Re: orchestrations

Ellice A Forman (ellice+ who-is-at pitt.edu)
Sat, 10 Feb 1996 13:35:49 -0500 (EST)

Eva,
Thanks for reminding all of us of the clever Hans story. There is an
element of that in my transcripts but of course the story is a bit more
comlicated. It turns out that the "correct" answer is an algebraic
algorithm and not a computational solution. The students who provide a
correct solution without the correct algorithm don't get evaluated
positively. The students who provide the correct algorithm without a
solution at all get evaluated positively (in part by lack of overlapping
speech). When I say "evaluated positively" I don't mean that the
evaluations, positive or negative, are simple "good, correct, right,
wrong" responses. Instead, they are repetitions, expansions, and/or
requests for confirmation or lack of confirmation from the other
students. Some of the "rejected" algorithms are every bit as correct from
a mathematical stand point as the privileged one. But it is likely that
the teacher was not prepared to understand alternative but correct
algorithms. In fact, if I had been the teacher myself I might have
missed them too.

I guess my reaction to "espoused values" is not as specific and negative
as yours. I'll be happy to substitute something else--like expressed
goals--since this information was provided by this teacher prior to the
lesson. Are you more comfortable with this formulation?
Ellice Forman