Reflctions from readings (June 11 2009)

Chapter 4. Designs for Knowledge

The ultimate goal of education is not that teachers make each student a scientist, historian, and professor. Instead, teachers should aim to make the learners into disciplinary thinkers who can have ability to translate from information into wisdom. Thus, the author emphasizes that educators have to design lesson plans focusing on disciplinary learning including knowledge of structures and processes. One of examples about emphasizing the role of structure in this chapter is Mr. McCannon’s history class. He tried to identify seven structures to help his students. Moreover, in Mrs. Suedkamp’s class, students learn process knowledge by doing a role play activity.

The author puts great emphasis on teaching the disciplines as “ways to think” about experience in school education. This is because, I believe, many people who crammed for exams forget knowledge they learned in school after graduation. For example, I do not remember a table of trigonometrical function. The math teacher who taught me in a high school forced students to quickly memorize the table. I still remember the teachers’ goal was to increase the number of students who earn high score in Korean SAT and make them enter prestigious colleges in Korea. Since that kind of knowledge is impermanent and almost useless after graduation, it is important to teach students how to think. From perspective of lifelong learning, people will face a lot of challenges they must overcome themselves and they need to learn the disciplines as “ways to think.”