American religiousness tangent: education methods

[FBM]

Topic split from here: http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 73#p716473 - Charlou

And they've been pushing to teach creation/ID in classrooms?

If the history of science education is any indication, the classroom is the one place to put it where you can just about guarantee nobody will listen to it.

[charlou]

And they've been pushing to teach creation/ID in classrooms?

If the history of science education is any indication, the classroom is the one place to put it where you can just about guarantee nobody will listen to it.

Yes, I genuinely find that to be a real shame. The way science is taught as a bunch of facts in a stodgy environment is not what science and scientific discovery is about at all. Children go into it curious, creative and willing to try things out, and most come out bored and removed of any natural inclination for it. Science isn't the only learning area that suffers this way, either. The education system is state sanctioned aversion therapy.

[Blondie]

And they've been pushing to teach creation/ID in classrooms?

If the history of science education is any indication, the classroom is the one place to put it where you can just about guarantee nobody will listen to it.

Yes, I genuinely find that to be a real shame. The way science is taught as a bunch of facts in a stodgy environment is not what science and scientific discovery is about at all. Science isn't the only learning area that suffers this way, either.

I think even less students pay attention in Math class and only take the courses requisite for completion of their degree which is the bigger shame in my opinion.

[FBM]

And they've been pushing to teach creation/ID in classrooms?

If the history of science education is any indication, the classroom is the one place to put it where you can just about guarantee nobody will listen to it.

Yes, I genuinely find that to be a real shame. The way science is taught as a bunch of facts in a stodgy environment is not what science and scientific discovery is about at all. Science isn't the only learning area that suffers this way, either.

True that. The prevalent teaching methods do more to discourage interest in science and discovery than its inherent difficulty. The difficulty of the maths involved can be overcome by fostering a sense of enthusiasm and wonder, but the US student whose enthusiasm can survive the classroom environment is rare. One of the engineering profs here went to Boston U. for his M.S. and Ph.D. He said that less than 5% of his classmates were native-born Americans. I made him repeat that several times just to make sure I was hearing him correctly.

Students from "developing" countries may be more often motivated by economics than sheer wonder, but they're willing to do the brainwork that 'murrkens from the land of plenty just ain't.

[charlou]

I edited my previous post:

Yes, I genuinely find that to be a real shame. The way science is taught as a bunch of facts in a stodgy environment is not what science and scientific discovery is about at all. Children go into it curious, creative and willing to try things out, and most come out bored and removed of any natural inclination for it. Science isn't the only learning area that suffers this way, either. The education system is state sanctioned aversion therapy.

And yes, maths is another area where this happens.



Are children's learning styles changing, too? I know schools are trying to adapt to the changing technological environment and many incorporate this into their teaching strategies ... Does this improve things for children, or make them even more removed from actual hands on/practical understanding of the various subject areas?

Nothing beats introduction, practice and reinforcement of ideas in the actual physical environment, I think.

[FBM]

I've been away from the West so long, I can't really comment on the way things are there now. I can say that my students here in Korea come to my classes with the assumption that education is something that the teacher does to them, rather than something they participate in. On the first day of class, I emphasize to them that my classes are about "exploring and discovering what you need to know". It takes them a while to get used to it, but once they do, their enthusiasm and motivation skyrockets.

Korean schools are still overwhelmingly teacher-and-textbook oriented, though. Age-old traditions are hard to shake, I guess.

Also, liberal arts courses are disappearing in favor of technical education. They want people who can work, not think, seems.