A great article on grade inflation

[roo_ster]

I disagree. School should not be a process of learning disjointed factoids which can be regurgitated on demand to satisfy a test. It should teach how to think logically. I see little evidence that this is the case.

Meh, wrong.

Facts are important.  If a body doesn't know its facts, it doesn't matter how sharp their critical thinking skills.  Most celebrity academics are very smart people who have filled their heads with muck and when they apply their razor-shrp mind to a problem, they are still just slicing into a turd burger.

There are two serious and valid criticisms against standardized testing (using using well-designed tests like the Iowa tests I took as a kid and the current Texas tests, but none of y'all anti-testers have brought them up:

1. The tendency, over time, to revise the test or standard to dumb it down and allow more kids to pass.

2. Almost every state test is geared toward the left side of the intelligence bell curve, and worthless for average to smart kids.  State tests are very, very helpful and do a whole lot of good for the not-so-bright.  For those not-so-bright kids in crappy schools, forcing (with truncheons, if need be) their worthless sack of *expletive deleted*it teachers to "teach to the test" is an improvement. 

[wmenorr67]

90% of my work in the military isn't so much knowing the answer but knowing where to get the answer.

[Balog]

Meh, wrong.

Facts are important.  If a body doesn't know its facts, it doesn't matter how sharp their critical thinking skills.  Most celebrity academics are very smart people who have filled their heads with muck and when they apply their razor-shrp mind to a problem, they are still just slicing into a turd burger.

There are two serious and valid criticisms against standardized testing (using using well-designed tests like the Iowa tests I took as a kid and the current Texas tests, but none of y'all anti-testers have brought them up:

1. The tendency, over time, to revise the test or standard to dumb it down and allow more kids to pass.

2. Almost every state test is geared toward the left side of the intelligence bell curve, and worthless for average to smart kids.  State tests are very, very helpful and do a whole lot of good for the not-so-bright.  For those not-so-bright kids in crappy schools, forcing (with truncheons, if need be) their worthless sack of *expletive deleted*it teachers to "teach to the test" is an improvement. 

Facts are important. And critical thinking skills are (properly) taught through the use of facts. But the ability of a student to regurgitate names and dates on command does not demonstrate quality of learning.

[roo_ster]

Facts are important. And critical thinking skills are (properly) taught through the use of facts. But the ability of a student to regurgitate names and dates on command does not demonstrate quality of learning.

Fact/knowledge is the beginning of learning.

As one of the "beneficiaries" of a public school "critical thinking" curriculum, I found it mostly a waste of my time(1).  

First off, a large proportion of the population is not going to benefit much from such instruction, be they taught by the most skillful of teachers.  Second, most public school teachers are not cognitively capable of teaching "critical thinking" skills.  Oh, they ape the manual or training they have, but it is a half-hearted attempt.  

Heck, when most university professors who claim to use the socratic method, but understand neither Socrates nor his method, (read the OP & article) can;t get it right, how can we expect the people they teach & grade to do any better?

The answer, of course, is to nuke public education from orbit and replace it with either nothing (let parents and the market work it out) or with a voucher program, a "GI Bill for K-12."





(1) Which is why when I tore through the work and finished, I'd read MY OWN books and learn something useful in public school for a nice change of pace.  FTR, the library was a joke.

[birdman]

Absolutely agree, but rather than temporally separating facts from critical thinking ("facts/knowledge are the beginning of learning") the two aspects (facts/knowledge and critical thinking) should be taught simultaneously--with the use of the critical thinking aspects to illustrate the "why" on the facts, AMD the facts to support the logic behind critical thinking as examples.

Roo_steer is right, most teachers just don't have the ability to teach critical thinking.  This is what happens when teachers don't have practical experience, and are educated in education, by those educated only in education.  Similar to how people without economic experience make glaring errors in explaining economics.

I believe the reason why teaching was better in the 50's/60's (the rapid rise in academic performance in the US) was the teachers HAD the practical experience...since there was high demand for teachers, and little schools that taught teaching, the teachers were pulled from actual practicing jobs (e.g. Engineers, etc) and thus had the actual experience to teach critical thinking (also, since most middle-age males in that era were military, they had brought with them the critical thinking/decision processes that are taught in the military).  As the teaching demand continued, and those folks got older, schools began to respond by creating teaching degrees, and the practical part declined...teaching unions then gained power, AMD in order to secure it, created regulation that emphasized certification rather than experience as a qualifying metric, further skewing the capabilities of those "qualified to teach".  While the ability to teach is a requirement to teach, it is secondary to the ability to educate, something we have forgotten--if the individual can "teach" but doesn't have the wisdom to transfer, the ability is useless in education.  While most practicing professionals have the wisdom that could be communicated, few actually can teach, however what we forget is that people with no practical experience also cant truly educate, regardless of their ability to communicate.

