THE AMERICAN ENGLISH EXPRESS Chapter 3 page 4
Step
1 is motivation: step one, you will have noticed, is always
motivation. That is because human beings are independent agents: they have free
will. This means that one cannot force them to acquire skills and knowledge,
they must want to do this. I have made this point many times, especially in
this chapter, and I rely on your ability to find your motivation to learn
standard formal English. Without this investment of yours, there will not be
any teaching, learning, or proving.
Step 2 could, once again, be considered ‘defining your terms’. In this case, the ‘terms’ that you need defined are the things (‘elements’ or ‘aspects’ or ‘facets’) of what would be considered to be proof (what would ‘constitute’ proof) in this situation. The young adult and the parents would have to agree, up front (at the beginning), as to what ‘proof’ would convince the parents to allow the child to live on his or her own. For example, after some discussion, it might turn out that the parents might want to see more income than the young adult might feel is necessary. The child might believe that $200 per week would be enough money while the parents might think that $2,000 per month would be necessary.
In a college class, the students are told how they will be graded. For example,
10% for class discussion, 20% for quizzes, 30% for the mid-term and 40% for the
final exam. On the job, workers are often evaluated and valued by such measures
as their productivity (how much they produce), their reliability (whether they
come to work on time), accuracy (how well they do their jobs, the quality of
their work) and attitude towards the job (how seriously they take they work).
Step 3 would be the presentation of the actual proof. In this case, a paycheck, a clean room and clean clothes, and a home-cooked meal. The reason these things would constitute proof is that all parties concerned have agreed that they would be the required proof.
In a formal learning/teaching situation, proof (demonstration of what has been learned) often comes in the form of a test.
TESTS
Most
students believe that a test shows whether the learners have been good
students. Tests really show how well (‘effectively’) the teacher has taught the
students. It is really a test of the teacher, although the students ‘take it’.
As a teacher, whenever one of my students fails, or fails to grasp an important
concept that could affect their lives, I regard it as my failure. The true test
of a student is whether he or she can exceed the level of the teacher, by
building on the knowledge, experience and wisdom the teacher shares.
A
final note on the learning/teaching/proving process: when you identify the
components (steps) in these processes, you are learning aspects of the
‘discipline’ of education. The word “discipline” has many synonyms, including
‘regulation’, ‘order’, ‘control’, ‘restraint’ and ‘obedience’. In this case, it
means a formal organization of certain knowledge or knowledge that has been
structured (‘organized’, ‘ordered’) from a certain perspective (‘point of view’
or ‘vantage point’). In this case, the information is organized from the point
of view of education, that is, the learning/teaching/proving process). The next
chapter continues this idea of discipline and discusses the structure of
knowledge.
END OF CHAPTER 3 GO TO CHAPTER 4
Copyright: 2004 English 4 All, Inc.