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0 pointssriram_malhar5y ago0 comments

Very interesting. I don't understand why a teaching system cannot incorporate both a conceptual understanding as well as hands-on applied knowledge. Is it a matter of the time available?

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heymijo5y ago

Hi Sriram, a teaching system can incorporate both!

Apologies if my original reply made it seem like it can't.

Why don't teaching systems in America incorporate both the majority of the time?

Two major reasons:

1. Cultural inertia. Most teachers emulate the pedagogy that they experienced in their schooling. Some are aware that you can try to mix conceptual+procedural and try to. I call them the "notch generation"- trying to teach in a way that is different than they were taught. It's hard to do because...

2. The system is not designed to accommodate it. Incentives and higher order effects all conspire with cultural inertia to thwart it.

ZeikJT5y ago

#2 bothered me so much in school. The system gauges success via tests that check short term learning. It really, really isn't good at measuring learning.

apricot5y ago

I always did very well on tests at school, but I wasn't really learning anything, or more precisely, I wasn't learning how to learn. I was learning how to pass tests, but that's a rather useless skill to have. I had to learn learning as an adult, and it was more difficult than if I had to learn it as a child.

heymijo5y ago

Hey man, that really sucks, and I'm sorry to hear it. I have a bunch of follow-up questions I'm curious about. I know HN isn't the best way to track replies. I've got heymijo.hn at gmail set up if you want to shoot me an e-mail.

I've worked in both K-12 and post-secondary education, studied the history of education reform in the United States, and visited schools/met teachers/students/etc that I've connected with across the U.S.

I'm always interested in hearing someone's story about school, how it did/didn't meet their needs, and how it has impacted them.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

heymijo5y ago

Hi Sriram, a teaching system can incorporate both!

Apologies if my original reply made it seem like it can't.

Why don't teaching systems in America incorporate both the majority of the time?

Two major reasons:

2. The system is not designed to accommodate it. Incentives and higher order effects all conspire with cultural inertia to thwart it.

ZeikJT5y ago

#2 bothered me so much in school. The system gauges success via tests that check short term learning. It really, really isn't good at measuring learning.

apricot5y ago

heymijo5y ago

I'm always interested in hearing someone's story about school, how it did/didn't meet their needs, and how it has impacted them.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse