Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pdn!reggie
From: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Student and Course Integrity
Message-ID: <5256@pdn.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 89 11:50:35 GMT
References: <4550@homxc.UUCP> <4847@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <542@mccc.UUCP> <9208@ut-emx.UUCP> <5111@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach)
Distribution: na
Organization: Paradyne Corporation,   Largo FL
Lines: 34

In article <5111@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> dykimber@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Daniel Yaron Kimberg) writes:
>In article <9208@ut-emx.UUCP> nather@ut-emx.UUCP (Ed Nather) writes:
>>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?
>
>Maybe it can't be taught.  Which isn't to say that there aren't people who
>didn't think critically and then did, but which is to say that maybe there
>are people (in significant numbers) who will not be taught to think critically
>in the same way that you or I do (just as I, for instance, will never be a
>nobel prize winning physicist, no matter what instruction I get).


      Yes, to a certain extent, this is true.  We can not teach creativity
either, but we can try to bring out the best of what creative talents a
person has by finding a way for them to express them.  The same is true
of learning.  People learn in different ways.  Today some children, who
in the past were labeled as unteachable, are being taught.  This is
because it has been found that not everyone learns in the same way.  Some
have special needs.


       Critical thinking can not be taught.  However, we can *try* to get
people to think about what they are studying and those with the capability
will take it further.



-- 
George W. Leach					Paradyne Corporation
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Phone: (813) 530-2376				P.O. Box 2826
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