[问题求助] Issue28北美范文的逻辑，有点想不通麻烦帮忙看一下 [复制链接]

南冥
UID：3496319

寄托新兵

Rank: 2

声望: 50
寄托币: 41
注册时间: 2014-1-16
精华: 0
帖子: 14

电梯直达

楼主

发表于 2014-1-24 18:16:07 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

题目：Issue 28
"Students should memorize facts only after they have studied the ideas, trends, and concepts that help explain those facts. Students who have learned only facts have learned very little."
原文：
The speaker makes a threshold claim that students who learn only facts learn very little, then concludes that students should always learn about concepts, ideas, and trends before they memorize facts. While I wholeheartedly agree with the threshold claim, the conclusion unfairly generalizes about the learning process. In fact, following the speaker's advice would actually impede the learning of concepts and ideas, as well as impeding the development of insightful and useful new ones.
Turning first to the speaker's threshold claim, I strongly agree that if we learn only facts we learn very little. Consider the task of memorizing the periodic table of elements, which any student can memorize without any knowledge of chemistry, or that the table relates to chemistry. Rote memorization of the table amounts to a bit of mental exercise-an opportunity to practice memorization techniques and perhaps learn some new ones. Otherwise, the student has learned very little about chemical elements, or about anything for that matter.
As for the speaker's ultimate claim, I concede that postponing the memorization of facts until after one learns ideas and concepts holds certain advantages. With a conceptual framework already in place a student is better able to understand the meaning of a fact, and to appreciate its significance. As a result, the student is more likely to memorize the fact to begin with, and less likely to forget it as time passes. Moreover, in my observation students whose first goal is to memorize facts tend to stop there--for whatever reason. It seems that by focusing on facts first students risk equating the learning process with the assimilation of trivia; in turn, students risk learning nothing of much use in solving real world problems.
Conceding that students must learn ideas and concepts, as well as facts relating to them, in order to learning anything meaningful, I nevertheless disagree that the former should always precede the latter--for three reasons.
In the first place, I see no reason why memorizing a fact cannot precede learning about its meaning and significance--as long as the student does not stop at rote memorization. Consider once again our hypothetical chemistry student. The speaker might advise this student to first learn about the historical trends leading to the discovery of the elements, or to learn about the concepts of altering chemical compounds to achieve certain reactions--before studying the periodic table. Having no familiarity with the basic vocabulary of chemistry, which includes the information in the periodic table, this student would come away from the first two lessons bewildered and confused, in other words, having learned little.
In the second place, the speaker misunderstands the process by which we learn ideas and concepts, and by which we develop new ones. Consider, for example, how economics students learn about the relationship between supply and demand, and the resulting concept of market equilibrium, and of surplus and shortage. Learning about the dynamics of supply and demand involves (1) entertaining a theory, and perhaps even formulating a new one, (2) testing hypothetical scenarios against the theory, and (3) examining real-world facts for the purpose of confirming, refuting, modifying, or qualifying the theory. But which step should come first? The speaker would have us follow steps 1 through 3 in that order. Yet, theories, concepts, and ideas rarely materialize out of thin air; they generally emerge from empirical observations--i.e., facts. Thus the speaker's notion about how we should learn concepts and ideas gets the learning process backwards.
In the third place, strict adherence to the speaker's advice would surely lead to ill-conceived ideas, concepts, and theories. Why? An idea or concept conjured up without the benefit of data amounts to little more than the conjurer's hopes and desires. Accordingly, conjurers will tend to seek out facts that support their prejudices and opinions, and overlook or avoid facts that refute them. One telling example involves theories about the center of the universe. Understandably, we ego-driven humans would prefer that the universe revolve around us. Early theories presumed so for this reason, and facts that ran contrary to this ego-driven theory were ignored, while observers of these facts were scorned and even vilified. In short, students who strictly follow the speaker's prescription are unlikely to contribute significantly to the advancement of knowledge.
To sum up, in a vacuum facts are meaningless, and only by filling that vacuum with ideas and concepts can students learn, by gaining useful perspectives and insights about facts. Yet, since facts are the very stuff from which ideas, concepts, and trends spring, without some facts students cannot learn much of anything. In the final analysis, then, students should learn facts right along with concepts, ideas, and trends.

Speaker的观点是：concepts先于facts，按第二段的说法，periodic table属于concepts吧？所以才会Otherwise the student has learned very little.这一段是同意Speaker的threshold claim的
但是后面第四段又用这个例子，说Speaker might advise 学生先学historical trends 和 concepts of altering chemical compounds before periodic table，这不就是说periodic table属于facts吗？
在背北美范文，背到这一篇有点不明白，求指教！

相关帖子

回应
0

使用道具举报

LittleSparrow
UID：3497645

寄托新兵

Rank: 2

声望: 50
寄托币: 86
注册时间: 2014-1-24
精华: 0
帖子: 7

沙发

发表于 2014-1-25 11:14:56 |只看该作者

我想题目的意思是学一样东西应该先知道这个东西的原理、源头等，而不是死记硬背后再理解。
对于元素周期表，作者说最好先背下来再了解更详细的东西。

我是新手。。看到后面看不下去了。。后面还有一点没看，没时间了，去上课了。

使用道具举报

sunlhao
UID：3479183

初级会员

Rank: 3 Rank: 3

声望: 84
寄托币: 497
注册时间: 2013-10-16
精华: 0
帖子: 53

板凳

发表于 2014-2-5 10:35:09 |只看该作者

Bravo!一篇精彩的文章
如果楼主没看懂，可能是没有理解这句话吧，While I wholeheartedly agree with the threshold claim, the conclusion unfairly generalizes about the learning process. 作者说尽管我同意这个观点，但是对结论不敢苟同。也就是说学生应该再理解事实的含义，趋势和概念的前提下记住它是错的，但是学生如果只学事实却只能学的很少是对的。以记周期表为例，如果学生只是为了背而背，就会失去锻炼记忆能力和学习其他新东西的机会。
至于第二部分，是为了反驳那个conclusion，作者说对事实的学习不一定要有那个顺序。因为不知道这些化学元素符号或者不知道他们的基本性质(basic vocabulary of chemistry)，学生无法理解化学的世界。（就好像没学字母表，还开始讨论英国文学一样）
后面几段是逻辑的递进，深化主题

这篇文章观点明确，层次鲜明，适合模仿。

使用道具举报