,
10 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
Just finished Yascha Mounk, 2018, ‘The people vs. democracy. Why our freedom is in danger and how to save it’ (reviewed by Thomas Carothers, the Washington Post washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-in…; Dutch review Peter Giesen, de Volkskrant volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie…). What is my take-away?
Not surprisingly, its message is deeply discomforting (the next book is promised to be more hopeful). Except for the historical ch. 2, Mounk does not present explanations that are convincing (at least to me, that is). Because of an attempt to be encyclopedic on all possibilities?
Politicology is not my field of expertise. Education is, however. Ha; we, my followers and I, are in a good position then to test the validity of some of Mounk’s arguments. Such as this one. How wrong can one be? No further comment necessary: 
The above is not just a random quote. It is from Ch. 8 ‘Fixing the economy’. Mounk asks for ‘radical reimagination’ for nothing less than our public schools, colleges and universities, and does a suggestion for what that might look like. In note 54 Mounk provides references.
Webb & Cox, 2004 ‘A review of pedagogy related to information and communications technology’ tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… open access. That review looks after possible uses of ICT in the classroom. That’s simply not the way to improve education. However, the ICT industry likes it ;-)
Ertmer, 2005 ‘Teacher pedagogical beliefs: the final frontier in our quest for technology integration?’ itma.vt.edu/courses/tel/re… pdf. The author pushes computer use in the classroom. “Ultimately, the goal is to facilitate uses of technology that lead to increased student learning”
And the 3rd and last one: Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010 ‘Teacher technology change. How knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and culture Intersect’ files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ882… pdf Yet another push for technology use in the classroom. #the_cart_before_the_horse
Is this the best Mounk can deliver as support for his revolutionary proposal? Evidently. The mention of ‘learning styles’ in the quotation is a warning that Mounk is not particularly up to date in his knowledge of educational research.
Conclusion: the quotation pp. 228/9 is paradoxically an example of fake science news. Fake news, of course, is an important subject in Mounk’s book: pp 17, 32, 44, 135, 145, 238-240. [See also criticisms on Foa & Mounk's alarmist data on deconsolidation stukroodvlees.nl/vijf_kritieken… ]
@threadreaderapp unroll
