RE: Are teachers really so unwilling to learn?

[bickiia@earlham.edu]

"Spurling, Shannon " <shannon@more.net> wrote:
>I just thought I would chime in here, because I work with a lot of 
>teachers, and I see some of the same things. I think teachers are 
>underpaid for what they do no matter where you go in the world. What I

>find is that teachers and the public in general lack some of the basic

>concepts behind how computers are organized. I'm not talking about
>understanding binary or hexadecimal, but more of the abstract concepts

>of tree's and dependencies.

Yes, I think a lot of the important issues aren't even specifically
related to computers.  They are notions of representation and
organization a lot of the time, and those notions are hardly
computer-specific.  But I don't know if many people actually view the
world that way unless they are challenged to in some way.  Or, at least,
the people who do view the world that way end up finding their calling
in computers... :-P

>IP addressing, LAN, and WAN setup all make extensive use of set theory.

>I learned lots of this in grade school, as I'm sure most every one else

>did, but I also had to take discrete math at the University as a degree

>requirement. 

Of all the mathematical notions taught to people, it seems the abstract
ones are the ones the fewest undrestand or grasp at a useful level.  The
degree to which that stuff was even taught has varied a lot in the
recent past, as well.  Before New Math, I don't think anyone got much of
the abstract before college.  New Math had some great mathematical
principles, but lasted only a few years before there was a big reaction
against it, and once again people were learning their arithmetic and
stupid geometry theorems (well, they wouldn't be so stupid if the logic
behind them was taught as well...)  Now math curriculums seem to be
slowly approaching New Math again, but there's threats from people who
want Standards, Back to the Basics, Minimal Proficiency, and all that.

And teachers come from all these backgrounds.  My impression is that
most of them -- even those trained to teach math -- haven't been taught
many concepts at a deeper level during college (if they stuck to the
education track).  Outside of the US, I really don't have any idea what
it's like (though I'd be quite curious, if anyone has thoughts).

So, do we reteach the basic concepts of math?  Do we consider the
computer a chance to make these abstract concepts concrete for once, so
teachers (and students, I suppose :) can actually learn these concepts?
Should we start pulling out some math curriculum and trying to integrate
its ideas into computer curriculum?  Hmm... I'll have to think about it
more.

  -- Ian