-
Performance and Learning
Bjork‘s research demonstrates ways to make knowledge transference an integrated part of learning. In his chapter, Bjork alludes to conditioning as a primary problem in why transference and learning do not happen naturally. Transference is a difficult thing to learn. It’s easier to just learn the facts, and parrot them back again. In order…
-
The Tyranny of Content
Stuff – that’s what we teach – stuff. Stuff and more stuff. We live in the information age, where information (and good quality information at that) is widely and freely available to more and more of us. Certainly, the availability of information to higher education students is at unprecedented levels. And yet, our…
-
The Failed Promise of Technology
Why is it that technology has not revolutionized education. The promise of the decades has failed to fundamentally change education in any meaningful way. With all the educational technologies promising to change the world, I still have to agree with William Bagley (1934) “If I were seriously ill and in desperate need of a…
-
Effort in Learning
I’m disappointed to see so much effort put into making learning effortless (learning styles, cognitive-enhancing drugs, etc.). The most basic and critical component of learning is the laying down of memory traces. Making meaningful connections to the knowledge you already have. The act of taking information and going through the process of…
-
Willful Blindness & Education
Both the education and the higher part of higher education is broken.Research is the only game in town and as that relies more and more heavily on private (read: commercial) funding the research game becomes more and more private (and trivial). Research is the only game in town and as that relies…
-
Cramming – Episodic Memory
Actually cramming works to pass a test, and for millions of students that is the only goal for their education. Eighty-five percent of the students entering university in 2016 were doing so in order to get a qualification that would lead to a better job. For them, cramming works, because they have no intention…
-
ACEs, Critical Thinking, Metacognition, Rational Thinking, Science of Learning - General, Society, Training
It’s Not How we do Higher Education, It’s What we do in Higher Education
We live in a complex world with a myriad of problems that need attention. We have what we need to seriously address them, but we have failed to develop what we most need – our human capital. Students enter higher education by the millions with 87% wanting nothing more than a degree…
