Wednesday, April 11, 2007 Echaves: Trick questions By Lelani P. Echaves Thinking Aloud
WE once had this college professor whose entrance into our classroom was as dramatic as the seemingly non-sequitur questions he punctuated our lessons with.
“How many of you ladies know how to transfer the contents of a regular-sized Coca Cola equally into seven glasses, without any error? If you don’t, you better not have any boyfriends yet!” How was that relevant to our economics class? “My wife knows exactly how to do that for our seven children, and she never says my teacher’s salary isn’t enough. All the more, I love her.”
Another time, he asked, “What’s the difference among data, information and knowledge?” In those pre-computer days, it seemed like a trick question or a precursor to a metaphysical discourse. He never humored us with the answer. Instead, he’d say, “What you do after this semester with my lessons will show the difference.” I don’t think he knew how many of us took our studies more seriously since then.
So here’s that time of year when teachers, after a brief vacation, start gearing up for June. The more dedicated ones will give their syllabi a thorough once-over, visit libraries and research centers, attend seminars and workshops, and scour bookstores for new titles with which to enrich their subject contents.
Hopefully, too, school librarians and research departments will find time to tie research instruction into the curriculum. Despite their search for ways of improving learning, it’s been observed they don’t often pay attention to each other’s efforts. Yet, if addressed, this disconnect could be turned around towards bridging the literacy gap among college students.
Also, librarians should stress during the freshman orientation sessions some guidelines for making researches and reports, such as how and when to document a source, the differences between legitimate and unacceptable sources, etc. Students must be set a-right that while Google and Wikipedia are popular online sources, these are not to substitute for primary or genuine references for quality information.
Alarmed by a host of students citing Wikipedia as their sole source of information, the history faculty of a US university voted to bar students from citing it for their academic work (www. insidehighered.com/news). Their stand: Educators should be “in the business of reducing the dissemination of misinformation.”
The concern springs from Wikipedia’s unedited nature. Its home page says it all: “Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” Admitting the collaborative nature in writing and editing, the website’s spokeswoman said, “It is generally good research practice to cite an original source when writing a paper, or completing an exam. It’s usually not advisable, particularly at the university level, to cite an encyclopedia.”
My college prof would’ve simply asked, “Who’s the more learned---he who reads about Shakespeare, or he who reads Shakespeare?” Or more dramatically, “Shakespeare in Tagalog is not Shakespeare.”
