Here you are, hopeful scholars grappling with the issues of academic learning! In today's New York Times Susan Engel, director of the teaching program at Williams College, writes in the Op-Ed section of the paper "Scientifically Tested Tests" where she takes on the notion of testing to make students and teachers perform better. She urges instead that we should be measuring "the ability to understand what they read; an interest in using books to gain knowledge; the agility to move from concrete examples to abstrct principles and back again; the ability to think about a situation in several different ways; and a dynamic working knowledge of the society in which they live."I am reminded of Sherman Alexie's essay "Superman and Me" and the way he valued his "interest in using books to gain knowledge." Now that you have been in class for two weeks, which of Susan Engel's measurements do you believe is the most important for college level learning?
Susan Engel's clams that college level learning is to gain knowledge. I beleive the same because what we learn from our teachers and our books is what we are ganing.
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