Educators should base their assessment of students' learning not on students' grasp of facts but on the ability to explain the ideas, trends, and concepts that those facts illustrate.
The speaker contends that assessment of student’s learning should be based on their ability to explain the ideas, trends, and concepts behind the facts, rather than on the mere grasp of facts. I agree with this argument but I also think grasping facts is important and beneficial as well sometimes.
The ultimate objective of study is to sharpen our ability to put what we learn into practice and to think critically and make sound judgements base on what we have learned. By merely focusing on facts, students risk equating the learning process with the assimilation of trivia. Consequently, flexible use of the knowledge would be impossible. Take physics as an example, if one memorizes a formula without further thinking, more often than not he would be able to do nothing but solve a physics problem fit exclusively the formula. It is hard for him to explain phenomena encountered in his real life using what he has learned. And merely being able to solve a problem in the examination is of little use in our real life. On the contrary, if one understands the ideas, trends, and concepts behind the facts thoroughly or at least more deeply, he will know more about how to use those facts for his benefits.
Moreover, understanding the ideas, trends, and concepts those facts illustrate could also help students to memorize the facts. Simply reciting the facts given would be painful and facts learned this way would be forgotten faster. This is why many students find themselves remember nothing about the subject instantly after an examination. Many schools nowadays schedule experiments along with lectures. Students can perform experiments related to chemistry, for example, at the end of which students present a technical report which describes the experiment, the analysis and findings. Upon completion, the students should have the ability to relate the experiment to the theory learned and this helps them understand and memorize the theory better and for a longer time.
However, it is undeniable that learning facts can precede understanding its meaning and significance. It would be faster to memorize a fact than understand it thoroughly, which usually requires large amounts of researches. And sometimes only after we get to know some facts can we understand others. Learning facts themselves is crucial as well – as long as students do not stop at rote memorization.
To sum up, learning the ideas, trends and concepts of facts is of great significance to achieve the aim of education, but notice should be given that grasping facts also plays an indispensable role.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, consequently, however, if, moreover, so, well, at least, for example, on the contrary, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.5258426966 82% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.4196629213 105% => OK
Conjunction : 19.0 14.8657303371 128% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 11.3162921348 53% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 32.0 33.0505617978 97% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 58.6224719101 89% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 12.9106741573 93% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2181.0 2235.4752809 98% => OK
No of words: 425.0 442.535393258 96% => OK
Chars per words: 5.13176470588 5.05705443957 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54043259262 4.55969084622 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82451551408 2.79657885939 101% => OK
Unique words: 219.0 215.323595506 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.515294117647 0.4932671777 104% => OK
syllable_count: 668.7 704.065955056 95% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 6.24550561798 96% => OK
Article: 4.0 4.99550561798 80% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 3.10617977528 64% => OK
Conjunction: 6.0 1.77640449438 338% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.38483146067 114% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 20.2370786517 99% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 23.0359550562 91% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.543825048 60.3974514979 75% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.05 118.986275619 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.25 23.4991977007 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.35 5.21951772744 102% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 10.2758426966 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 5.13820224719 97% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.352404295929 0.243740707755 145% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.103639549575 0.0831039109588 125% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0930577674698 0.0758088955206 123% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.225518583796 0.150359130593 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0787366373539 0.0667264976115 118% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.1392134831 95% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.8420337079 103% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.1743820225 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.47 12.1639044944 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.28 8.38706741573 99% => OK
difficult_words: 97.0 100.480337079 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 11.8971910112 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.2143820225 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.7820224719 102% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.