Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
So there's this blog called Core Knowledge and since 2006 it has been campaigning in favour of, well, 'core knowledge', and incidentally, against teaching critical thinking as a discipline - the line being that critical thinking is based entirely on the facts of particular disciplines. As they say here, "If you want students to be critical thinkers - and to his credit Burell clearly does - what better way than to give them the background knowledge they need to grapple with precisely the questions he suggests?" In a post today, Burrell swings back: "If they're only taught to know the stuff, and not trained to ask questions about it, then whatever 'innate' critical thinking you say they're capable of at birth is still going to wither in schools." And, of course, there is always the question of whether there is a 'core' that everyone must know.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2024 04:04 a.m.

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