Section 70 - "Grammr and the decline of our civilization" of Stop Stealing Our Dreams has a deep resonance with me. It makes the case that the how of education is built on the why of education.
A teacher's job should be preparing students for the world-as-it-is-now. No one has a clue about the long-term future so it impossible to specifically prepare for it. The world-as-it-is-now is Open-book/Open-note. It is a contrivance to assume otherwise.
I am preparing to teach an undergraduate class in the fall on a topic I find fascinating but could be perceived (wink, wink) has a collection of obscure facts. I have hundreds of choices to make, including the content and format of the test. In the past, tests have accessed how well student memorized disjointed facts in the short-term. Instead, I am developing tests requiring the synthesize of given, or easily looked-up, facts. I have never written that style of test. It is frightening and necessary (for both me and the students).
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