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I'm sorry the author is experiencing problems in retention, but this reads as yet another wordy exposition of idle musings on Medium (see: weekly "SQL is terrib

I'm sorry the author is experiencing problems in retention, but this reads as yet another wordy exposition of idle musings on Medium (see: weekly "SQL is terrible" posts). For me the distinction is between synchronous and asynchronous learning: a 30min howto is always going to be 30min long, but a book can be scanned, and a teacher can see that a class "gets it" and they can move on (which is a hybrid, I guess).

falcor84 7y ago
> a teacher can see that a class "gets it" and they can move on Wow, I don't think I ever had a teacher who did this; definitely not in University. My experience is that lecturers are mostly oblivious and indifferent to student understanding. And most students, in my experience (self included), generally care more about getting "through" the lecture rather than "getting it". And I personally, similar to the OP, believe that real understanding of a lecture can usually only arise following active engagement after the lecture.
- kwhitefoot 7y ago
  > care more about getting "through" the lecture rather than "getting it" What's the point in attending if you don't intend to learn? Perhaps I was simply lucky to go to a good uni or perhaps the times have changed but such lecturers were rare when and where I studied (Exeter Uni., '74-'77) and in the worst cases we campaigned to get them removed from the course.
kpennell 7y ago
I think he was just getting at how odd/interesting/dissapointing it is that we don't retain more of all the stuff we read (and might even be really interested in). I remember being enthralled while reading 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus...but then trying to tell others about it and realizing how little I knew... "the americas were much more populated/advanced than people think it was" "the world lost more cultures in the 17th century than all other centuries" etc. little factoids but could not really explain much else or why the book was so COOL

falcor84 7y ago

> a teacher can see that a class "gets it" and they can move on Wow, I don't think I ever had a teacher who did this; definitely not in University. My experience is that lecturers are mostly oblivious and indifferent to student understanding. And most students, in my experience (self included), generally care more about getting "through" the lecture rather than "getting it". And I personally, similar to the OP, believe that real understanding of a lecture can usually only arise following active engagement after the lecture.

kwhitefoot 7y ago
> care more about getting "through" the lecture rather than "getting it" What's the point in attending if you don't intend to learn? Perhaps I was simply lucky to go to a good uni or perhaps the times have changed but such lecturers were rare when and where I studied (Exeter Uni., '74-'77) and in the worst cases we campaigned to get them removed from the course.

kpennell 7y ago

I think he was just getting at how odd/interesting/dissapointing it is that we don't retain more of all the stuff we read (and might even be really interested in). I remember being enthralled while reading 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus...but then trying to tell others about it and realizing how little I knew... "the americas were much more populated/advanced than people think it was" "the world lost more cultures in the 17th century than all other centuries" etc. little factoids but could not really explain much else or why the book was so COOL