Philosophy Professor Argues for Evidence-Based Educational Approaches
Posted on February 22, 2010 by Barbara Macaulay
Paul Thagard is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo and author of The Brain and the Meaning of Life. This month, on a Psychology Today blog site he has posted an article with the headline “Education, Evidence, and Ethics: How should university students be taught?” Professor Thagard, by the way, has examined both traditional classroom and online learning.
The following statement that he makes may be hard for some to hear or accept:
University courses are still largely taught using methods that haven’t changed much since I was an undergraduate four decades ago. We have no reason to believe that the standard university course, with its lectures, textbooks, and exams, is the best way to teach students at this level, or even that it is very effective for most students who receive mediocre grades. Yet even my youngest colleagues are mostly still teaching using traditional methods.
But before you might jump to the conclusion that he may be an advocate for online learning, he neither is nor isn’t. He isn’t sure, and that’s the real point of his post. His point is that educational methods should be based on evidence that they are working.
…I even lack verification that students learn more from taking my Introduction to Cognitive Science course live from me than from taking the on-line version via distance education. Clearly we need a lot more evidence-based education, with carefully controlled experiments to provide some guidance about what works and what doesn’t.
Agree? Disagree? Check out the complete post by Professor Thagard here.
Permalink | Trackback |
Print This Post
- 25-Year College Professor of Philosophy Describes 1st Year Teaching Online
- For Traditional Faculty, Easy Transition to Online Teaching Shouldn’t be Assumed, says Expert
- UMass Dartmouth Online Professor and Student Span Distance for Collaborative Research Success
- Redefining the Meaning of University?
- Study Finds Majority of Corporations Using Online Learning to Build Leadership and Management Skills
Comments
Share your comment:
Review our comment policy
|
|
Explore UMassOnline
Millions of minds. Thousands of Possibilities. Endless Opportunity. Learn how global students are woven together by a common thread, a quality education. Click here to watch the UMassOnline One World Class video.
