📣 New essay distilling one strand of some ongoing work✨
I argue that books lack a functioning model of how people learn—instead, they're (accidentally, invisibly) built around a model that's plainly false. Plus some early models for what to do about it.
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We’re trying to answer that question in another, larger piece. Quick preview of theory: requires inventors who are able to do both original design work and also original cognitive science. Existing institutions and incentive systems make such teams unlikely.
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Lots of thought about this inside higher ed — in some ways we think about little else than alternatives to books and lecture halls. The small intense seminar still works best and is most expensive.
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Indeed! Are there approaches to scaling seminars which you think are particularly promising? If you're familiar with Minerva's approach, I'd be curious to hear what you think of it! (c.f. mitpress.mit.edu/books/building)
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Very familiar -- I believe they're only up to a few hundred people and I'm not sure things are scalable beyond that... The constraint is excellent seminar leaders.
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*nods* My understanding is that they try to lighten the dependence on strong seminar leaders by making the seminars unusually pre-scripted. The software has special features to support seminar leaders in executing these plans. Not sure how well it's working in practice.
Nicely put "lighten the dependence"! Only a few students may notice they are being taught by pre-scripted B-list seminar leaders instead of A-list pros, but this pool too is limited.
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