Why Teaching Can Prevent Learning
A framework for redesigning education in the 21st century
Isn't it rather amusing how uncontroversial and common claiming that "education is wrong and
inefficient" has become? Still... isn't it a big concern when people scream from the top of their
lungs about a certain problem, yet nothing gets fixed? After all, it's absurd and pessimistic to
think that societal problems aren't solvable, it might be just that we don't have the right
knowledge to solve them yet... But how can it be the case, when it feels as if countless resources
have gone into changing education and yet we still complain about it. Maybe, like in many cases,
the crowd is simply wrong... What if education is good enough the way it is? Could it be that
children are simply too lazy? Learning is, as they say, supposed to be hard! Or is it?
It's hard to tell whether these questions really yield any clear responses. Which question should
we follow first? Which one is epistemically more useful? You'd be circling around what the current
system does and play within its own framework.
I think, due to how old these institutions are, and how much they have infiltrated our culture
simply through existing for centuries (where we now see schooling as a given right, as
something that has always existed), the assumptions presented by the educational system
about what learning is have become so deeply ingrained in our brains that we take
most of them for granted. Answering most of the above questions would therefore entail
bringing in assumptions from the very educational system we are trying to examine. I
therefore think the best way to understand the state of things is by starting from first principles
and, to the extent we can, thinking about what Education Is In Itself!
What is the objective of schooling?
Let us assume that the core reason schools exist is to educate pupils [1] (although you can argue
that's not their primary function). Education in its broader definition is the deliberate attempt to
help the subject develop knowledge.
<Throughout this essay I'll be referring to knowledge in the broader definition that David
Deutsch offers as information with causal properties>
To make it even simpler, education is the environment which facilitates the acquisition of
knowledge. That encompasses all tools, methods and external agents (what schooling attempts to
be if we take its core purpose that of educating).
The process through which the acquisition of knowledge happens at an individual level is called
learning. It's not an external process to be controlled, but rather an internal one where the
subject's understanding of the world shifts and adapts so that it can better predict the future.
Education is the environment which facilitates the learning process, and although it cannot
control how each individual acquires knowledge, it can create the premises that speed up and
strengthen that process. It therefore follows that Education (the environment which includes all
the tools, methods, agents; teachers, classrooms, curriculum) is downstream of learning, and a
way to improve it is by building upon the principles of whatever learning entails.
Why Teaching Can Prevent Learning A framework for redesigning education in the 21st century
Isn't it rather amusing how uncontroversial and common claiming that "education is wrong and inefficient" has become? Still... isn't it a big concern when people scream from the top of their lungs about a certain problem, yet nothing gets fixed? After all, it's absurd and pessimistic to think that societal problems aren't solvable, it might be just that we don't have the right knowledge to solve them yet... But how can it be the case, when it feels as if countless resources have gone into changing education and yet we still complain about it. Maybe, like in many cases, the crowd is simply wrong... What if education is good enough the way it is? Could it be that children are simply too lazy? Learning is, as they say, supposed to be hard! Or is it? It's hard to tell whether these questions really yield any clear responses. Which question should we follow first? Which one is epistemically more useful? You'd be circling around what the current system does and play within its own framework.
I think, due to how old these institutions are, and how much they have infiltrated our culture simply through existing for centuries (where we now see schooling as a given right, as something that has always existed), the assumptions presented by the educational system about what learning is have become so deeply ingrained in our brains that we take most of them for granted. Answering most of the above questions would therefore entail bringing in assumptions from the very educational system we are trying to examine. I therefore think the best way to understand the state of things is by starting from first principles and, to the extent we can, thinking about what Education Is In Itself! What is the objective of schooling?
Let us assume that the core reason schools exist is to educate pupils [1] (although you can argue that's not their primary function). Education in its broader definition is the deliberate attempt to help the subject develop knowledge.
<Throughout this essay I'll be referring to knowledge in the broader definition that David Deutsch offers as information with causal properties>
To make it even simpler, education is the environment which facilitates the acquisition of knowledge. That encompasses all tools, methods and external agents (what schooling attempts to be if we take its core purpose that of educating).
The process through which the acquisition of knowledge happens at an individual level is called learning. It's not an external process to be controlled, but rather an internal one where the subject's understanding of the world shifts and adapts so that it can better predict the future.
Education is the environment which facilitates the learning process, and although it cannot control how each individual acquires knowledge, it can create the premises that speed up and strengthen that process. It therefore follows that Education (the environment which includes all the tools, methods, agents; teachers, classrooms, curriculum) is downstream of learning, and a way to improve it is by building upon the principles of whatever learning entails.
Learning Is Model Change...