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The tag seems almost as compromised as the tag, i.e. lots of questions that aren't about the education process are tagged so simply because some is [self-]educating by asking a question here.

The other two process-related tags and haven't yet been irredeemably compromised by people adding them indiscriminately to self-posed (as opposed to homework-assigned) questions. However if "self-learning" is burninated but "learning" takes its place, I fear it will become equally compromised in a rather short time-span simply because most askers don't read the tag description(s) and whoever might be policing them can't seem to keep up.

Practical issues like that aside, the genuine learning-process questions that would properly belong to "education", "learning" and "teaching" tags feel a bit outside the core mission of M.SE now that there's a whole site https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/ (ME.SE) dedicated to these pedagogical issues. So, I would suggest adding text similar to that exists for , , and other marginal (on M.SE) topics, i.e. suggest that they are better asked elsewhere, in this case on ME.SE. And in theory, if this decision to marginalize them is made, and could be merged into education as well, if it were not for the horrible pollution of the latter.

Also questions genuine questions about (self-)learning are often s, so I think a pointer to using that tag instead might be helpful too in (and in while it's still around).

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    $\begingroup$ My response below perhaps is too narrowly directed to the MathEd.SE aspect of the discussion. Where a tag is not representative of the actual content of a Question, even if "related" (as "learning" would be to almost any post), it should be removed and (as necessary) replaced. It sounds like it could be tag clean-up project. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Feb 27, 2015 at 15:31

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I would say these tags continue to have value here at M.SE and are not "marginal".

  1. MathEd.SE is a beta site, and so far has less than a thousand Questions posted. Making a change to M.SE priorities based on the existence of that sister-site, much as I welcome it and wish them well, is premature.

  2. Pedagogy is not at all a marginal element of mathematics. The arrangement of topics and a philosophy of how much detail a student should be expected to fill in for themselves are important to many M.SE participants. These topics commonly have technical aspects that make them well suited for presentation in this Community.

  3. The mission statement for MathEd.SE says:

Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those involved in the field of teaching mathematics.

I'm not (yet) a participant there, and while I've certainly taught math classes at various levels, I'm not sure if I'm currently "involved" (but perhaps by dint of occasional tutoring). I'm doubtful of the premise that pedagogically motivated Questions here are really "better" referred to MathEd.SE.

My experience with Area 51 developments is that graduation from beta status to full SE site status is a fraught path. I do wish the MathEd.SE project success, but I'm not sure if there will be a lot of benefit to it from the referral of Questions from here.

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    $\begingroup$ The formulation of the MESE-target audience was chosen in the way it is to make clear that the site is about teaching and the process of learning mathematics as opposed to mathematics itself. This distinction is a constant source of confusion, and main source for off-topic questions. Thus, the formulation is more to the "exclusive" end; yet the "involved" can and should be read in a broad way to include students, parents, self-learners etc, or also anybody having a general interest in mathematical pedagogy. (I am a mod there.) $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Feb 27, 2015 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ To be clear: the above is not meant as opposing the message of this post in general. It is merely meant to clarify the intent of the quote mentioned in 3. as a general piece of information. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Feb 27, 2015 at 15:41
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    $\begingroup$ @quid: Thanks for clarifying that target audience. I probably would have joined the beta commitment, but at the time I had already three (the max). Of those three, one never took off, one took off and crashed within a week (inside private beta), and one (Coffee) is up and running. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Feb 27, 2015 at 15:57
  • $\begingroup$ I hope you're right. My latest example of an "education" question is math.stackexchange.com/questions/1174804/… $\endgroup$
    – Fizz
    Mar 4, 2015 at 9:51
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    $\begingroup$ @RespawnedFluff: I'm going to retag that (on-hold) Q to "word-problem", but the OP's selection of tags ("i don't know what any of those mean, i just put them there so I could submit the question") is almost too priceless to tamper with. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Mar 4, 2015 at 13:26
  • $\begingroup$ @hardmath - Not everyone who comes here is a mathematician and -- almost by definition -- will not know what are the appropriate tags to use. You can see it at any site on SE: non-experts don't know what tags to use. The reasoning "i just put them there so I could submit the question" is an honest attempt to handle a difficult situation. Or it would be if they knew to state that in the comments. $\endgroup$
    – Martin F
    Mar 10, 2015 at 15:39
  • $\begingroup$ @martinf: I believe it was an honest effort to post the Question without knowing what exactly would be the optimal tag; easily fixed. What I found amusing was the use of a maximum number of tags, of fairly random selection. One tag would have sufficed. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Mar 10, 2015 at 15:47
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, 'twas a lot of tags! $\endgroup$
    – Martin F
    Mar 10, 2015 at 15:50

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