The Biggest Myth In Education

I love Veritasium. Derek has done a number of videos that are awesome like this. The videos are great and educational, but he also manages to subtly weave in an almost spiritual subtext to them as well. For example, in this one, you learn about imaginary numbers in some cool ways, history, how awesome e^ix is, etc, but also this yen-yang balance between embracing not only what is real but taking a chance on what is imaginary. Some of my other favorites: - [VIDEO] - [LINK] - [LINK] - [LINK] - [LINK] I think he’s going to lose the $10,000 bet on the car though.

While we now know a lot about teaching, a lot of misconceptions have been found recently regarding “truths” about teaching, its a fascinating subject really, and the main problem seems to be lack of rigorous repeatable double blind testing for all of those things. Veritasium did a very interesting video on the subject: [VIDEO]

I kind of wish this urban myth dies. There are more common things amongst humans about learning than differences. By a long shot. Veritasium covered this in much greater detail but still approachable by the laymen: [VIDEO] It almost always shutsdown the discussion of improving or criticizing learning methods. Because, there is this deus-ex-machina of learning "Everyone is different" and therefore we must not question, we must not contest, we must not improve. Btw, this is also rampant in other dysfunctional fields such as nutrition and product-reviews.

“Introduction to Linear Algebra” by Gilbert Strang is the book. Recommend getting a used older edition as not much has changed. His course at MIT is legendary, completely available online [LINK] And there’s so much good linear algebra stuff on YouTube from 3brown1blue. If you can do one thing now, watch this Veritasium video to disprove the myth that you’re a visual learner: [VIDEO] .

Veritasium has a very good video on the subject.[0] Sources are in the description but I might as well post them here. Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological science in the public interest, 9(3), 105-119. — [LINK] Willingham, D. T., Hughes, E. M., & Dobolyi, D. G. (2015). The scientific status of learning styles theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42(3), 266-271. — [LINK] Massa, L. J., & Mayer, R. E. (2006). Testing the ATI hypothesis: Should multimedia instruction accommodate verbalizer-visualizer cognitive style?. Learning and Individual Differences, 16(4), 321-335. — [LINK] Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010). The myth of learning styles. Change: The magazine of higher learning, 42(5), 32-35.— [LINK] Husmann, P. R., & O'Loughlin, V. D. (2019). Another nail in the coffin for learning styles? Disparities among undergraduate anatomy students’ study strategies, class performance, and reported VARK learning styles. Anatomical sciences education, 12(1), 6-19. — [LINK] Snider, V. E., & Roehl, R. (2007). Teachers’ beliefs about pedagogy and related issues. Psychology in the Schools, 44, 873–886. doi:10.1002/pits.20272 — [LINK] Fleming, N., & Baume, D. (2006). Learning Styles Again: VARKing up the right tree!. Educational developments, 7(4), 4. — [LINK] Rogowsky, B. A., Calhoun, B. M., & Tallal, P. (2015). Matching learning style to instructional method: Effects on comprehension. Journal of educational psycholo

you'll definitely find this video: [VIDEO] interesting. Here they discuss the (lack of)efficacy of "visual learning"

This is debunked to some extent. Veritasium made a good video about it. [VIDEO] Personally I find a multi-pronged approach is necessary to really learn anything. Read it. Read it again. Visual guides are helpful. Work some examples. Make some mistakes, debug them, find the corner cases, write tests. Eventually when I've poked around the material for a while it starts to bed in. Three months later it's forgotten, but when I learn it the next time I move a lot faster!

I learn any way I can. Having a purpose to learn helps (I need this knowledge, I want this knowledge because I think it's cool, etc). I will try books, videos, whatever works. Like folded steel and alloys, I find that I learn things from lots of different angles, and appreciate the amalgamation. Veritasium did a whole video [ [VIDEO] ] recently pointing out that it's really hard for us to self ascribe our best learning methods. I'll take whatever works and try as many as I can to keep the experience as rich as possible. If there's any unifying theme for me, it's "I learn by embracing Humility, and avoiding Lazy".