Perhaps in this changing world you can get away with knowing where to look or what button to use on the calculator/computer to get the correct answer - which was always my approach to statistics- but not necessarily know how it works.
Well, the knowing where to look and what to believe are the important changes. Knowing how / why it works is also important for advancement, but clearly there are a large number of fairly high level jobs where just knowing that it does work, is good enough.
This is not a trivial point, one which most education and assessment systems still miss
True but unless we teach both we wont learn new stuff.
the one I wonder is when they will just teach children to type /text and not bother teaching them to write as ,possibly within my lifetime , it may become a redundant ability.
I only teach adults BTW - my curriculum knowledge is out of date- and it is mainly life skills stuff but I also do key skills - I hide my ability to teach English very well on here
Dont teach physics facts
what are these physics "facts" you speak of?
Of course kids need some knowledge of currently accepted theories in order to understand the process but in the modern fast changing world the process's become much more important, mr gove thinks kids dont know enough science facts which only serves to highlight his stupidity as there arent any
what are these physics "facts" you speak of
1) You can't polish a turd
It is a mute point to discuss facts in this context as some facts have little to no conflicting evidence and have much divergent information from a multitude of fields - evolution for example. I am not certain what percentage of what we know now is a fact - earth is round and it orbits the sun but the Big bang is not a fact for another example. If you are claiming nothing at all is a fact then surely that would also not be a fact 😉
i have a science degree I do get your broader point here about science reducing infinite error etc, what the conclusion means and nothing really being proved and just being the best fit etc.
EDIT: Not only can you polish them you can find a guide on google - see I knew you could but did not knwo how to - it was mentioned on STW some time ago
http://www.howtocleanstuff.net/strategies/how-to-polish-a-turd/