Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1401] Re: #203 want vs. need
From: Adamson (adamson46844@mni.ne.jp)
Date: Sat 17 Mar 2001 - 22:51:02 MET
From: "Adamson" <adamson46844@mni.ne.jp> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1401] Re: #203 want vs. need Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 06:51:02 +0900
Dr. Doris Sweeney wrote:
> Now as to want vs. need. I think the original concept of need: that what
is necessary
> for daily living still holds today. Want becomes anything that is not a
need for daily
> living. The list of necessities under each category will be both vast and
varying
> depending upon the individual.
>
> Want vs. need within educational circles is harder to nail down. Students
need to be
> educated within a system of values that will prepare them to be
functioning members of
> society. Agreement must occur on what qualities individuals need to
possess to be
> functioning members of society.
>
> Need within educational circles most likely should include access to
courses in
> multipresentational methods that contain adequate content--being relevant.
>
While I do not disagree with the above comments, I think that that there is
much more to the question of "needs". The above addresses the question of
needs from a societal point of view and the overall system and this is
important. However, we also need to address needs at the class level. What
content must be included in order that the course fulfil its role within the
overall curriculum? This question can be considered from a variety of view
points: society, school administration, students, parents, faculty, other
courses (before and after), the students' projected future use of the
content, etc.
For example, in my case as a English teacher in a nursing program in Japan,
there seems to be three general reasons for teaching English as a foreign
language. First, is custom, then there are general future needs and specific
future needs.
Custom relates to the usually unanalyzed Japanese idea that college
education means more exposure to English than was given in junior and senior
high school. There are no goals, just the general feeling that tertiary
education should include some English in at least the first and maybe the
second.
General future needs refers to the again unanalyzed perception that English
is the vehicle for internationalization, a process that is considered
necessary. This sort of English includes very broad goals: the ability to
use English while traveling, getting news and general information in
English, understanding movies, music, and other entertainment, etc.
Specific future needs refers to the fact that the four year program requires
that my students obtain information about nursing from English language
sources. I do not know the exact percentage but a very large number of the
books about nursing in the school library are written in English. Also most
professional journals are in English.
Want, on the other hand, refers to what the students want to study.
Questionnaires and interviews with students makes it clear that the majority
want something in the general future needs category, but many of them also
realize that they will have specific future needs.
I agree with Dr. Sweeney that at the overall level (public schooling, for
example) this is a much more difficult to answer question. However, for the
course designer that is just one of many sources of needs.
To change the subject slightly, I find that one of the weaknesses of working
with the WWW is that students find it very difficult to meet these needs.
Following links quickly takes the student into new areas that are not
related to the original questions for which the student was searching for
answers. This means that the language used for talking about the cyber-space
of learning probably needs to include something which describes the
relevance of the page to previous pages and to the current reason for being
on-line.
Charles Adamson, Ph.D.
Professor, Faculty of Nursing
Miyagi University
Miyagi-ken, Japan
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