>>Public Agenda asked: When teachers assign specific questions in math or
>>history, is it more important that kids struggle to find the right answer
>>or that kids give the right answer? An amazing 86 percent said that
>>struggling was more important. Only 12 percent preferred a right answer.
>>
>>Are teachers "facilitators of learning" or "conveyors of knowledge"?
>>Facilitators, 92 percent agreed; 7 percent answered conveyors. The key is
>>to turn out lifelong learners who are excited about learning. Education
>>professors are striving for a nation of ill-informed, would-be
>>autodidacts.
>>
Both require a forced choice between complementary answers. Valuing process
does not mean not valuing product, though the question and interpretation
imply that they're mutually exclusive. The second question above assumes
that the "knowledge" conveyed is indeed knowledge and indeed conveyed.
That's the part of the question I'd disagree with, though if I did I'd
probably be interpreted as valuing an ill-informed citizenry.
There's also the question of sampling. Who was surveyed? Who threw the
survey in the trash? Who saw a sponsor like Public Agenda and focused on
the word Agenda and self-selected out of the study? I would have, if I'd
been asked.