[roo_ster]

birdman:

I have delusions of teaching at a private HS when I "retire."  Physics, history, math, whatever they need.  I'll take summers off to spoil my (future) grandkids.

I might consider teaching at the JC or university level, but I'd prefer the private religious school filter to more challenging material.

[birdman]

birdman:

I have delusions of teaching at a private HS when I "retire."  Physics, history, math, whatever they need.  I'll take summers off to spoil my (future) grandkids.

I might consider teaching at the JC or university level, but I'd prefer the private religious school filter to more challenging material.

Me too, probably with (given my medical situation and it's impact on the ability to do full time work) a similar timeframe.  I usedto teach a variety of seminars at MIT and WPI, so I know I enjoy it, and it seems to be a fun option.

[Balog]

Fact/knowledge is the beginning of learning.

As one of the "beneficiaries" of a public school "critical thinking" curriculum, I found it mostly a waste of my time(1).  

First off, a large proportion of the population is not going to benefit much from such instruction, be they taught by the most skillful of teachers.  Second, most public school teachers are not cognitively capable of teaching "critical thinking" skills.  Oh, they ape the manual or training they have, but it is a half-hearted attempt.  

Heck, when most university professors who claim to use the socratic method, but understand neither Socrates nor his method, (read the OP & article) can;t get it right, how can we expect the people they teach & grade to do any better?

The answer, of course, is to nuke public education from orbit and replace it with either nothing (let parents and the market work it out) or with a voucher program, a "GI Bill for K-12."





(1) Which is why when I tore through the work and finished, I'd read MY OWN books and learn something useful in public school for a nice change of pace.  FTR, the library was a joke.

I'm not sure we disagree. Currently (esp with NCLB) the tests in public schools (to the best of my knowledge) are geared toward rote recitation of fact, with rampant cheating and gaming of the system. I'm not speaking to the larger methods or issues of public schooling, or suggesting that any form of testing is evil. Just observing what seems to be the current issue.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

got one kid in and another starting school in va.  not a big fan of the nclb circus but not dissatisfied with what the schools are doing locally.

[brimic]

As someone who does a fair bit of teaching in my day to day life (I'm a TA and teach general physics labs), if I didn't inflate my grades, everyone would fail, with the exception of a few actual motivated students.  I'm starting my third year of teaching in September.  For the past 2 years, I have been strongly emphasizing 2 main ideas in my labs.  I hammer these ideas home for a full year on these students.  These 2 things are: units and graphing.  I spend a year trying to teach students how to put units next to their answers and how to get some information from a linear line.  And they don't get it.  y=mx+b.  So simple, yet beyond the reach of 75% of my students.  At least they start putting units next to their numbers when I start taking points off every time they forget. 

God bless you.

I'm a little less tactful.
I have to review batch records before manufactured chemicals go to QC and the paperwork gets filed with QS.
People write their units about 1/2 the time, its even worse when they are doing stoichiometric calculations- I just leave a sticky note on the offenses that say "umm what the hell is this?" than throw them back on the offender's desk(s).

Another annoying thing... I work with a lot of really bright people and I certainly don't consider myself to be on the right hand side of the bell curve (experience, OTOH makes up for a lot), but everyone has a crutch called a calculator.I'm known around the office as the guy who can 'add/divide/multiply/subtract in my head' when most of the time its simply estimating. People find it funny when they see that I've written math problems with a sharpie on a hood door- usually I can can figure a problem out that way faster than most of them can with their crutch.

[birdman]

.I'm known around the office as the guy who can 'add/divide/multiply/subtract in my head' when most of the time its simply estimating. People find it funny when they see that I've written math problems with a sharpie on a hood door- usually I can can figure a problem out that way faster than most of them can with their crutch.

The math in your head thing (from my experience) "normal" people think is weird...how hard is it to learn the tricks (estimation, base 10 logs of 2,3,5,7, scientific notation, etc). You are dead on, a calculator is a crutch.