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That's the Dunning-Kruger effect, nothing more, nothing less. I've taught for...a lot of years. Someone who really does not understand the material may be able

That's the Dunning-Kruger effect, nothing more, nothing less. I've taught for...a lot of years. Someone who really does not understand the material may be able to memorize specific examples. They mistake that for understanding. For example, write a class in Java. They completely memorize one example, and can reproduce it verbatim. When the exam asks them to write a different class, they regurgitate the memorized example. They are shocked when they fail, because they "don't understand what they don't understand."

jqpabc123 3y ago
They completely memorize one example, and can reproduce it verbatim. I have a mental block against rote memorization because it is so futile and useless in the real world. I hate teachers who teach this way. Most people get paid to solve problems. If you can find the solution on the internet, good for you. But in most cases, you can't. This is when they hire people like me.
- bradley13 3y ago
  Exactly. And I certainly don't teach that way. However, students who cannot understand the material often resort to rote memorization anyway. Actually, in the classroom, it's even sillier. My exams are all open book. So rather than even memorize, sometimes they will just copy an entire example from their notes onto the exam. Of course, the exam questions are different (parallel, but different). so all that copying buys them nothing at all. But back to the article: People like this genuinely don't know what they aren't understanding - it seems to be literally beyond their conception, an entire level of thinking that they don't even know exists. Hence, they overestimate their competence.
  - jqpabc123 3y ago
    You sound like my kind of teacher. The best teacher I ever had was a short little Italian guy named Rinaldo Vachino who had been an instructor in the US Air Force. In addition to being really good at explaining the material including diagrams created on the spot on a chalkboard, you could bring anything you wanted to one of his tests short of a communication device. I have seen people come in literally pushing a hand cart loaded with books. I would just laugh because: 1) You're not going to find the answers in any book. These were all situational problems where you had to apply what you should have learned to arrive at the answer. Sometimes there was more than one possible answer but you had justify the one you picked. 2) Looking for an answer in a book was just wasting time needed to solve the problems. Seeing what was happening in his classroom was like an epiphany --- where had this been all my life? I took every class he taught. Oh, one other little technique he used --- if he thought you just weren't getting it or paying attention, he would call on you during his lecture. He would subtly corner you into showing everyone (including yourself) whether you understood things or not. No one got off easy in his classroom and everyone knew it. If you couldn't deal with that, you better look for a different class.

jqpabc123 3y ago

They completely memorize one example, and can reproduce it verbatim. I have a mental block against rote memorization because it is so futile and useless in the real world. I hate teachers who teach this way. Most people get paid to solve problems. If you can find the solution on the internet, good for you. But in most cases, you can't. This is when they hire people like me.

bradley13 3y ago
Exactly. And I certainly don't teach that way. However, students who cannot understand the material often resort to rote memorization anyway. Actually, in the classroom, it's even sillier. My exams are all open book. So rather than even memorize, sometimes they will just copy an entire example from their notes onto the exam. Of course, the exam questions are different (parallel, but different). so all that copying buys them nothing at all. But back to the article: People like this genuinely don't know what they aren't understanding - it seems to be literally beyond their conception, an entire level of thinking that they don't even know exists. Hence, they overestimate their competence.
- jqpabc123 3y ago
  You sound like my kind of teacher. The best teacher I ever had was a short little Italian guy named Rinaldo Vachino who had been an instructor in the US Air Force. In addition to being really good at explaining the material including diagrams created on the spot on a chalkboard, you could bring anything you wanted to one of his tests short of a communication device. I have seen people come in literally pushing a hand cart loaded with books. I would just laugh because: 1) You're not going to find the answers in any book. These were all situational problems where you had to apply what you should have learned to arrive at the answer. Sometimes there was more than one possible answer but you had justify the one you picked. 2) Looking for an answer in a book was just wasting time needed to solve the problems. Seeing what was happening in his classroom was like an epiphany --- where had this been all my life? I took every class he taught. Oh, one other little technique he used --- if he thought you just weren't getting it or paying attention, he would call on you during his lecture. He would subtly corner you into showing everyone (including yourself) whether you understood things or not. No one got off easy in his classroom and everyone knew it. If you couldn't deal with that, you better look for a different class.