The Collection and Creation of Knowledge

O UR timeworn methods of oral and written examinations are ways of demonstrating that in our educational methods we still believe that the collection of knowledge is more important than the creation of knowledge. To some it is beginning to appear that an education without some information as to how knowledge is created is a lopsided affair. There are those who believe that the collection and creation of knowledge should go hand in hand. By word of mouth and written page, man has handed down a vast amount of knowledge through the centuries of the past. It has meant travail of mind and soul for many to produce much of this material. Too much do students of this generation take it for granted and go on masticating mental pemmican to be disgorged at the next test or examination. If, in the process of collecting knowledge, our would-be-scholar were led to create knowledge, he would suddenly realize the value and importance of the knowledge which he has inherited from past ages. His accumulated knowledge would have a new significance to him. Nor is this all. The creation of knowledge gives one a thrill. Why did Peary try time after time to gain the North Pole? Because he, as every other discoverer knows, would have a great thrill when that hour should come and he would be standing at the top of the world, where never the foot of man had been before. The Creator of all the Universe sensed this same thrill of creation as he viewed the work of his hand and declared it to be good. Can this joy which comes to the

Data collection · Knowledge management · Mathematics education · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Psychology

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  David Watkins, Dora N Watkins et al.•Assessment & Evaluation in Higher…•1991

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