James Pastore’s Post

Knowledge Matters. It breeds Skill There should be no debate as to where a teacher falls on the false scale that has knowledge on one end and skills on the other. As if we choose one or the other. This type of scale creates a false dichotomy which forces us to choose which end of a falsely set up choice scale we fall on. In actuality, the learning of discrete bits of knowledge, accumulated over time and seen as facts and actual things we learn how to do over time, leads to the learning of skills which we then apply to the learning of more knowledge, learning of more "things", which can be then applied as larger skills learned, through constant accumulation of knowledge. I probably butchered this so if you want to see what I am getting at read the article by #DaisyChristodoulou as posted by #LeeNorthern and which came to my attention in my feed connection to #JeffEvans A great quote that sums this all up is this: "Data from the last 40 years lead to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable : thinking well requires knowing facts, and that's true not simply because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most - critical thinking processes such as reasoning and problem solving - are intimately intertwined with factual knowledge thar us stored in long-term memory (not just found in the environment). " - #DanWillingham cognitive science professor, U. Of Virginia, USA. Learning and knowing stuff in school and in our formative years of schooling age life means we can over time apply knowledge known to the formation of skills building practices (done inside and outside of school) to "skills-knowledge" we then apply to learning more as we go forward in life. I dunno but I think and process in metaphors... Hot stove. Touch. Get burned. Touch again. Get burned again. Learn (ie. KNOW) how to determine if something... Like a stove... Is hot. Develop the basic living skill to know to not touch hot stoves while also including the knowledge learned that... -Hot stoves exist -Don't touch them... When they are hot -Why stoves get hot -What stoves do -Other things get hot -Things are not necessarily hot all the time -Some things are hot sometimes -Heat is not always something that burns -Etc. Etc. That's a LOT of knowledge... Be a shame to only learn a skill to not touch a hot stove and not learn all that other "stuff" too along the way. Perhaps I was clear. Perhaps not. It's hard to type today cause I burned my finger last night. On the stove. Sigh. #KnowledgeMatters #IceCoolsBurns #JimBabbleMattersToJim