I'm often startled anew by how pre-Newtonian learning remains. You just made a new lesson / activity / explanation. Is it effective? Is it engaging? What parts work best/worst? Getting high-signal answers is very slow—and evaluation is often many times as expensive as creation.
Conversation
Replying to
Of course human brains are much more complex and contextual than are mass and acceleration 🧐
1
Replying to
I got very garden-pathed by this sentence. I was very confused by what “pre-Newtonian learning” was :p
Replying to
Does “pre-Newtonian” just mean “primitive” in this case, or is there something pedagogical associated with Newton?
1
Ah, specifically: we lack something akin to F=ma; our theories are mostly Aristotelean, driven more by philosophy than explanatory systematicity.
1
Show replies
Replying to
As I recall, would say that usability testing, even with just one or two people, usually uncovers plenty of flaws, and one can then focus on the glaring, facepalm-inspiring ones.
Maybe teaching is too different from web design for the same principles to apply?
1
1
Unfortunately in my experience, between-student variance usually drown out between-condition effect sizes when evaluating individual lessons / activities / explanations.
1
1
Show replies



