Re: What to "cover" (Was dimensionsless units etc.)

[Joel Rauber <Joel_Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>]

Arlyn said in part (several days ago)
> This is ok if things are typical but we all know that time gets
> "readjusted" because of things like Tim describes.  Then there is the
> education reform movement that in my school has changed the schedule to
> be 85 days of 85 minute periods for a total of 120 hours (not including
> interruptions like school assemblies, state or national tests, etc.).
> What is a conscientious teacher to do?  My response has been to look at
> the TIMSS results and decide to make sure I don't lower the standards on
> what I teach which means I cover less.  Even compounded over 4 years of
> this new schedule the loss of 30 hours of science each year of high
> school means 120 less hours of science in a "good student's" high school
> career, the equivalent of a FULL YEAR of science classes.

AMEN
> This is not unique to science but is a common problem in education
> today.  In generations past knowledge was difficult to find (at least
> "accurate" facts) so teachers were valued because they had these
> "facts".  Teachers could provide the knowledge quickly by lecture to
> many students.  Parents (and others) taught processes, thinking skills,
> "common sense".


> Today facts are found easily - the internet for example.

I don't think is quite as obvious as it seems.  You can find a lot of facts
*and* a lot of non-facts, i.e. nonsense on the internet.  Students still
need a source of facts from a "trusted" source.  This would have in the past
been their teacher and textbooks (ideally I admit).  The internet isn't
really a substitute.  I believe that this still means that teachers need to
provide knowledge quickly to their students (relying on the internet to do
this is not wise); but it also means as Arlyn says that developement of
thinking skills is important to help students reach a point where they can
seperate some of the wheat from the chaff on the internet.



> Parents are
> short on time (we are all too busy - much more than our parents and
> grandparents) but they can easily provide access to the information.

Comments above are applicable here as well; I'd argue that one of the roles
of the teacher and texts in a course is to provide a well-accepted (peer
reviewed in at least some sense), sub-set of pre-digested vital information
needed to understand a subject.  Relying on the sources of easily accessible
information is like asking the student to go outside in the middle of a
blizzard and find the white ping pong ball.

> Students don't know what to do with the facts so teachers must supply
> the process skills - a time consuming, labor intensive, time intensive
> task.  But we are supposed to do this in the same amount of time (even
> less because we are also supposed to provide self esteem and fun
> learning experiences).

Again this is well-stated.  What to do? What to do?

Joel Rauber
Joel_Rauber@sdstate.edu