Building Bridges

[LuisP]

The Principles of teaching Education

A good teaching methodology contains two steps.

The first is self- activity, in other words, getting one to Think on his own, instead of conveying monotonous, unimaginative and replicated information.
The second step is the mastery of progressively difficult subject matter, always striking for the necessary balance between comprehension and progression.

Imbued first with a desire to learn, and tackling after ever more challenging material, will lead to the formation of not only intellectual habits but also moral ones, a necessary groundwork to form high aspirations and ideals.

And never forget :
- Do all this inside love rather than fear, because fear is the biggest enemy of Knowledge.


Spare no labor, nor effort or energy, in fighting it.

[LuisP]

If we all could abide by the notions of these Power and Principles of Education, I would presume many obstacles could be removed and progress made.

Just my two cents, towards those objectives.

[kevin]

LuisP,
I have to disagree, in so much as present so called education IMHO is indoctrination.
I very nearly ended up at Stowe school at the same time as Richard Branson was there.
I was offered a sort of scholarship in return for teaching boxing, I was thirteen.
Just think I could have ended up knocking His head off.
Luckily My father refused to allow Me to attend, saying..."It,ll be full of puffs, thars not going."
Kevin

[LuisP]

Yes, Hobbit, "present so called education IMHO is indoctrination".

And I would push it a bit farther.
It is predetermined ignorance.

That is why Education is so precious.
It Teaches one how to Think first, and only afterwards does it provide things to think about.

So, yes, I stand by what I wrote.
I was talking about Education, and not "so called education".

The former produces Able people, the latter just generates Sheep.
And ignorant ones, at that.

[re-rose]

Is knowledge found or is it created?

That trick question is always asked of first year grad students in Higher Education. The answer is, of course, that it is both. Once Knowing finds a home in ourselves it begins to replicate and morph in individually creative ways.

The objective of this discussion was to point out that knowledge is alive, and yet 'education' has tended to approach it as if it were a fixed and dead thing. It rewards students with matches when it could have given them fire instead.

rose

[wags]

I have an anecdote from my own education that all this reminds me of.

First year at agricultural College the assembled and there was a bit of a problem with a Mech lecturer who had given us a book called "Machine Milking" an epic tomb still got it. A vocal faction of the class turned on him and demanded to be 'Taught', in short he was failing to teach.

His response was interesting:-

He said that we were here to learn HOW to think and make choices when we graduated. It would be pointless as the known facts and in this case farming technology change over time.

The piece of paper we were awarded was not that important. It is why universities 'Read' subjects not 'Study' them.

After I finally graduated I spoke with him and relayed my thanks and that I appreciated his insight on that day and fully agreed with him.

[Mikado14]

I would agree with you wags.

To teach by rote is not as important as teaching one to think. I never made my students "memorize" equations, although when I went to school it was expected, but I felt that if someone had the fundamentals, they could recognize the formula they required and knew what book to find it in. And in the event they didn't have a book but knew the fundamentals then they could extrapolate the equation.

Just my two cents but I hear inflation my take hold and it is going up to a nickel.(1/20th of a USD for those currency challenged...<g>)

Mikado

[wags]

Better still create the equation from first principles. That would be even better. The values to go into the equation may need to be found on the shelf:

[Mikado14]

What do you mean by the term "first principle"?

[wags]

What do you mean by the term "first principle"?

The fundamental rules behind creating and understanding math equations, or how generate, process and analyse and interpret information. General maths of course is a fundamental building block.