At 07:57 AM 4/26/00 -0500, Herman Rubin wrote:
>It does not surprise me one bit. The typical statistics
>course teaches statistical methods and pronouncements, with
>no attempt to achieve understanding. .... snip of more
this is something i happen to agree with herman about ... but, it is a much
broader problem than can be attributed to what happens in one course
it is an attitude about what higher education is all about ... and what the
goals are for it
'going to college' ... be it undergraduate level or graduate level ... has
become a much more hit and miss experience, residence has little meaning
... that is being tailored more and more to the convenience of students ...
and to what is 'user' friendly (or it won't SELL). studying principles in
disciplines is hard work ... NOT user friendly ... so, less and less is
being required in the way of diligent study.
take graduate school for example ... there was a time, was there not ...
where doctoral students were REALLY expected to be responsible for their
dissertations AND were expected to be the experts in that particular area
of inquiry ... AND to be competent enough to have done the work him/herself
... and to UNDERSTAND it .. ie, BE ABLE TO DEFEND ALL OF IT
but, what i have noticed over many years is that dissertations are becoming
more of a committee effort ... yes, the student MAY have had the idea
(though not necessarily) but, from there ... he/she gets help with the
design ... has someone else do the analysis (because he/she did not take
any/sufficient work in analytic methods to understand what is going on) ...
gets help in writing and editing .. and, even gets help in terms of what
their results MEAN ...
gives new meaning to the term: "cooperative learning"
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