Re: a little something for all you wikipedia-lovers

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:50:28 +0100, Michael Kuettner
<miksbg@xxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:er51uk$nq9$3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:

"Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb im
Newsbeitrag news:1jx4fm7cdxerd.1netf42sxjtyu$.dlg@xxxxxxxx
et...

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:59:32 +0100, Michael Kuettner
<miksbg@xxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:er2hjq$ml0$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:

"Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb im
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On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:58:30 +0100, Michael Kuettner
<miksbg@xxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:eqvm52$9ot$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:

[...]
By making the teacher's job harder ?
Over here, a history teacher has too few hours to fit in too much
history.
A biology teacher has to few hours to fit in too much biology.
A pattern emerges ....

I suspect that either they're trying to teach too much
history and biology, or there are too many other subjects.

Both.
When I went to Gymnasium, we had 40 - 42 week hours without the
homework.

For instance, there is virtually *no* specific historical
datum that is essential knowledge; what is important is
knowing enough history to have a decent mental framework,
both to accommodate new information and as part of a
bull*** detector.

I disagree.
One needs specific dates to place the mental framework.
Those dates can be +/- a decade; just that you have some time-frame.

I agree that you need a framework of approximate dates, but
almost any well-distributed set will work. Thus, there are
almost no individual data that are essential; what's
essential is having *enough*.

OTOH, you're talking about a school-system where
specialization happens earlier than over here, AFAIK.

No, the U.S. is notorious for late specialization. Many
students don't finally pick a field of study until the end
of their second year at university, at which point they're
in theory only two years away from a bachelor's degree. Are
you perhaps thinking of the British system, at least as it
used to be?

The best way to teach how to judge a source would be by
showing the kids "Alain Demurger : Die Templer" and the
-ahem- book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail".
They differ in ways easily recognizable be 10 - 18 year old pupils.
But Wiki ?
Everything looks the same.

So? I've seen books that were just as deceptive. Yes, the
first step is learning to spot the obvious marks of a
questionable source, but that's basically trivial, and
eventually it comes down to judging content. Similarly,
most students learning calculus will need a certain amount
of drill -- practice in solving straightforward problems
using a specified technique -- but before too long they need
to confront miscellaneous collections of problems for which
*they* have to choose the right technique.

As I've said above, we're talking about two different education
systems.
You get the students interested in your subject; over here, specialization
happens at the university level.

That's where it happens here -- see above -- and most of my
students at the university level are not interested in my
subject: they're taking a math course because it's a
requirement for something else.

[...]

Brian
.

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