Unit 5 Angels on a Pin Alexander Calandra

 Lead in  As a teacher, have you ever encountered the situation that a student answers the question in an exam correctly but not precisely according to the testing criteria? In other words, his answer is original but not standard. In such case, how did you react? What kind of feedbacks did you give? You may have a discussion with your neighbors.

 Some would give praise by offering the full credit or high marks. Others would give discouragement through zero or low marks. Actually in this unit, the author Alexander Calandra is also confronted with such kind of problem. Let’s read the text and see how he solves the dilemma.

Background Information:  I. Why is the text entitled “Angels on a Pin”?  – Medieval scholastics were fond of debating such meaningless questions about the Bible, such as "How many angels can dance on the point of a pin," "Did Adam have a navel," and "Do angels defecate." The title here comes from the question “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”

 The author seems to be suggesting that “traditional teaching and testing methods are similar to the empty arguments of scholasticism. And this suggestion exposes the theme of the text: the problem with American educational system. Teachers emphasized on book knowledge rather than students’ originality and creativity

II. What Is Meant By Academic Creativity?  Academic creativity is a way of thinking about, learning, and producing information in school subjects such as science, mathematics, and history. Few experts agree on a precise definition, but when we say the word, everyone senses a similar feeling. When we are creative, we are aware of its special excitement. 

 Creative thinking and learning involve such abilities as evaluation,divergent production, and redefinition. Creative learning is a natural, healthy human process that occurs when people become curious and excited. In contrast, learning by authority requires students to use thinking skills such as recognition, memory, and logical reasoning--the abilities most frequently assessed by traditional tests of intelligence and scholastic aptitude. Children prefer to learn in creative ways rather than just memorizing information provided by a teacher or parents. They also learn better and sometimes faster.

Warming-up questions:  I.– When was it written?  – Do you believe in the so-called “standard answers”?  – Was creative thinking encouraged in your high school?  – What may affect or destroy one’s creativity? How can it be cultivated?

 – Based on what you know from TV or newspaper, in what ways are American teaching different from Chinese one? Give examples.  – What do you think of the educational system in general and the examination system in particular? Is there something wrong with it? In what way do you think we should improve our own educational system? 

II.Three questions illustrate the difference between learning information provided by an adult or textbook and creative learning:  In what year did Columbus discover America? (The answer, 1492, requires recognizing and memorizing information.)  How are Columbus and an astronaut similar and different? (The answer requires more than memorization and understanding; it requires students to think about what they know.) 

Suppose Columbus had landed in California. How would our lives and history have been different? (The answer requires many creative thinking skills including imagining, experimenting, discovering, elaborating, testing solutions

III. How Adults "Kill" Creativity:  Insisting that children do things the "right way."  Teaching a child to think that there is just one right way to do things kills the urge to try new ways.  Pressuring children to be realistic, to stop imagining.  When we label a child's flights of fantasy as "silly," we bring the child down to earth with a blow, causing the inventive urge to die.

 Making comparisons with other children.  This is a subtle pressure on a child to conform; yet the essence of creativity is freedom to conform or not to conform.  Discouraging children's curiosity.  One of the indicators of creativity is curiosity; yet we often brush questions aside because we are too busy for "silly" questions. Children's questions deserve respect

Text Analysis:  …We must admit the student really had a pretty strong case for full credit, since…  admit sth.  admit (to) doing sth.  admit that …  admit sb. into some place  case: reason or argument  Undoubtedly,/It is undeniable that he had good reason to get a high mark.

A high grade is supposed to prove competence in the course,…  A high grade should reflect how well one has done in his course.  be supposed to do: be intended to do, although in this case it is not so.  This medicine is supposed to be good for your heart, but to my surprise it has no effects on your heart

He appeared to be thinking hard  He seemed to be thing hard.  It looked as if he were thinking hard.

He dashed off his answer  He wrote his answer very quickly

The beauty of this method is that… The advantage/the good thing about this method is that … The beauty of this project is that it doesn’t cause any pollution..

If you prefer a more sophisticated method, prefer: like it better prefer A to B I prefer fish to meat. He preferred history to literature. prefer to do sth. I preferred to wear sports shoes. prefer doing sth I prefer going to the Summer Palace to sleeping in the dorm.

 sophisticated: complicated, more advanced, complex;  sophisticated weapons/equipment,  a sophisticated girl

The height of the building can in principle be worked out.  in principle: generally  In principle, every child has the right to go to school.  work out: calculate (but it has not yet been carried out)  She could work out the answer quickly on a sheet of paper. 

which had been thrown into such a panic by the successful launching of the Russian Sputnik . To be thrown into panic: to get into a sudden strong feeling of fear and nervousness.  During the cold war, the successful launching of the Russian Sputnik caused great fear it the US, because it felt that it could no longer depend on the two oceans for its safety. The American general public put the blame on their government, especially their educational system, which they believed had lagged far behind the Russians.

Perhaps we should ask ourselves whether we are always asking the right questions.  This is a common problem. Many questions are complicated and require careful analysis. We cannot easily give true-or-false or yes-or-no answers. In fact, often the questions are wrong in the first place. Please discuss whether these questions are right:   When can we give every Chinese a car?  How can we make machines work for us so that we do not have to work at all? 

After-class discussion  1.What kind of student is depicted in this story? Give your opinion about the two professors in the text.  What do you think of our own educational system? Have you found similar problems with American educational system? If so, how should we solve them?