Subject: What are the differences between teaching ST/SD and other subjects?

Posted by Steve Crowley on 6/6/2010
In Reply To:What are the differences between teaching ST/SD and other subjects? Posted by Alex Leus on 6/6/2010

Message:

At 10:54 AM 6/6/2010, you wrote:

I am getting more out of it then the kids!

Aha -- you have figured out the secret!

My thoughts on what people draw from their education, and retain for many years: Yes, use it or lose it is a big part of the picture for most people. Use it or never learn it in the first place is also a big part of the picture.

But also, there is something very powerful about certain kinds of learning, that gives these things staying power, beyond the more obvious powers of retention. Maybe it's about the more subtle things we sometimes don't even realize we are learning or using. I think the power of SD, whether taught formally or contextually, is that it opens up a way of thinking and seeing that might not have been open before. Once the light is turned on to the ways things around us interconnect, it's hard to go back, although not impossible.

As a high school teacher, i have always sought out those fundamental concepts or ways of thinking about things, and tried to make them a central part of what we do in class. Interconnectedness (SD), changes through time, rationality of structure, form and function. I have no way of knowing what of all this sticks. But my belief is that the stuff they get tested on will mostly melt away, especially for the non-science kids, but the framework might just hang around.


steve crowley

Follow Ups:

What are the differences between teaching ST/SD and other subjects? - Tony Phuah 6/6/2010