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What a fascinating article, thank you! I see why we have exams in schools. Some of the kids just seemed to entirely miss what they were taught! The way kids ap

What a fascinating article, thank you! I see why we have exams in schools. Some of the kids just seemed to entirely miss what they were taught! The way kids approach these questions are very telling on how to teach them, and that teaching math in particular is about understanding, not memorization.

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
Personally, I think exams are a horrible way to determine what people have actually understood. Most school exams are just looking for specific "magic" words that are learnt by rote. Questions might be set up to ask why water appears on the outside of a cold glass and the answer would be considered correct if the answer used the word "condensation" without needing any concept of humidity.
- lionkor 3y ago
  I believe this is an issue of how exams are done. There are certainly exams I've written, in Math, in English, in Philosophy, that tested my understanding, and there are certainly some that didnt.
  - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
    Definitely agree. As a kid, it really bugged me when there were poorly worded questions that were often ambiguous if you thought about it. I found that exam success often relied on trying to think what the questions were looking for rather than what they were actually asking - basically considering the questions in the context of the course material.
datavirtue 3y ago
They may have missed what the teacher was trying to convey but this serves as an example, to me, of how some people just think differently. The girl who was fixated on shape, for instance. She saw two zeros making an 8. I think we need to be able to recognize early on that some people think differently than the "typical" person, and that they should be understood and perhaps taken down an educational path that fits their mind instead of just trying to pound the correct answers into their head. Sure, teach them the concept of zero as a number, but also recognize that these people are not typical. I used to assume that all humans had an internal dialog. This is not the case. Although most do, some people do not or cannot talk to themselves silently in their own head. This blew my mind. I viewed this as the core of being human. I had been interviewing for jobs and found that my internal dialog would kick in and just wreck my shit during interviews. After learning that some people don't have this I considered that I can just shut mine off if I need to. Basically telling myself to shut up. This did wonders for me, and helped me stay on track during interviews and helped to stop negative thoughts that I might have at other times. The internal dialog has value, but I have learned to control it because I no longer consider it essential to being human. This had just never occurred to me before. The point is, there is neurodivergance in humans. We do not all think the same and trying to mold all children into a thinking the same "correct" way is rather barbaric. Failing to acknowledge that people think differently on a fundamental level is also hurting everyone in some way. Some people can't see images in their head. Again, I had always assumed that all humans could picture anything they wanted, not true. And often these people are visual artists!

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago

Personally, I think exams are a horrible way to determine what people have actually understood. Most school exams are just looking for specific "magic" words that are learnt by rote. Questions might be set up to ask why water appears on the outside of a cold glass and the answer would be considered correct if the answer used the word "condensation" without needing any concept of humidity.

lionkor 3y ago
I believe this is an issue of how exams are done. There are certainly exams I've written, in Math, in English, in Philosophy, that tested my understanding, and there are certainly some that didnt.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
  Definitely agree. As a kid, it really bugged me when there were poorly worded questions that were often ambiguous if you thought about it. I found that exam success often relied on trying to think what the questions were looking for rather than what they were actually asking - basically considering the questions in the context of the course material.

datavirtue 3y ago

They may have missed what the teacher was trying to convey but this serves as an example, to me, of how some people just think differently. The girl who was fixated on shape, for instance. She saw two zeros making an 8. I think we need to be able to recognize early on that some people think differently than the "typical" person, and that they should be understood and perhaps taken down an educational path that fits their mind instead of just trying to pound the correct answers into their head. Sure, teach them the concept of zero as a number, but also recognize that these people are not typical. I used to assume that all humans had an internal dialog. This is not the case. Although most do, some people do not or cannot talk to themselves silently in their own head. This blew my mind. I viewed this as the core of being human. I had been interviewing for jobs and found that my internal dialog would kick in and just wreck my shit during interviews. After learning that some people don't have this I considered that I can just shut mine off if I need to. Basically telling myself to shut up. This did wonders for me, and helped me stay on track during interviews and helped to stop negative thoughts that I might have at other times. The internal dialog has value, but I have learned to control it because I no longer consider it essential to being human. This had just never occurred to me before. The point is, there is neurodivergance in humans. We do not all think the same and trying to mold all children into a thinking the same "correct" way is rather barbaric. Failing to acknowledge that people think differently on a fundamental level is also hurting everyone in some way. Some people can't see images in their head. Again, I had always assumed that all humans could picture anything they wanted, not true. And often these people are visual artists!