In the Philippines, the wrong teaching happens, from the most expensive private school International School Manila (ISM), $16,160 per year[1] (Moneymax), to the inexpensive University of the Philippines System (UP System) where mega-blogger Frank A Hilario graduated (UP Los Baños). Teachers teach us to memorize, and then memorize, and finally memorize!
Our teachers do not teach us to think, and how to think!
German American Gundula Bosch says we must “Train PhD Students To Be Thinkers Not Just Specialists[2]” (14 February 2018, Nature.com):
(Today, microbiology) students are taught every detail of a microbe’s life cycle but little about the life scientific. They need to be taught to recognize how errors can occur. Trainees should evaluate case studies derived from flawed real research, or use interdisciplinary detective games to find logical fallacies in the literature. Above all, students must be shown the scientific process as it is – with its limitations and potential pitfalls as well as its fun side, such as serendipitous discoveries and hilarious blunders.
Learning should both be fun and mentally rewarding. Miss Bosch is referring both to critical thinking (“scientific process”) and creative thinking (as in “serendipitous discoveries”). Science should be both mechanical and mental.
Since early 2015, Miss Bosch and Arturo Casadevall have been “(impressing) the need to put the philosophy back into the doctorate of philosophy; that is, pushing the ‘Ph’ back into the ‘PhD.’” She says:
We call our program R3, which means that our students learn to apply Rigor to their design and conduct of experiments; view their work through the lens of social Responsibility; and to think critically, communicate better, and thus improve Reproducibility.
You have to Think Out Science:
Our offerings are different from others at the graduate level. We have critical-thinking assignments in which students analyze errors in reasoning in a New York Timesopinion piece about "Big Sugar", and the ethical implications of the arguments made in a New Yorker piece by surgeon Atul Gawande entitled "The Mistrust of Science."
In R3 Science, you learn how to think of theory – also how to think of methods and results. Critical thinking plus creative thinking. Revolutionary!
Miss Bosch is not finished. She says:
So far, we have built 5 new courses from scratch and have enrolled 85 students from nearly a dozen departments and divisions. The courses cover the anatomy of errors and misconduct in scientific practice and teach students how to dissect the scientific literature. An interdisciplinary discussion series encourages broad and critical thinking about science. Our students learn to consider societal consequences of research advances, such as the ability to genetically alter sperm and eggs.
In the Philippines’ ISM, high school students can learn robotics and food technology – it’s all mechanical thinking, memory work or students simply reciting what they have been instructed to memorize. None of it mental calisthenics.
No, not thinkingly, our teachers are teaching us only to think like them!@517
[1]https://ph.news.yahoo.com/schools-highest-tuition-metro-manila-020058943.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&tsrc=fb&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9sLmZhY2Vib29rLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFlqoJ30NFSXe_vSm1deUDFeRz9KRoY4OhjtwyA8bAMkDrT_JAhzeasO0DU1u2zWxwHy7FWvFR95TLz9ilekRvs-2PEZN_OCcAl8i_tqPYhwdfKSMTK2JUBVRosC3DmuzvhIaGPxxxNjhrZTVoyKbijf-T1QFTKjTC-aScA7G_Kx
[2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01853-1
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