Something I'd like to see

[andrewducker]

A list of facts (or groupings of facts) learned in schools, and then a percentage, for each one, of how often they were used in the last year (by a large, varied, sample of the population).

Not that I think that teaching ought to be based entirely on utility, but if we could at least quantify that utility then we could look at the bits that aren't actually useful and start the argument over whether they're worthwhile on other bases (artistically/culturally worthy).

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Facts are less important than skills, such as information seeking and evaluation skills

[andrewducker]

Absolutely and totally agree.

Too much of my schooling was made up of facts, and not enough of that kind of skills. I hope it's better nowadays.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Totally, although you could probably apply the same criteria to slighty-more-subjective stuff than that, and say, "did this skill I was explicitly/implicitly taught turn up?"

There's stuff I do use, and would hate to be without ("how can someone not know how to integrate simple trigonometric expresions? what if they want to maximize something?") but I feel like essentially nothing on the formal curriculum I actually need, with the possible exception of more subjective things.

[andrewducker]

I meant skills along with facts. Should have been more explicit there.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

(And "not need" goes from the hardest stuff to the easiest stuff. I think stuff like "type i and type ii error" was taught in A-level stats, which not everyone did, but WOULD be useful to people if they did know it. Similarly, the ability to calculate 20% off was taught regularly since primary school, and is useful -- to people who still remember it.)

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Yes, I only mention it because this is a big controversy in education at the moment. Though, in a strange way only the people on the 'skills' side recognise it's a controversy. The people on the 'knowledge' side don't consider the issue. Don't know why.