New Zealand is a lost cause insofar as science education is concerned, for the government and educational establishment is doing all it can to make local indigenous "ways of knowing" (mātauranga Māori, or MM) coequal with modern science, and taught as coequal. This will, in the end, severely damage science education in New Zealand, and drive local science teachers (and graduate students) to other countries. It won't help the indigenous Māori people, either, as it will not only give them misconceptions about what is empirically "true" versus what is fable, legend, or religion, but also make them less competitive in world science—both in jobs and publishing.
Now, I would be the first to admit that indigenous knowledge is not completely devoid of empirical knowledge. Indigenous people have a stock of knowledge acquired by observation as well as trial and error. This includes, of course, a knowledge of the indigenous plants and their medical and nutritional uses, when the best time is to catch fish or pick berries, and, in perhaps its most sophisticated version, the ability the Polynesians to navigate huge expanses of water. (That, of course, was also done by trial and error, and must have involved the demise of those who didn't do it right—something that's never mentioned.)
Is observational knowledge like this "science"? In one sense, yes, for you can construe "science" as simply "verified empirical knowledge". But modern science is more than that: it's also its own "way of knowing"—a toolkit of methods, itself assembled by trial and error, for obtaining provisional truth. - Jerry Coyne
Because modern science comprises not just facts but a method codified via experience, indigenous knowledge generally fails the second part, for it lacks a method for advancing knowledge beyond experience and verification. Indeed, I know of no indigenous science that has a standard methodology for ascertaining truth. Yes, various plants can be tested for their efficacy in relieving ailments, but this is done by trial and error—in contrast to the double-blind tests used to assess the effects of new drugs and medicines.
Still, indigenous knowledge can contribute to modern science. This can involve bringing attention to phenomena that, when tested scientifically, can be folded into the domain of empirical fact. Quinine and aspirin were developed in this way. And, of course, local ecological knowledge of indigenous people can be valuable in helping guide modern science and calling attention to phenomena that might have otherwise been overlooked. Nevertheless, what we have is experiential knowledge on one hand—a species of knowledge that rarely leads to testable hypotheses—and modern science on the other, which is designed to lead to progress by raising new testable hypotheses.
The concept of "indigenous science", then, baffles me, especially if, as in New Zealand, it's seen as coequal to science. It's not, though, for it lacks a methodology beyond trial and error for determining what's true. But because of what philosopher Molly McGrath called "the authority of the sacred victim.", indigenous "ways of knowing" are given special authority because they're held by people regarded as oppressed. This leads their "ways of knowing" to be overrated as competitors to modern science. Indeed, MM is a pastiche of real empirical knowledge, but also of religion, theology, ideology, morality, rules for living, authority, and tradition. This kind of mixture characterizes many indigenous "ways of knowing", making it necessary, when teaching them as science, to not only distinguish "fact" from "method," but to winnow the empirical wheat from the ideological and spiritual chaff. - Jerry Coyne
Now I'm not sure what's included in "ethnomathematics". If it's just approaching teaching math but using examples familiar to indigenous folk, then it's not an alternative form of mathematics but a method of teaching. If it really adds stuff to the knowledge of mathematics, I'd like to know what. (Be always wary when you see the term "holistic approach" applied to education. And the notion that ethnomathematics has something to do with "social justice" scares the bejeezus out of me.) Perhaps ethnomathematics is mathematics + ideology, in which case it's not an eye that sees, but a hand that propagandizes. - Jerry Coyne
Stuart Nash getting in trouble - again - has reminded the public that changing the General doesn't change the troops. And if you didn't like them before, you probably won't like them now.
Hipkins must take some responsibility for the Nash saga getting to this stage. He should've sacked Nash two weeks ago. Nash was always going to cause more trouble. It was so predictable that this column actually predicted it a fortnight ago. The only surprising element was how quickly it proved true.
