Lesson plan
Example choice
Example choice is a teaching method that aims to highlight the connection between formal principles of mathematics and science and their relevance for everyday life, in order to make school instruction a relevant experience for the child. In traditional teaching, formal principles (laws, formula, problem solving procedures) in mathematics and science are often taught abstractly and then illustrated by an example. In example choice, by contrast, students are given multiple example tasks that all can be solved using the formal principle. The examples pertain to different topics, and each student is instructed to choose the most interesting example, which is then used to explain the formal principle. The method has been developed and explored at the University of Bergen, and was called for by John Dewey in his 1899 book The School and Society. For Dewey, connecting instructional content to everyday life was the only legitimate way to make things interesting, as noted in his essay "Interest and Effort". Example choice can be difficult to use in traditional teaching because teachers often do not know the interests of their students. Even if they know these interests, a teacher would need much time and effort to find examples. With new technologies, teachers and students can help build a database of examples that users can retrieve when the formal principle has to be learned.
Article summary
Example choice is a teaching method that aims to highlight the connection between formal principles of mathematics and science and their relevance for everyday life, in order to make school instruction a relevant experience for the child. In traditional teaching, formal principles (laws, formula, problem solving procedures) in mathematics and science are often taught abstractly and then illustrated by an example. In example choice, by contrast, students are given multiple example tasks that all can be solved using the formal principle. The examples pertain to different topics, and each student is instructed to choose the most interesting example, which is then used to explain the formal principle. The method has been developed and explored at the University of Bergen, and was called for by John Dewey in his 1899 book The School and Society. For Dewey, connecting instructional content to everyday life was the only legitimate way to make things interesting, as noted in his essay "Interest and Effort". Example choice can be difficult to use in traditional teaching because teachers often do not know the interests of their students. Even if they know these interests, a teacher would need much time and effort to find examples. With new technologies, teachers and students can help build a database of examples that users can retrieve when the formal principle has to be learned.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.