Any opinions?

[jdandcoke]

"Educators should base their assessment of students' learning not on students' grasp of facts but on the ability to explain the ideas, trends and concepts that those facts illustrate."

 

Facts are subjective and fluid. For an educator to base an assessment of students' learning on facts is to damn that student to an education with a use-by-date. Instead educators should teach and assess a student's grasp of, concepts, trends and ideas.

 

The view that learning is the regurgitation of facts or the memorization of a textbook is built on the belief that knowledge is permanent and static. In fact, knowledge is changing, subjective and fluid. A student of computer science is very aware that the facts being tauted as innovative today, will be antiquated within 18 months. Similarly, a student of Jane Austen quickly realizes that even the most basic aspect of her prose are debated between critics. For those students, a grounding in the concepts and ideas are far more valuable - a fact supported by research. Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of higher learning, a seminal concept in learning theory suggests that true learning is the analysis of existing ideas, the the ability to apply concepts and the construction of knowledge.

 

While Bloom's philosophy has been in effect for decades, his message is more relevant than ever. In this age of Wikipedia, eBooks and the ubiquitous Google, facts, more than ever, are the least element of understanding. Anyone can get the facts - when was the Battle of Hastings? Who shot John F. Kennedy? What is the largest planet in our Solar System? But the ability to analyze those answers is a much more relevant goal of education. Being able to apply information literacy to internet sources by identifying bias or inaccuracies is a much higher priority in the classroom than memorization. Educators need to focus on concepts, ideas and trends in order to elevate students learning away from a Google search and towards true understanding.

 

If we want to urge our students to be innovative and creative, educators need to abandon an attachment to facts. This view only serves to perpetuate the belief that knowledge is singular, static and owned by experts. By instilling in students that knowledge and information is open to not only interpretation, but also creation, we offer them the opportunity to innovate and impact not only their learning, but actual knowledge. For example if we offer students this perspective of learning - a focus on ideas and concepts, literature student will not merely regurgitate, or even analyze famous critiques of work, they will interpret it from their perspective, consider the theory and relate it to their own reality and offer the class, and possibly the literature world, a new and fresh interpretation of a classic.

 

To reduce education to facts is underestimate the potential of our students. Let us give them something deeper and more enduring. By teaching them concepts and ideas we gift them with true understand and in turn they can help us create new knowledge.

Edited July 27, 2013 by jdandcoke

[Rapha92]

I would grade your essay with a 3/6.

 

In my opinion your introduction is very brief and not really introducing the topic. I always try to think back to my language classes at high-school, where we were taught that the introduction should create interest among the readers. Try to take a few more sentences for the introduction and by this slowly lead to the "problem statement", in the GRE case, your opinion. I also like to already refer to the subsequent paragraphs in the introduction, to give an outline of the essay or to give a summarizing argument for my opinion.

So instead solely stating "Instead educators should teach and assess a student's grasp of, concepts, trends and ideas", I would add "As this evaluates the skills of a student and not solely the capability to learn facts by heart."

I miss in your argumentation the clear statements, as I can not identify the message of any of your paragraphs. Try to write your paragraphs in a structure, that claim, argumentation, and examples can clearly be identified. This means also organizing your paragraphs and writing the sentences more concrete. What is the exact reason behind your opinion?

 

I think it is not necessary, but definitely will grade your essay up, if you mention arguments, which could be opposed to your standpoint. But do not only mention them, also argue against them.

 

Last but not least, I think you should focus more on grammar and the choice of language. Some words are not fitting into the context and the grammar is often not correct. I guess you are not a native speaker, and I am neither, but try to improve your vocabulary and grammar. Often it is better to do not choose the fanciest words, if you do not know when to use them, but rather stick to the vocabulary you are used to use. I found it very helpful to read well graded essays of other students, which can be found either here in the forum or on other websites. Especially try to analyze, how those writers use language to communicate their arguments and why their use of language is persuading.

 

I hope it helps and good luck with studying!