roblyer

c#2 What is the difference between acquiring knowledge and the employment of knowledge as described by Tennyson (1990) in the article?

When discussing the merging of constructivist and direct-instruction theories and practices in classes, Tennyson suggests that 30% of class time be spent on acquiring knowledge and the remaining 70% be spent on the employment of knowledge. I think that acquiring knowledge is the actual teaching of information and employment of knowledge is teaching how to use information. Tennyson's examples- verbal information and procedural knowledge for acquiring, contextual skills, cognitive strategies and creative processses for employing- illustrate these differences.

I think that Tennyson's view seems pretty sound. Early in the article it talks about how information and technology is becoming so complicated that the base of what we see as "essential knowledge" is growing far too large. There is no way that we can keep up with teaching all of this knowledge so it is essential that we teach kids how to process and use information rather than continue to run a losing race. Technology, especially the internet in my opinion, took away the teachers role as the provider of information. Kids can google anything and have all the information they need at their fingertips before the teacher really even gets started. It is far more beneficial for teachers to use their time showing thier students how to employ that knowledge, how to make sense of it, how to use it, rather than bore them with a redundant lecture. It still is important, however, for teachers to highlight what information is important and offer thier own new ideas and thoughts about the subject and therefore still need to work for the acquisition of knowledge by thier students; Tennyson's 70-30 proportion allows for this, but allows for a focus on the employment on knowledge, which I think in today's world is far more important.