[geeks] Education

[wa2egp at att.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
> Sun, 02 Oct 2005 @ 21:55 -0400, der Mouse said:
> 
> > >> But even a student knows when they have mastered a particular
> > >> excersize, and repeating it doesn't help.
> > 
> > Unfortunately, neither part of this is "true".
> > 
> > Students regularly *are* wrong about whether they have mastered things,
> > and repetition *does* help make sure they really have.
> 
> I didn't think it necessary to cover something so obvious.  I'm well
> aware of subjects were a student doesn't understand the metrics that
> gauge learning.
> 
> But a lot of times he does.
> 
> Just for example, multiplication and division took me about five minutes
> to learn, but the teacher beat us to death with it for the next year.
> 

I guess you know it then.... :)

> I did hundreds of copies of the same problems every day for the whole
> year.  
> 
> > I wouldn't trust a random student's estimation of having mastered
> > something unless said student were already learning at least one level
> > past it, preferably two.
> 
> In my school, you were held in place rigidly with no chance to show that
> you were a level or two past anything.
> 
> Some things really are blindingly obvious.

Well, at one time they used to track students according to ability but
got away from it because it might make some students feel bad being
in a "lower level".  Unfortunately, there was hardly ever a way to change
tracks or even track differently in different subjects.
> 
> > To this day I have to re-derive (or look up) the formula for, eg,
> > sin(a+b) when I need it because I've never practiced it enough.
> 
> Never practiced it enough, or you just don't need it enough?

If you don't use it, you sometimes lose it.  But it's easier
to relearn it than if you never learned it in the first place.

Bob