Hipkins is trying desperately to paint this latest indiscretion - the email to donors - as Nash's most egregious yet. He's hoping to make it sound completely different to the other indiscretions, to excuse his previous lack of discipline.
But in truth, it wasn't Nash's biggest mistake. Yes, an email full of secrets sent to men who donate money is a massive error of judgment. But line that up next to the fact that Crown Law considered prosecuting him for contempt of court and it's not close. And yet Nash survived.- Heather du Plessis-Allan
But the Marama Davidson drama is probably more damaging to Labour, even though she isn't a Labour MP.
Her "white cis men" comments created huge amounts of anger. Far more anger than the Nash affair.
There were calls for an apology. Hipkins could've demanded one. - Heather du Plessis-Allan
Hipkins could've - if he wanted to - forced an apology out of her. He is the PM. She is one of his ministers.
But he didn't. He said those were words he wouldn't have used. Bringing race into it was "not particularly helpful". Early on, that was enough. But when Davidson started doubling down and refusing to apologise, Hipkins' action was not enough anymore. Because she was so publicly defiant and because she is a minister, his inaction looked at the very least like a lack of concern, at worst like private agreement.
There are a fair few white men and their wives pretty upset at those comments. Hipkins will need white men and their wives to win the election. - Heather du Plessis-Allan
Again, that was probably not the smartest distraction. Not this week anyway. It was just another reminder that Hipkins is dealing with the same old crew, with the same old tired tricks that Jacinda Ardern had to deal with. - Heather du Plessis-Allan
The reality is that most of the high-profile initiatives she had either went backwards or Chris Hipkins has essentially ripped them up. - Sir John Key
It is not the Opposition that has absolutely taken the knife to her policies, it's her successor. - Jim Bolger
All disasters. It has just been a shambles. It's sad but true.
"I lifted the pension from 60 to 65 and it certainly wasn't welcome but you can manage these things - I was re-elected the next time as well. - Jim Bolger
If you look at the broader issue of race relations, and primarily because of how she mishandled the introduction of co-governance, she has left New Zealand's race relations in a much worse position.
Her policy failure, her inability to explain what she meant with co-governance, has meant we are going to be more divided on race than we have been for years and years and years.
That is evident everywhere now. People are anxious, concerned, worried, uncertain …and that's frankly just a failure of leadership in a vital area of society. And Jacinda didn't provide it. - Jim Bolger
We are now quite divided on racial issues and that is tragic. And it is going to take quite a while to build back. - Jim Bolger
One of the peculiarities of our age is the ferocity with which intellectuals and politicians defend propositions that they do not—because they cannot—believe to be true, so outrageous are they, such violence do they do to the most obvious and evident truth. - Theodore Dalrymple
Among the propositions defended with such suspect ferocity is that men can change straightforwardly and unambiguously into women, and vice versa. Now everyone accepts that they can change into something different from ordinary men and women, and can live as if they were of the opposite of their birth sex; moreover, there is no reason to abuse or otherwise maltreat them if they do, and kindness and human decency require that we do not humiliate them or make their lives more difficult than they are. But this is not at all the same as claiming that those who take hormones and have operations actually are the sex that they choose, or that it is right to enshrine untruth in law and thereby force people to assent to what they know to be false. That way totalitarianism lies.
To propound and defend ideas that you know are false is intellectually and morally frivolous, but it lacks the usual enjoyment that frivolity is supposed to supply. It is combined with earnestness but not with seriousness: one thinks of the Austrian saying under the Habsburgs, "the situation is catastrophic but not serious." - Theodore Dalrymple
If we try to look on this episode with the eye of a future social historian, on the assumption (by no means certain) that western societies will someday come to their senses and that their social historians will be at least moderately sensible, what will we hypothesise? How to explain that societies that prided themselves on having overthrown superstition and on basing themselves to an unprecedented extent upon scientific enquiry, and that had a higher percentage of educated people than ever before in human history, nevertheless believed in the grossest absurdities? What could have possessed them? - Theodore Dalrymple
Pity and compassion, formerly Christian virtues, are the virtues that run wild in the modern social liberal's mind. Indeed, one might almost say that he has become addicted to them, for they are what give meaning and purpose to his life. He is ever on the lookout for new worlds not to conquer, but to pity. In his mind, pity and compassion require that he adopts without demur the point of view of the person he pities, for otherwise, he might upset him; he must not criticise, therefore. In short, if need be, he must lie, and he frequently ends up deceiving himself as well as others. And if he has power, he will turn lies into policy. - Theodore Dalrymple
From our cities to our remote rural areas, cones have become a fixture of the New Zealand landscape, clogging up footpaths, roads and even beaches.
