Memory, Engagement, Group-work
Memory, Engagement, Group-work
Interesting Ideas Fished around from Social Media
1. Why you need knowledge in your memory to think:
“Knowledge is what we think with.
A knowledge-rich curriculum is not just about reading, although that’s an essential part of it. And it’s not just about preparation for work, although that’s important too.
Fundamentally, it’s about making our minds interesting places to spend the rest of our lives.
Knowledge is what we use to perceive the world and make models of the world. With knowledge comes the potential for creativity, innovation, communication. So it’s good for the economy, almost as an aside.
A knowledge rich curriculum seeks to find the most fundamental, powerful and enduring knowledge and teach that in schools as a good thing in and of itself.”
2. Are Your Students Engaged or Learning?
Kinda disappointing how many shitty takes on learning come from within the field of education itself.
Imagine some portion of pro basketball coaches deciding one year that their players don't need do any drills or spend time building foundational strength in the weight room, all they'll do during practice is have a group discussion about the sport and their relationship with it.
Thanks to the level of accountability and incentives in athletics, this situation would naturally resolve: the team would get their ass handed to them every game, and the coach would get fired.
It all comes down to measuring performance and holding coaches accountable for obtaining results -- that is, high or at least rapidly increasing performance.
But in education, lots of people avoid measuring performance or hide behind nebulous proxy metrics instead (e.g., engagement).
That's another funny convo to imagine having with a basketball coach:
"Is your team winning?"
"No, but they're smiling!"
3. Not all Group-work are effective
Groups are meant to be better decision-makers than individuals, because they combine many perspectives. But in practice, a group doesn't base its decisions on the info specific to each member, but only on the info common to them all. This casts doubt on the idea that “two heads are better than one”, and helps explain why, despite popular wisdom, diversity generally does not make teams better.
Interestingly, here’s a similar thought about the risk of conversation, from “Nyaya Sutra” way way back in the time.
“While conversation with other people is an important element of how we— as human beings— refine our ideas, we run the risk of encountering falsehoods and bad reasoning disguised as good. Sometimes, people are simply misguided, but other times, they are intentionally trying to mislead us.”
(Reason in an Uncertain World - Nyāya Philosophers on Argumentation and Living Well by Malcom Keating)
My Short Synthesis:
If you want to develop curious, innovative students capable of thinking critically, start from knowledge-rich curriculum.
Where’s the accountability in Education? Unlike in other domains like sports, education often lacks measurable performance standards. Prioritize concrete learning outcomes and accountability in teaching. And ditch the fluff.
Students working in groups has become a norm in many schools now. But, group discussions can limit to group-thinking and ignore the risk of bad reasoning.