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Broke: Humans learn by lectures. Woke: Humans learn by imitation. Lectures are an outdated way of transmitting knowledge, and future of education should reflect this. Humans are mimetic.
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This is a cyclic meme of sorts. They’re both ancient pedagogical traditions with strengths and weaknesses. They’re also not mutually exclusive. The “lecture-demonstration” is a common form. Teachers are good at one, both, or neither. No real need to be partisan about it.
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I’m skeptical. Even pure lectures demonstrate thinking patterns you can imitate, and pure demonstrations are often accompanied by lecture-like expository commentary. You’re espousing something of a higher-ed religion you may not be aware of.
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Back when I was at Michigan, I took a 6-week seminar on college teaching run by Ed dept ideologues who ranted at us all through about “sage on the stage” like it was cancer and how cooperative student-centric teaching was best, adapted to learning styles, learning by doing etc.
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Left a bad taste in my mouth, plus a lot of their indoctrination has since been debunked. In general good teaching is just a teacher sincere about trying to connect and get through. Good learning is a student who wants to. The process is secondary.
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I like that last line about mutual opt-in. It’s seems like an entire world of imitative learning is opening up through emerging media technologies. Podcasts are imitative by nature. Seems like the optimal balance of lectures and imitation should shift.
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