Re: the need for ambiguity
Patrick Dias (INAD who-is-at MUSICB.MCGILL.CA)
Tue, 09 Apr 1996 16:47:35 EDT
Mike,
I like that "no grey areas, no development" or was it learning, you said
I have seen that so often in teaching: the need to provide for
future needs, the need to tell in case students don't find out for them-
selves,the unwillingness to leave learning to "chance." So much of this
telling is a result of the pressure on teachers to "cover the program"
to ensure that certain concepts have been taught and if not learned,
told. Teachers as mush as students need to live with ambiguity.
Again in relation to the questions that came up from Gordon's
posting--the concern that learning must manifest itself in observable
signs/behaviour if we are know that it is happening-- I suspect the
concern to fill in grey areas is once again a manifestation of a tendenc
y to define learning primarily in terms of what is observable and
measureable.
Patrick
Patrick Dias
Faculty of Education
McGill University
3700 McTavish Street
Montreal, QC
Canada H3A 1Y2
Telephone: (514) 398-6960 (work)
626-3605 (home)
FAX (514) 398-4529
E-Mail: INAD who-is-at MUSICB.MCGILL.CA