The benefits First, let’s consider the pros. There are benefits for the athletes (scholarships, character building, career opportunities, etc.), benefits for the fans (entertainment), benefits for the university (income, prestige, etc.), and benefits for the community (economic stimulation, bringing the community together, etc.). These things are not to be disregarded. As we proceed to consider…
Tag: Education
One thing at a time: how make effective assessments
This is specifically from the perspective of math education, but may apply to other areas just as well. Why do we give assessments? Surely the answer is to find out what students know and what students can do. Not in general; we want to know specifically whether students know certain things. We have learning targets…
Equality, equity, equivalence, identity, indistinguishability, isomorphism, resemblance, congruence, and similarity
While the title of this post might as well be a thesaurus entry, my purpose here is to investigate the differences between these concepts and how they operate in different contexts. Mathematical equality The reader is almost certainly very familiar with the equals sign or = used in math. Many of us first encounter it…
The paradox of incentive
If something is incentivized too strongly, it becomes disincentivized. Extrinsic motivation has important social utility. It can both drive prosocial behavior and inhibit antisocial behavior. In many cases, extrinsic rewards are natural. Praise is a natural response to someone doing something we want them to do, for example, as is expressing anger towards someone for…
On learning by mimicry
Consider sports, music, and foreign language. Most people grow up being exposed to what these things are, and in particular often observe experts in action: professional athletes and musicians and native speakers of foreign languages. People also often have opportunities to engage in learning these things from a young age, and their education or training…
thoughts on mind 