You do have to do ’skills’ work in the written assignments. But all the assignments have to, again this is made explicit, refer to the course materials sent to you by the Open University. And they make no bones about it – you are marked according to your ability to demonstrate knowledge of the course materials.

I wonder if these things are really that hard to teach in a classroom. Classrooms can work well as a venue for interaction and collaboration – away from the hubbub of the real world, a location more in time than space for reflection. But I’m fairly certain they couldn’t be taught by teachers.

This partly because of the shelf-life on knowledge. Every day a teacher spends away from the real-world, their ability to deliver in a just-in-time way diminishes.

But mostly it’s because teachers lack skills in measuring success. The main function of educational establishments seems to have become – much more than a location in time or even a location in space – a location where you can be ‘right’. Exams only ‘work’ in educational establishments.

Here’s a nice post by Ken Ewell

The Semantics of Critical Thinking
http://commonsensical.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/the-semantics-of-critical-thinking/#comment-212