[REBOL] Re: Block Creation Re:
From: joel:neely:fedex at: 20-Oct-2000 9:07
Hi, Ingo,
Ingo Hohmann wrote:
[snip]
> 0) a: func [b] [ c: [] d: copy [] append c b append d b print remold [c d]]
> a 1
> a 1
> source a
>
You're probably right -- certainly from the way I introduced it!
What I completely failed to state in my second paragraph was that
part of my intent in a "stepwise description" was to turn the whole
discussion in the opposite direction from the way it normally runs.
In my teaching role, I've often used a common device of following
some concepts/techniques with a problem or puzzle of one of the forms,
"But we still can't do ..."
or
"But now we can't ..."
or
"Look what happens when we ... That's not what we expected!"
and then showing how to solve the problem or resolve the puzzle.
This approach is presumed to engage and motivate the student, and
probably is still appropriate in some cases, but I've begun to
suspect that it can also be very frustrating! After all, if used
too much, it runs the risk of frequently sending the subliminal
message, "You don't know what's going on!"
I wanted to try starting with some obvious (or easy-to-digest) facts
and incrementally building a comfort level with series and literal
series behavior such that the "puzzle" cases would never appear as
challenges, but only as by-then-obvious consequences of what had
been covered already.
But even so, I should have included the mutated-series case as
the last step, since my preamble stated that as my goal!
Thanks for your reminder!
-jn-
PS:
In this connection, I might mention that Dijkstra has offered
strong criticism of the way Mathematics is often taught -- by
showing the student highly compact and elegant proofs which offer
no clue of how someone might have thought them up to begin with!
Thus the student is left with only the options of
1) giving up in frustration, assuming "I can't understand this!";
(This option deprives a large part of the population of the
joy and beauty of Mathematical thought, and the practical
benefits thereof.)
2) simply committing the proofs to rote memory;
(Which may work for simple cases, but may only postpone #1, as
it is actually contrary to the spirit of Mathematics!)
3) discovering for himself, unaided, how to invent such things.
(Which is a severe burden, and one which we do not place on
the student of most other disciplines! Imagine training
medical doctors -- from the beginning -- by showing them films
of successful open heart surgery and then saying, "Now that
you've seen it, you try it!")
--
; Joel Neely [joel--neely--fedex--com] 901-263-4460 38017/HKA/9677
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| e s m!zauafBpcvekexEohthjJakwLrngohOqrlryRnsctdtiub} 2 ]
