Absolutely MUST Reading
Here is a teacher who LOVES civilization, the Enlightenment, children, teaching Science, the Scientific Method, the concept of continuity of life — Here he was at the frontlines of the art and science of teaching Science to the young — Here is what he saw for 25 years of his life as he edited a Journal devoted to these teachers who teach Science — Here he saw the tentative, then ever more assertive, incursions by Constructivists who had learned from the Reading and Math Wars how to flummox * the Science; how to embed; how to seed self-doubt; how to turn truth–seekers into relativists, etc., etc.
√ #1 Please see the post on July 18 about Constructivism and the two comments today, one from a concerned teacher and my comment (a concerned grandmother) on our fears. Link to Michael Matthews FREE article.
If you study the History of Education and how the theme of creating “The New Man” pervades so much of the literature — well you haven’t seen anything yet! There is so much that is being hatched right now, via school changes — employing the latest through cognitive and neural science; through data mining using school devices; through cultural norming; applying artificial intelligence; and through a host of sophisticated media techniques — that the sooner we clue in the better. Post-human is not just Science Fiction any longer!
√ #2 Again, read #1 above and/or read Sections 10, 11, 12 of this FREE article by this professor who fervently wishes for the “demise of constructivism”, and in personal correspondence says: “everyone recognizes that constructivist-taught children can’t read, can’t add up, can’t understand or do science … but no one wants to take responsibility” (note: permission granted to use his comments)
— https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276458457_Reflections_on_25_Years_of_Journal_Editorship
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* Flummox — confuse, perplex, stun, stump, baffle, bewilder, flabbergast, confound, mystify, bamboozle, deceive . . . . . . . .