Science education requires overcoming childhood understandin

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Science education requires overcoming childhood understandin

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exton
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Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:27 am Post subject: Science education requires overcoming childhood understandin

This is a damn good article, and you all should read it.
http://arstechnica.com/journal.....erstanding
Some excerpts:

Quote:

The problem is that many of these implicit understandings wind up being limited or misleading. As an example, they note that the early understanding of gravity keeps most children from comprehending the spherical nature of earth until they are over eight years old. Prior to that, they are apparently prone to coping with this conflict in creative ways: the authors note that some will draw the earth as a sphere with a flattened top and suggest that's where the people live.

For concepts that students are constantly exposed to, like a spherical earth, the scientific understanding will gradually prevail. But some of the less prevalent aspects of childhood's intuitive understanding can last well into adulthood. The authors cited a paper that showed that many college students erroneously believe that a ball traveling through a curved tube will continue to travel on a curved path once it exits.

The authors go into extensive details about two cases: rampant teleology and mind-body dualism. Children tend to believe that every object has a specific purpose or function, which fits in nicely with the teleological view of life espoused by many forms of creationism, such as intelligent design. They also view the mind and brain as operating on different levels and performing distinct functions. Among their examples, the authors note that preschoolers believe that the brain is involved in analytical tasks such as math but plays no role in behavioral activities like pretending to be a kangaroo. They suggest that this produces a tendency to accept various forms of mysticism, such as astrology and psychic powers.

There's more in it than that. Read the whole thing.

thelast007
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Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 3:49 am Post subject:

good share.

Lester
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Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:38 pm Post subject:

Fascinating, also, what kind of fucking idiots must these college kids be?

I mean wow.

Lester
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Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:49 pm Post subject:

Just one other thing, I heard somewhere once that education was just the continually spouting of lies that are supposd to be shattered at a later date, because it is too difficult for us to grasp the whole truth all at once.

For instance, we learn whole numbers first, then fractions, then integers, then perhaps irrational numbers, and then, even more doubtfully, imaginary and complex numbers. Each subset of learning is taught as this is the world in which you may play, and each lie must be broken in order to learn more about the new one. This works in other things too, i before e except after c is a pretty basic schooling rule, yet you have words that are just weird(lolz, pwned that pun!!!11!!one!!eleven!! i am teh 1337 #axx0r!! lmfao!!).

To relate back to the evolutionism creationism debate and belief versus fact, heres a quote from terry pratchetts hogfather that I posted in the quotes section a while ago;

Quote:

Susan: What would have happened if the Hogfather died?

Death: THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN

Susan: Then what would have happened?

Death: A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD

Susan: Alright, I'm not stupid, your saying humans need fantasy to make life bearable.

Death: NO, HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN, TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

Susan: With Tooth Fairies, Hogfathers?

Death: AS PRACTICE YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES

Susan: So we can believe the big ones?

Death: YES, JUSTICE, MERCY, DUTY, THAT SORT OF THING.

Susan: They're not the same thing at all.

Death: YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER, AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE, AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY, AND YET YOU TRY TO ACT AS THOUGH THERE IS SOM KIND OF IDEAL ORDER TO THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MIGHT BE JUDGED.

Susan: But people need to believe that, or whats the point?

Death: INDEED, YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT ARE NOT TRUE, HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME SO?

exton
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Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 4218

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 3:16 am Post subject:

Lester wrote:

Of course. It's called "lies we tell students/children". My favorite one is that "electrons orbit the nucleus of the atom".

Lester
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Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 4650

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 6:04 am Post subject:

How about "bullies are really just cowards".

*shudder*

Mmmhmmm, sure they are.

"If you work hard you'll get an A"

Nope, not if your a dumbass.

"If you cheat you'll get caught."

Nope, not if your a smartass.

joeyjock
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Location: Fort Lauderdale

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 11:37 pm Post subject:

That's why a population of the lowest common denominator...
an uneducated electorate is music to republican's ears

how else can you get people to vote against their own personal interests?
union workers voting with a party who are against unions!!
mothers voting for a party who defund schools and programs for children and families
and on and on

Lester
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Posts: 4650

Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 5:59 am Post subject:

Well, they do *say* their gonna fund schools...

joeyjock
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Location: Fort Lauderdale

Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 6:45 pm Post subject:

lol...yeah and they SAY they're compassionate conservatives...
...and they have "the Blue or the Clear Sky's Initiative" which actually allows more pollutants into the air
..and the "No Child Left Behind" law which they left as an unfunded mandate

it's upsidedown world where they lie to your face and you're supposed to smaile and say thank you

Lester
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Posts: 4650

Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 4:37 am Post subject:

Imagine if congress was like jury duty, how great would that be?

exton
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:31 am Post subject:

Lester wrote:

Imagine if congress was like jury duty, how great would that be?

That is to say, citizens would be forcibly compelled by random lottery to serve for a period of time as representatives?

Civilization would collapse in a month. The only thing worse than letting the common man choose our decision-makers is letting the common man be the decision-maker.

Imagine people like george bush. Only less intelligent, and slightly less authoritarian. It would be like having every representative be a clone of ted stevens. ( he's the "internet is a series of tubes" guy who serves in the senate. and he's an idiot)

Lester
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:27 am Post subject:

exton wrote:

Most people wouldn't do anything because they'd be too scared,

Oh, they'd do stuff. They do stuff even when they're not forced to. Everyone's got an opinion on how things should be run, even if most of them never bother running for high office.

Quote:

only those that wanted things done would make change,

That's not a good thing. People can want bad things as easily as they can want good things.

Quote:

and, like jury duty, people would find all sorts of ways to get out of it.

People around here aren't very successful at avoiding jury duty.