For too long, academics in the Math and Science disciplines has taken a distinct 3-step approach:
- Provide a succinct overview conceptually exposing the student to the variations and revolutions in the field of study.
- Acquaint the students with the tools they will need to successfully navigate the field-of-study.
- Teach the ‘successful’ student how to think… how to build new tools and intelligently apply these to the problems at hand.
For most, I believe it is difficult to appreciate what one doesn’t understand. Thus, an overview of the field of study may be cold and meaningless unless the overview can be framed in such a way that the student is invited to be curious and incited to ask the right questions… to ponder the possibilities!
- Whether it be driving a nail or screwing something together, no doubt the business at hand in the controlled environment of the classroom was presented in such a way that the order of the necessary actions to complete the task were obvious.
- There was and would be only one path to the objective.