things..... serious learning needs to begin as early as possible...
training along these lines could improve the entire educational
process....=94=20
Then at 11:11:02 Rick continued in a similar vein:
=93.... if we are going to have to teach reading (not scientific reading,
but _reading_) at the College level, then the educational system is
doomed to semi-literate mediocrity, AT BEST. If students can't read and
can't study by the time they get to College then we really _should_ be
failing them, having them reassess their skills, having those motivated
enough to do so go back and gain the necessary skills for entering
college, then returning to get their education.=94
In my opinion, if students entering postsecondary education are
deficient in learning skills, study habits, reading, arithmetic,
algebra, science, English, critical thinking, drawing, etc., etc. then
we in the colleges and universities can, at least in part, blame
ourselves.=20
=93Many faculty in SME&T...(Science, Math, Engineering, and
Technology)..... at the postsecondary level continue to blame the
schools for sending underprepared students to them. But, increasingly,
the higher education community has come to recognize the fact that
teachers and principals in the K-12 system are all people who have been
educated at the undergraduate level, mostly in situations in which SME&T
programs have not taken seriously enough their vital part of the
responsibility for the quality of America's teachers. The Neal Report
[1] devoted one brief sentence to teacher preparation, for example
(though much more to teacher enhancement). But, virtually every
participant in the review work of this committee has expressed concern
over the way the undergraduate SME&T education community is working in
the preparation of teachers.
With a more intensive and effective commitment on the part of
institutions to the preparation of K-12 teachers, colleges and
universities can raise their expectations about the preparedness of
entering students. One way to do that might be for institutions to enter
into "treaties" with the secondary schools providing that, after a
certain date, credit will not be given at the collegiate level for
remediation in SME&T.=94
Richard Hake
Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<hake@ix.netcom.com>
<http://carini.physics.indiana.edu/SDI/>