4 ms·

In psychology, I am actually coming to the conclusion that experience is better than a study. I have seen so many counter-intuitive studies that have later had

In psychology, I am actually coming to the conclusion that experience is better than a study. I have seen so many counter-intuitive studies that have later had huge methodological issues. In addition, a lot of studies have small sample sizes, or unrealistic tasks that come from the Procrustean process of forcing a question into something you can run a study on. With regards to learning styles, I have been around enough students and been around enough teachers to think that there actually might be something to it. That different people might learn better with different modalities.

knaik94 4y ago
I would argue that it's the subject that should have an associated optimal way of being taught. For the same reason you don't teach a sport by reading the rule book on day 1, you don't build a strong foundation in math without going through the fundamental proofs. Taking physics taught me that intuition is not very reliable.
jollybean 4y ago
I think that's what homework is for. I used to always skip homework because I thought I understood the subject. But you learn a lot from 'doing' esp. all the weird corner cases. It makes you think about it in an applied way. I used to like the kids who did well despite not doing homework, now I like the kids that do their homework.
Someone 4y ago
> I am actually coming to the conclusion that experience is better than a study. I have seen so many counter-intuitive studies that have later had huge methodological issues. In addition, a lot of studies have small sample sizes I don’t think those are strong arguments for claiming experience is better than a study. Methodology-wise, experience doesn’t pose a hypothesis first and then tests it, and doesn’t statistically evaluate conclusions. That leads to the risk that conclusions get drawn on a few outliers or more ‘visible’ students. Sample size wise, decades of teaching or large classes will have more subjects, but they’ll be more diverse, too, and their attributes aren’t tracked well. On the plus side, experience doesn’t feel the “publish or perish” pressure. That significantly decreases the risk one starts shouting around conclusions that aren’t fully supported by the evidence.

knaik94 4y ago

I would argue that it's the subject that should have an associated optimal way of being taught. For the same reason you don't teach a sport by reading the rule book on day 1, you don't build a strong foundation in math without going through the fundamental proofs. Taking physics taught me that intuition is not very reliable.

jollybean 4y ago

I think that's what homework is for. I used to always skip homework because I thought I understood the subject. But you learn a lot from 'doing' esp. all the weird corner cases. It makes you think about it in an applied way. I used to like the kids who did well despite not doing homework, now I like the kids that do their homework.

Someone 4y ago

> I am actually coming to the conclusion that experience is better than a study. I have seen so many counter-intuitive studies that have later had huge methodological issues. In addition, a lot of studies have small sample sizes I don’t think those are strong arguments for claiming experience is better than a study. Methodology-wise, experience doesn’t pose a hypothesis first and then tests it, and doesn’t statistically evaluate conclusions. That leads to the risk that conclusions get drawn on a few outliers or more ‘visible’ students. Sample size wise, decades of teaching or large classes will have more subjects, but they’ll be more diverse, too, and their attributes aren’t tracked well. On the plus side, experience doesn’t feel the “publish or perish” pressure. That significantly decreases the risk one starts shouting around conclusions that aren’t fully supported by the evidence.