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.

4.5? (its my first time grading, but I have read about the rubric) I thought your arguments were good and the examples you used supported your opinions well. Your support was one of the strongest element of your essay. I do have some suggestions based on the literature about GRE scoring that I've read. Try to minimize your use of the word 'very' (Kaplan approach to avoiding excessive qualification) I don't know if you're a native English speaker but I would also revisit the use of commas and hyphens Finally, and I'm open to correction on this, my understanding is that when you present opposing opinions, you should offer your arguments against them. For example, your suggestion that "Different individuals have different strengths and some students will develop them already very early. By introducing a nation curriculum there are fewer opportunities for students to focus on their strengths and abilities, as they have to follow the general curriculum." could be minimized by saying that the curriculum could alleviate some of these concerns by ensuring that students have a variety of options to demonstrate their learning. Just some suggestions!