The cone-quest of our islands has become a national phenomenon. It would not be an exaggeration to say that New Zealand is starting to look like a giant VLC media player.
Effectively, road cones are New Zealand's new national flower. Sadly, they have also begun competing with native kiwi birds and other local fauna. - Dr Oliver Hartwich
Where we previously advertised our country to the world as "100% pure", we should adopt a new marketing slogan: "New Zealand: Come for the scenery, stay for the cone-versations!" - Oliver Hartwich
As they say on Karangahape Road: "Why did the orange cone cross the road? To annoy the other side!"
The invasion of road cones calls for urgent action. It will take imagination and courage to drive them back, and we are glad to see Mayor Brown on the case. Politicians like him really think outside the cone. - Oliver Hartwich
To address the cone-undrum, the government should recruit an elite army of Cone Collectors. Dressed in bright orange uniforms, they will blend right in as they do their dangerous work of removing cones from our roads.
The cone harvest can be used to build new tourist attractions. Conehenge anyone? Or a Cone of Liberty? Maybe even a Millennium Cone? And Cone-tiki tours between them?
As New Zealanders take back cone-trol of their cities from their orange overlords, they will know who to thank.
His name is not orange but Brown. Wayne Brown. - Oliver Hartwich
We need a real conversation. One informed by reliable research. One in which people with strongly differing viewpoints listen to one another with respect. One in which no one has decided the outcome from the very start.
That is how we do things in a democracy – even if some of our public servants seem to have forgotten it. And there's nothing more important to democracy than a sound education system. - Michael Johnston
Recent trials of new standards for NCEA show that two thirds of our 15- and 16-year-olds cannot write at a basic adult standard. One third cannot read at such a standard, and nearly half lack basic numeracy skills.
In large part, the reason for these shocking results is that we have been using teaching methods skills that fly in the face of scientific evidence on how people learn. In recent decades the Ministry has dictated an approach based on ideology rather than evidence.
The solution is clear. We must urgently start following the best evidence on teaching literacy and numeracy. These skills need to be taught in a structured way, taking careful account of the limitations of human memory and attention. - Michael Johnston
We need a new curriculum that specifies, in some detail, the knowledge that children need, in order to learn to think independently and develop their ideas in a sound way. A high-quality curriculum would also structure the order in which knowledge is taught and learned much more effectively than our current one. - Michael Johnston
We might expect that teachers-in-training would acquire an understanding of the scientific evidence on how children learn. Unfortunately, most training providers do not equip them with this knowledge.
The criteria for teachers to register with the Teaching Council are the right pressure point to change this. To be granted a teaching certificate, new teachers should have to demonstrate such knowledge, as well as their ability to apply it in the classroom. Teacher training institutions would have to ensure that their graduates hold, and can apply, this knowledge. - Michael Johnston
We're having a free-speech moment. It isn't going well. - Damien Grant
We no longer engage in debate but in a tit-for-tat escalation of tactical moves to deny those we disagree with the opportunity to be heard or to punish them if they speak out of turn. - Damien Grant
We have graduated to a cultural landscape where commercial intimidation and even physical violence is permissible against people if their views are deemed unacceptable by the cultural, political and media leadership.
Those in positions of responsibility may wish to reflect on this, rather than stoking further escalation. - Damien Grant
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