>From the (very respectful) postings on this thread it seems clear to me that >there is a lack of knowledge in what causes autism. The researchers on NPR >seem to have overlooked this and attributed self esteem as the reason that >parents were not vaccinating their second child. Not buying that so much.
In the case of the Computing Education Blog it was suggested that the lack of self esteem reduced the students' willingness to take a chance on learning an alternative computer language. Without knowing the particular classroom, it is hard to know why the students were reluctant, but I think that it could be likely that they were uncertain about the reasoning behind introducing a new language to teach new concepts. Increasing self esteem might overcome this, the same way that believing that you can ski a difficult run is better than standing at the top and feeling that you can't, but it may be more beneficial to provide the information to support the student or train the skier if you want a better outcome. I often think of well put together courses in terms of a Disneyland experience (the good parts not the monoculture stuff). There is lots of support for knowing what to do next, the environment is safe and clean, and you will be exposed to just enough novelty for the experience to be pleasant and enriching. There are many hidden aspects to what goes into designing that environment and the visitor only notices when something fails. If you put the most amazing experience into a cold, dangerous, environment where breathing is difficult and years of training is a prerequisite, you might not be surprised when your number of successful visitors is about the number of people who have stood on the top of Mount Everest. I guess what I am saying is that we should make it as likely as possible for learners to be successful at learning J. Water tends to flow downhill and as much as you do have control over the learning environment, you can make the learning more or less likely. Cheers, bob On Mar 31, 2014, at 10:43 AM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 1:11 PM, Dan Bron <[email protected]> wrote: >> According to the FDA [1], due to this specific concern, no common vaccine >> (excepting for the flu) has contained any mercury in any over a decade, >> and those that did historically contained only trace amounts (by >> "historically" I mean more like the 1990s than the 1930s). > > Oh, yes - seafood on the other hand... > > -- > Raul > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
