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Some people prefer learning from examples (inductive) while other people prefer learning the theory bottom-up (deductive). This article may be for the first kin
by Scea91 9y ago
Some people prefer learning from examples (inductive) while other people prefer learning the theory bottom-up (deductive). This article may be for the first kind of people.
Everyone uses both kinds of reasoning but I know I have deeper understanding of the areas that I studied bottom-up. Even if it might have been a bit more difficult and time consuming, because I didn't get to the applicable stuff as fast.
- kbart 9y agoWhy not use mixed approach? I find it works best for me. First, learn by examples to get a broader picture, then learn theory bottom-up to get into details. It's much easier to learn complex theories when you know where it leads and what purpose it serves than building mental model blindly.
- suj1th 9y agoIMO, deductive learning is limiting ( we are limited by the span of our examples), but it has great recall value. Inductive learning is harder to commit to long-term memory; particularly, when learning something which you find scant use for in your day-to-day life. Again, I can see this is not general, and could vary considerably across individuals.
- randomsearch 9y agoI’ve done a few degree-level teaching courses, and what I gathered from them is that the notion of individual learning styles is a bit of a myth. Most people learn best from examples, which makes intuitive sense. Purely theoretical learning does not come easy to most people - that’s why maths is so scary to so many. Given that the learning style myth has been mostly discredited, I also wonder about preferences such as night owl vs morning bird - it seems to me that people learn best in the morning, _unless_ they have poor sleep hygiene. Which would again make totally intuitive sense.
- MooMooMilkParty 9y agoI'm curious about your last statement. I guess I'd be considered a night owl by most people, and certainly have poor sleep hygiene in the eyes of early birds, but I find myself most motivated to do really "intellectual" work about 2-3 hours after dinner. For the record, when I say "intellectual" work I don't specifically mean academic, but more broadly creative. Do you specifically mean something like learning in the classroom setting? Now I'm also curious about the differences in free-form learning (which I guess I'm talking about) vs the more traditional classroom learning. Do you have any insight on this?
- randomsearch 9y agoI'm referring to the ability to learn and retain material, doesn't have to be in a classroom. So I don't think that whether you're reading, being lectured, etc. would impact whether the time of day affects you. As for being creative, I imagine the same arguments for mornings being more productive would apply (better physiological state). I have a feeling you might enjoy "The One World Schoolhouse" by Salman Khan (as in Khan Academy).
- suj1th 9y agoSo would you say people who do master complex mathematical concepts too learn from examples, rather than a deductive approach of understanding pure theory?
- randomsearch 9y agoMy answer would be "yes, but perhaps eventually they've bootstrapped themselves where they can escape examples." Everyone learns better starting from examples. Humans are inductive learners. Makes sense, given our situation. However, from our starting point some people meta-learn abstract reasoning i.e. mathematics, which doesn't come naturally. Maths is hard because it isn't the way we usually think. Often those people claim to find purely theoretical approaches better for learning, although I'm personally sceptical from attending a decade of seminars and classes at many institutions; people presenting a purely theoretical introduction to a topic are immediately hit with requests for examples. And usually criticised for not starting with examples. But I do not usually attend lectures in maths departments (rather than related subjects, e.g. CS).
- lowry 9y agoIsn't deductive top down and inductive bottom up?
- vinchuco 9y agoDeductive: A,B,C, ... strictly implies Q (for all subsets of premises A,B,C,...) Inductive: A,B,C, ... may imply Q (a prior probability distribution) Abductive: Best possible from Q1,Q2,... given a subset of A,B,C,... For your question, I think those terms may not be so well-defined: Deductive can be bottom up (if you'd like) if you call the premises the bottom. But Inductive can too (if you'd like) if you use A,B,C,... as your data points from which you're basing Q on.
- easytiger 9y agopeople can "prefer" what they want. Problem solvers get the job done
- vinchuco 9y agoWho's the problem solver: the teacher or the student? And what job? Learning? When is that 'done'?