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Forward from Jerry Epstein on "What Does TIMSS Teach Us?"



Jerry Epstein cc'd the post in the FORWARD (below) to PHYSHARE,
PhysLrnr, and Phys-L. However, it was not distributed, evidently
because Jerry is not a current subscriber. With Jerry's permission
and hopes that the list managers won't mind, I am effectively
forwarding his post to the lists.

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


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FORWARD

Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 00:59:24 -0400
From: Jerome Epstein <jerepst@worldnet.att.net>
Reply-To: jerepst@worldnet.att.net
To: Richard Hake <rrhake@earthlink.net>
CC: PHYSHARE@LISTS.PSU.EDU, PHYSLRNR@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU,
PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU, Sanjoy Mahajan <sanjoy@mrao.cam.ac.uk>,
Arnold Arons <arons@dirac.phys.washington.edu>,
Kati Haycock <khaycock@edtrust.org>,
James Stigler <stigler@psych.ucla.edu>,
James Hebert <hiebert@udel.edu>, Michael Neuschatz <mneuscha@aip.org>,
Paul Gross <PRGHOME@aol.com>, Wang Heqing <wangheqing@hotmail.com>,
Eugenia Etkina <etkina@rci.rutgers.edu>,
Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>
Subject: Re: What Does TIMSS Teach Us? (was "The Benezet-Berman Experiment
(LONG!")

While I agree with just about all of what Richard Hake has to say (as
usual), I continue to believe that the problem of grossly inadequately
prepared teachers in grades 4 through 8 is the *sine qua non* of this
whole issue. Arons pointed this out repeatedly going back 30 years.

While there is much in curriculum and standards that can be improved, no
significant change will happen without a drastic improvement in the
teachers, because no quality reform can be implemented by teachers who
themselves are at the cognitive and skill level of a 10 year old (yes,
they are -- I have tested them).

I would be interested to know people's opinion on what percentage of our
current teachers in grades 1 through 6 could implement a Benezet program
without falling back on rote algorithms. I think the percentage is VERY
small. I would like to document that and continue to seek populations of
teachers -- elementary in particular -- to test with my diagnostic
instrument (referred to by Richard).

Jerry Epstein