I wanted to talk a bit about some areas in which my thinking about education has improved with the addition of nuance, and about the ways in which thinking can be more nuanced.
- Desirable difficulty - a case where quantification and the awareness of countervailing forces / costs improved my initial, flawed understanding.
- Cognitive load theory - a case where I was so enamoured with the power of the model that I had started to equate the it with truth (or confuse the "map" with the "territory"), but a well-put listener comment made me realise that there are phenomena that the theory cannot account for.
- Motivation - a case where perspectives offered from other cultures and other disciplines undermined my initial confidence in the findings of psychologists.
I also discuss the idea put forward by Ference Marton in discussing the following questions:
- Is learning by yourself better than learning by being taught?
- Does homework enhance learning?
- Is problem-based learning better than lectures for big classes?
- Is individualized learning preferable to group work?
- Is project work a good idea?
Marton writes:
The problem with questions of this kind is that they cannot be answered. It is not that they cannot be answered yet, and it is not because of a scarcity of research funds or a scarcity of good ideas. They are simply imponderable because of the degree of generality. Asking these questions is like asking whether pills are better than operations, or whether a hammer is better than a screwdriver, or whether eating is good for your health.
While I do believe that there are some ideas that can be flatly considered wrong or unhelpful, there is something to say for Marton's view. Ultimately a mature understanding requires a well-developed worldview or philosophy, which can't be transmitted in a single sentence. Questions at the level of generality of "Is eating good for your health?" demand a structure to be put in place explaining the nature of human nutrition and digestion, not simply a "yes" or "no" answer.
Enjoy the episode.
