Re: [xmca] Good source on germ cells and development

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

OK, I had a read of this paper on teaching the phases of the Moon.

I admit I found the challenge fascinating. The results of surveying the 
beliefs of 14 to 17 year-olds astounded me, but I learnt about the 
"encapsulated" nature of school learning during my brief life as a maths 
teacher in London in the early '70s, teaching maths in the metric system 
to kids who, like their parents, used only the old Imperial system of 
measures outside school. I will never forget the complaint from a 
student that how could they do their work when their lousy school didn't 
provide rulers with kilometers marked on them.

While I looked forward to hearing how the problem was solved in the 
three different famous methodologies of learning, but unless I am even 
dumber than I already know I am, all we got were hypothetical 
reconstructions based on variations of the famous triangle. It may be 
just me, but graphic diagrams like this just do nothing but confuse me. 
Anyway, no solutions to the task were offered, so far as I could see.

I have never had the joy of trying to teach the phases of the Moon to a 
school class, but I know how I would do it, and it wouldn't involve 
using those little diagrams in the text books (I liked Yrjo's critique 
of those diagrams though. That was the best part). Surely there must be 
some teachers on this list who have taught the phases of the Moon. How 
did you do it?

Andy

mike cole wrote:
> I am looking for an article by Jean Schmittau that gives a clear
> explanation of Davydov's approach to math
> education that has excessible examples for the use of the "germ cell" idea
> in practical (effective!) early
> math instruction. Meantime, this paper by Yrjo also contains a good summary
> of Davydov's ideas applied to the
> problem of phases of the moon, a problem some of us just might have some
> trouble explaining to a kid (!)
>
> mike
>
> http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells/Files/Courses_Folder/documents/EngestromPhases-Moon.pdf
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--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
http://marxists.academia.edu/AndyBlunden

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