The Intuition/Content problem

Thought about education:











Success in education is the rapid development and deployment of strong (and correct intuitions). When we talk about how some kids test well, what we are saying is that some kids are very good at recognizing the types of problems that are on tests and using pre-built intuitions about how to answer these questions.

Why is this what success is? Hrmm.

There were two kinds of tests I had in school. One kind where the questions were multiple choice or short answer and the object was to address the question that was being asked (the answer was usually given in some form: math question, multiple choice, a wording that leads a certain answer, etc.). The other was open answer where you were expected to identify and repeat a certain amount of knowledge. The first group (comprising maybe 90% of classes/work) was mostly Social Studies and Math and some English and Sciences. The second (comprising maybe 10% of classes/work) was some English and some Sciences. And it was in that second group of classes that I struggled the most. The system was rewarding my development in the first so strongly that I expected to be able to convert that capability into the second.

If our multiple choice tests had 10 possible answers and our word problems led answerers astray on purpose, would that push the balance closer. (I don't think the intuition/content problem can be solved in mathematics--maybe with more proof writing).

I'm excited to learn the teaching theories of my day!