tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post2169638446641218462..comments2024-03-26T14:44:37.985-04:00Comments on D-Ed Reckoning: Teaching Logic to Second GradersKDeRosahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06853211164976890091noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-9366646427418593952006-11-21T15:41:00.000-05:002006-11-21T15:41:00.000-05:00I thought it was supposed to go:
All big men are ...I thought it was supposed to go:<br /><br />All big men are heavy.<br />Jack is a big man.<br /><br />Therefore Jack is Socrates.MikeZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13856948417775902893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-480481987647389862006-11-16T21:59:00.000-05:002006-11-16T21:59:00.000-05:00"It was an incredibly frustrating assignment becau..."It was an incredibly frustrating assignment because we were given no explanation for it, nor were we told how literal our instructions were supposed to be." <br /><br />That's what my son thought, although he had some idea because we went through the candy machine example before. Even so, there are lots of assumptions that have to be made. You can't jump from assembly language level instructions to high-level 4th generation language function calls. <br /><br />I think the real issue is between direct teaching versus constructive or implicit learning. The modern educational assumption is that it's always better to have kids try to learn things before they are taught anything. That's why you never see any individual desks lined up in rows facing a black (or white) board.<br /><br />The amount and efficiency of learning is inversely proportional to the randomness of the desks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-42519763910516889552006-11-16T18:44:00.000-05:002006-11-16T18:44:00.000-05:00When I was in 5th grade, my teacher had us do the ...When I was in 5th grade, my teacher had us do the activity steveh described above - writing down the instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.<br /><br />It's one of the few class activities from back then that I remember (I'm in my second year of college now).<br /><br />It was an incredibly frustrating assignment because we were given no explanation for it, nor were we told how literal our instructions were supposed to be.<br /><br />Much more successful in teaching the same lesson were the simple computer programing lessons we were given starting in first grade using Logowriter.<br /><br />The logic lesson here is interesting from my perspective as a college student interested in education, but I suspect that my second or first grade self would have found it senseless, repetitive, and frustrating if it were not accompanied by some kind of comprehensible explanation.<br /><br />A better way of teaching this kind of thing, I think, would be to lay the foundations with Logowriter-type programing and then introduce logic lessons like the one in the post a little later along, when students are at point where they can understand what they're learning and why they're learning it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-21772664934405696252006-11-16T13:52:00.000-05:002006-11-16T13:52:00.000-05:00In the DI writing course (requires a 2nd grade rea...In the DI writing course (requires a 2nd grade reading level), they have the student write instructions to recreate a figure. The figure will show a large circle with a capital letter R on top of the circle and a horizontal line dran delow the circle. The students are instructed to provide instructions for recreating the figure, starting with the largest object (in this case the circle).KDeRosahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06853211164976890091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25541994.post-74265088434491064412006-11-16T13:41:00.000-05:002006-11-16T13:41:00.000-05:00I like to have my son (5th grade) write out step-b...I like to have my son (5th grade) write out step-by-step procedures for doing (seemingly) simple tasks. Then I try to follow the steps exactly while he watches. It's pretty funny sometimes. Before we started doing this, I gave him an example of the steps (if-then-else) for getting something out of a candy machine.<br /><br />His school has since done something like this too. However, they just told them to do it - write down instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There are a lot of assumptions to make and the kids didn't know how to do that. <br /><br />The modern idea of education is that you don't give kids any clue before you have them do something. This can be quite frustrating and inefficient, especially if the kids get into groups to discuss their solutions. At the end, perhaps, the teacher will give his/her own version.<br /><br />It's what I have always called bottom-up versus top-down teaching. Bottom-up starts with skills; top-down requires kids to figure out the skills. Explicit teaching versus implicit teaching.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com