Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!nather
From: nather@ut-emx.UUCP (Ed Nather)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Student and Course Integrity
Keywords: losers, responsibility, 90%, crap, 98%
Message-ID: <9208@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 89 00:57:57 GMT
References: <4550@homxc.UUCP> <4847@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <542@mccc.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 24

In article <542@mccc.UUCP>, pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) writes:
> [...] information content is just one thing that teachers deal with.  One
> of the others might be called
> problem-solving/critical-thinking/scientific-method/whatever.  Thus,
> while some content is important and some isn't, this "thinking" stuff is.
> 
> Pete
> 

In my view, the difference between good teaching and bad teaching is exactly
this.  A majority of students (and many faculty) make no distinction
between memorizing facts and having a basic understanding of why the facts
are true, and how we know they're true.  Critical, deductive thinking seems
rarely to be taught except by accident.  Why?

I won't get started on multiple-choice testing ...



-- 
Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
nather%utastro.UTEXAS@ut-sally.ARPA