Does the Khan Academy know how to teach? - The Washington Post - 5 views
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Gates has called Khan, "the best teacher I've ever seen.
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djplaner on 10 Aug 13An example of some of the large claims being made about Khan Academy that seem to suggest limited understanding of what makes a good teacher?
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anonymous on 18 Aug 13This is an interesting one - how can a teacher be hailed as such, when there is no real interaction (questioning from the student's point of view)? The Khan Academy does have its advantages as a very useful prop to specific lessons and concepts, yet the questions posed by any learner should be equally important if effective learning is to take place.
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Margaret Johnson on 07 Apr 14I agree Doreen, furthermore, the Khan Academy cannot be used as a stand alone to teaching, yet as a tool to extend understanding or to reteach concepts
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Deb Mac on 07 Apr 14It is a useful tool I agree. Students need to have an understand of a variety of ways/strategies/methods to draw upon in order to gain a full understand of the concepts.
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Lisa Rose on 25 Apr 14Interesting to see Bill Gates making a reference to teaching skills. Last I checked he wasn't an expert in education?!
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robbie1282 on 18 Aug 15I don't get why they are making reference to Bill Gates I don't believe he has an understanding of teaching. Although these online library can help with understanding but is it really the way we want education to go online teaching??
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djplaner on 18 Aug 15I belive that the reference to Gates arises from the fact that he's spending a lot of his money attempting to improve schools and universities. That money means that his views on what is good teaching carry significant weight. More so than his qualifications and experience might otherwise warrant.
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What is more, his videos reveal an ignorance of how we know students learn mathematics.
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The Khan Academy videos suffer from the poor PCK of the people developing the videos. The core of the argument here.
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The videos were started to help students who were already learning through the school system and needed more help without having to pay for it. A lot of people are complaining about the videos as alternatives to explicit teaching in the classroom, but aren't they great for what they were originally designed for.
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I don't think the Khan videos are doing any damage...They shouldn't be used as a stand alone, but instead as a supplement for learning, perhaps.
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I think the videos are great as a supplementary activity, it provides a different way to explain something. Good on him for attempting it.
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I like David's comment: videos aren't actually evidence of the Khan academy, just "the poor PCK of the people developing the videos.".
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Pedagogical content knowledge is an important foundation for planning lessons and for decision making during a lesson.
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All teachers make mistakes, after all, and Khan should not, the reasoning goes, be called out for making the same mistakes we all make.
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There certainly are broken models in education, but there is absolutely no evidence that competent knowledge of student learning and thinking is one that teachers can afford to jettison.
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researchers are finding evidence that particular kinds of PCK are associated with greater gains in student learning in elementary mathematics.
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Many mathematics educators stress another kind of knowledge necessary to design and deliver quality instruction: pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). PCK refers to knowledge of content as it relates to teaching.
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content knowledge alone is inadequate
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How true, but how often do we see this and the reverse situation where teachers are teaching in areas where their content knowledge is lacking.
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I agree content knowledge is crucial but there are so many more aspects needed to make it great.
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Content knowledge is important, but it doesn't matter how much knowledge a teacher has if s/he cannot teach that content in a way that the students will actually understand it and be able to apply it in future
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I agree that content knowledge is important but it is just as important to know your students and how best they learn
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The standard American curricular treatment, in which students are instructed to append zeroes to the shorter decimal to equalize the number of digits helps students to perform this task correctly, but fosters its own misconceptions.
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I think frankly, the best way to do it is you put stuff out there and you see how people react to it; and we have exercises on our site too, so we see whether they’re able to see how they react to it anecdotally.
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the examples Khan chooses appear selected at random and thus are, perhaps unsurprisingly, often quite poor.
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If Khan’s videos occasionally popped up in a Google search, we would be content to have him carry on. There is lots of worse information available on the web. But Khan is hailed as “unbelievable” ( Bill Gates) and his work as “sparking a revolution in education
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It is up to the teacher to assess whether or not the videos are suitable for his/her students. If the teacher chooses to use the video, then s/her can refer to the teacher information and see which questions the students answered correctly / incorrectly and identify any misconceptions. These misconceptions can then be addressed by the teacher in the classroom
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Whether small steps or large, we urge Sal Khan and his funders to put their time, effort and dollars to the best possible ends, particularly when it comes to making decisions grounded in accurate, carefully considered pedagogical content knowledge
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discuss the meaning of the equal sign frequently and explicitly, and (2) model correct use of the equal sign.
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To quote a fellow student, Lucas Naughton states, 'ICT must be used to enhance and amplify the learning rather then becoming the point of the learning'. I get that there are holes in the Khan videos however if we are using them to enhance learning then why cant the teacher design an entire lesson around one video. They can discuss the missing misconceptions. They can provide other methods/concepts and they can create practice activities all around a Khan video. Remember-enhance and amplify the learning using these ICT's. Cheers Angela Woodward
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Khan will put the video out there and see how people react to it.
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Newsweek
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Wikipedia mentions Khan's education: "Khan attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science in 1998. Khan also holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School" I can't see a Bachelor of Education in there. I would have thought that this would be essential, and the first stepping-stone, to acquire an understanding of PCK and how students learn. Danielson and Goldenburg state that "content knowledge alone is inadequate for quality instruction" and that many videos are prone to creating further confusion for students. They also go on to say that Khan's explanations are frequently off target in addressing likely student questions that experienced teachers would anticipate and elicit. Maybe a four-year stint at USQ might be in order? .