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| "The Good Life" |
220. Redelmeier argues that the main problem among medical professionals is not ignorance, but a "generalized mood of arrogance" and the need to appear certain.
In your experience, do schools encourage students to fake certainty that they don't have? Or do schools encourage students to question their own assumptions and conclusions?
From my personal experience, many teachers will encourage students to question their own assumptions and conclusions. In math, for example, we would all take turns at the board working out the problem and every time, without fail, our teacher would ask “are you sure?”. The teacher would ask the question regardless if you were right or wrong, they always said that so you would question your answer and go back and double check your work. In other classes, like English or history, the teacher would ask us to circle on the homework what the right answer was as well as find where the answer was in the textbook and write down what page it was on, regardless of we knew the answer off the top of our heads. Schools are preferring that students find concrete evidence to back up their answer or go back and double check their work several times.
ReplyDelete-Emily Ford
In my middle through high school experiences there were several teachers who did not particularly care if students learned the material or recognized it as long as they received good grades. To me it was almost as if these educators did not care if students were certain in their work or themselves as a human being as long as they followed the rules and did okay academically. For example, I had several friends and peers that faked certainty when presenting a power point or writing a paper. When I asked them about it, they responded that the teachers were not usually detailed when grading. They tend to just make sure that the work was turned in on time and that something was scribbled down so they simply faked they certainty on the subject. To them the teacher did not care enough to teach the material nor grade properly so why should they put in the effort when it will go unnoticed?
ReplyDeleteMy school was the same way growing up. The grade mattered more than our comprehension of it. As a result, faking certainty was a very common thing. If you appeared to know what you were talking about, you usually received a good grade. I had a specific teacher in high school who was known for not looking too much into our answers. As long as it looked answered you were good. Many students in that class took advantage of it. I do feel like college is the complete opposite though. The professors always seem to question our assumptions and conclusions. I think this is to get us thinking about why we believe it.
DeleteI’ve had several teachers like that who simply go through the motions or devote little energy, and it was incredibly frustrating. The most recent one never graded our assignments, and by the end of the year I only had 3 grades recorded per semester. Throughout the year our class had written numerous essays that never received any feedback on and I strongly suspect weren't even read. Teachers like this make it very discouraging to want to learn and put effort into assignments. Thankfully, I think there are more teachers that care about making sure we actually understand and can use critical thinking than there are of the former.
Delete220. My school encouraged students to choose the easy route and to give face value answers without challenging the minds of the students. Even in discussion we could give the simple answers that everyone read out of the textbook instead of digging deeper into topics. I personally never felt like I really received deep intellectual conversation from most of my high school teachers. I would say I had two teachers that gave me inspiration to learn consistently.
ReplyDeleteI come from a small town, and therefore my class was very small. I graduated with only 36 other students. Although my school had some really great teachers, there were others that were below average, doing more coaching than teaching. When I handed in an assignment, it was more than likely just for participation, and wasn’t graded. I feel that in doing so, those teachers did create a false sense of confidence in some kids. Once they get to college, they might realize that they will actually have to apply themselves to pass classes. Due to those circumstances, I never quite felt challenged in school. Luckily, I was able to challenge myself by taking 5 concurrent classes my senior year, and I got a taste of what college would be like. It is easily one of the best decisions I have made for my higher education.
ReplyDeleteI also feel that most educators I have known taught us to question our own thoughts and conclusions. We are encouraged to go back and check our work after we finish a test. I haven't necessarily seen many educators that inspired the student to fake confidence, when there is a possibility that they could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on the level of school you're in. In high school, mainly in smaller towns, I believe you are encouraged to have a fake certainty about things. They don't really care if the paper or your work is good, they just want you to turn something in so they can give you a grade and keep their job. In college however, you are pushed to question things you assume to be true. It really helps you open up a new level of knowledge you never knew you had. That is why I think college is as important as it is. In grade school you're just there because you have to be. You choose to go to college and you push your boundaries of knowledge in the process.
ReplyDeleteI feel like it depends on the student, teacher, and school. Ive gone to two schools in my life before ECU in the first school we were pretty much told to go the easiest way possible and that it would always work eventually. In the other school we were encouraged to question ourselves. They made it where we made the decision on easy, slow, and not always work, or hard, sometimes longer, and more likely to work. In both schools I saw that the mentally challenged or not top of the class students were still taught to go the easier way. Also some of my teachers would not care to teach so they told us to go the easy way, others pushed us to do better.
ReplyDeleteI can Only speak from a Home school/Co-op experience, But I have been taught that There in no need to be appear certain if you are not. I was always taught that, to LOOK like a fool now is better than to BE a fool later. First of all, To appear as if you know everything is not an attitude conducive to learning. Of course everyone know of the importance of learning... We are in college after all... But a beloved mentor of mine gave it paramount importance. She related learning to living and told a particularly hidebound classmate that if he is not learning he is dying; She added that, he was far too young to be doing that so he should get back to work.
ReplyDelete-Elijah Woodward