Coming Soon to a School near You: Curricular Redesign

[polak]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Or, they could be allowed to fail the people that are failing and let the parents deal with their failure child.

I know a couple people who were held back but they were held back super early. Like 1st grade. Do they fail kids today? I don't think I ever failed but in Grade 7 I probably had a D average lol. My parents beat the piss out of me for that report card.

Scared me straight.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Zarley

Are multiplication tables still taught in school?

Yes they are.

But forget about multiplication tables. Do you know the square root of -4?

[polak]

They teach positives and negatives, real and imaginary numbers too

[Coach]

Long division. Can anyone do that?

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by polak

They teach positives and negatives, real and imaginary numbers too

lol nice stealth edit.

[polak]

Originally Posted by Shazam

lol nice stealth edit.

They don't teach humility in school

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Yes they are.

But forget about multiplication tables. Do you know the square root of -4?

2i.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by polak

They don't teach humility in school

You should always Google first before you want to appear to be smrt!

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by MattyC

To determine if something is properly sourced?

I'm pretty sure every teacher knows how to do that.

No. To determine whether a student has both appropriately and creatively used a source.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Regorium

No. To determine whether a student has both appropriately and creatively used a source.

How are teacher's deficient in doing this? Each one of them would have had to do it multiple times throughout their own schooling. And I haven't been through an Education degree, but I would presume there is some instruction on proper sourcing and checking such sources.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I think google should be banned from being used in schools unless they can back it with proper research methods.

What we need to add is more data interpretive skills. Make them analyze and argue conclusions instead of memorize.

Why did WW1 happen, what were the effects of the Great Naval Races and Empire building.

What was the effect of the Great Depression on the rise of dictatorships and facist ideology.


Why does 4x4=16

Actually funny you should mention all the history examples, seeing as history is basically being removed from Alberta high school Social Studies in 2017. It's going to be a MUCH larger emphasis on social justice issues, while the history aspect basically falls by the wayside. Been chatting with an old university buddy turned SS teacher who is none too happy about it.

I'm actually surprised SS was basically the only core subject not mentioned in that article (unless I skimmed over it), as that was the only subject I knew about going through a complete makeover with the curriculum change, prior to this article.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by MattyC

To determine if something is properly sourced?

I'm pretty sure every teacher knows how to do that.

Really? You think Jane the toked out art teacher in sub-basement Z can accomplish this Herculean feat?

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by MattyC

How are teacher's deficient in doing this? Each one of them would have had to do it multiple times throughout their own schooling. And I haven't been through an Education degree, but I would presume there is some instruction on proper sourcing and checking such sources.

It's not about properly sourcing. nik- said "sources used and required creativity levels are present in the student's work."

My assertion is that teachers are deficient in evaluating how appropriate and creative the usage of sources are, and thus, I'd rather them force students to use "real sources", which will force creative usage of the source. In general, published sources are not as specific as googling a question - "themes and motifs in book X" is generally not something you would find published, but you'd find hundreds of websites with that material.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Regorium

It's not about properly sourcing. nik- said "sources used and required creativity levels are present in the student's work."

My assertion is that teachers are deficient in evaluating how appropriate and creative the usage of sources are, and thus, I'd rather them force students to use "real sources", which will force creative usage of the source. In general, published sources are not as specific as googling a question - "themes and motifs in book X" is generally not something you would find published, but you'd find hundreds of websites with that material.

What's a "real source"? Almost any book/article can be found as a PDF online. Should the student hunt down the physical text instead? Google Scholar is an infinite better source than any high school or public library. Isn't that the most 'creative" use of sourcing we have available?

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by polak

Memorizing when WW2 started is useless in this day and age. It's the Why and what happened that kids should memorize and learn about.

It's important to know dates for context and for sequence. Knowing that Germany invaded Poland in 1939 tells you that it happened after the Great Depression. Knowing that WW2 ended in 1945 gives you a context for when the post-war economic boom started in North America.

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Actually funny you should mention all the history examples, seeing as history is basically being removed from Alberta high school Social Studies in 2017. It's going to be a MUCH larger emphasis on social justice issues, while the history aspect basically falls by the wayside. Been chatting with an old university buddy turned SS teacher who is none too happy about it.

That's idiotic. You cannot understand social justice issues unless you understand history. You need to understand colonialism and trade to understand slavery in America (you also need to understand slavery was practised for thousands of years before it was brought to the New World). You need to understand the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial society to understand the role of women in the workplace. You need to understand religion to understand attitudes towards homosexuality. And you need to know when and how the Enlightenment happened in order to understand why the West has made more progress on these issues than other societies.

If Alberta education really is cutting history in favour of social advocacy, I guess I'll have to teach this stuff to my kids myself.

I'd hate to see the public school system remove traditional religion from the curriculum only to replace it with the secular religions of identity politics and the cult of victim-hood. Let's stick to reason and empiricism and leave ideology at the school door.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by nik-

Sorry, but how does Googling prevent interpretation of data found on the internet?

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

googling to me tends to be done in an incredibly lazy fashion, by a person in a rush. I think until schools set a research parameter that includes the use of google and internet tools that it merely becomes the tool of relatively talented Bullshift artists.

This reminds me of a situation with one of my kids:

I have them all set up on Microsoft Family in Windows 10. It monitors their web traffic, searches etc. I don't pay a ton of attention to the actual searches, partially because I don't have time and because I don't want to intrude on his privacy.

One day I am logged in changing some settings, and the searched terms listing is a literal wall of text, so it catches my eye. These are roughly what it said:

science 10 bouncing ball question, science 10 drop a ball from 6 meters, science 10 how many bounces will happen when I drop a ball from 6 meters, science 10 how many bounces will happen when I drop a ball from 6 meters in a vacuum, science 10 how many bounces will happen when I drop a ball from 6 meters in a vacuum in earth's gravity, science 10 dropping a ball equation, dropping a ball equation, online flash games

Something is wrong with the thinking that this is the correct way to solve a problem using Google. The kids are going to do it either way, so I would like them to have some reasonable skills that don't involve them trying to trick Google into doing their homework.

[Tron_fdc]

hahaha I used google in friggin UNIVERSITY to try and solve my homework problems. Hell, I use it at work to solve engineering problems I can't figure out.

Maybe that should be a course study. "Google efficiency in the real world".....