X-Message-Number: 19186 Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2002 09:17:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Scott Badger <> Subject: Re: Constructivism Ron Havelock wrote in part: ..."What I find most pernicious about this so-called constructivist theory is that it allows people pushing virtually any agenda to claim that they have science on their side, picking and choosing their facts and breezily dismissing anything that doesn't fit. This is the opposite of true science which requires that all empirically verifiable observations must be taken into account, regardless of whether they support, fail to support, or manifestly contradict a theory. I hope that my fellow cryonicists are as committed as I am to empirical science as the basis of our beliefs. There is no other path. Our enemies and scoffers continually fail to realize or recognize that the core group of cryonisists are committed to a scientific view of the world."... Your use of the word "constructivist" is bit different from the way I see it applied here in the Department of Science Education. I understand my colleagues to mean that learning is enhanced for our students when they construct scientific principles rather than having them verbally transmitted. Instead of being given the answer to a problem in advance through lectures, then doing a lab confirming what the professor already told them, our students (to a great degree) are given a problem, then required to derive the principle at work. No, they are not allowed to ultimately arrive at the wrong answer, but the learning tends to stick better when they're exposed to an activity / experiment where the results are consistent, yet counterintuitive. Misconceptions are exposed and attacked through reflective judgement. BTW, the majority of these college students come to the program needing serious remediation in science and math. They don't know why we have seasons, why the mooon has phases, etc, etc, etc. Anyway, is there some connection between this constructivism and that which you addressed in your message? Because we try to teach our students how to measure, collect, analyze and interpret empirical data. We do not promote relativism which seems to be what you're referring to. Am I right? Scott Badger __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19186