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Visual Learning versus Classrooms and Lectures

“To hear is to forget – To see is to remember – To do is to learn!” Most people agree with this ancient proverb.  Yet few educational systems make the most of its wisdom. What does it mean?  Speech is forgotten – Visual material is remembered – Action and feedback allow one to learn! A good system cannot rely on vocal instruction.  Yet most teaching is delivered by voice, in classrooms and lectures and nowadays in MOOCs. Visual material like texts and pictures and games should convey any essential information.  This includes the bulk of what is now delivered by voice.  Then, action must follow, with feedback. Otherwise, the speech will be forgotten, and the visual material merely remembered.  Acting, and seeing what happens, is the way to learn. A lesson I learned 50 years ago I was a psychology major at Columbia in 1965.  One course included a self-pace book by the leader of behavioral psychology, BF Skinner.  This was an eye-ope...
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My journey from Lock-step Schooling to Own-speed learning

My aunt lived next door when I was growing up.  She taught me to read when I was four.  When I was five, we read The Hobbit together. When I was six, I went to first grade in a Connecticut public school.  I sat there while the other children learned the alphabet. By the end of first grade, I knew that something was very wrong.  I couldn't learn as slowly as the teacher talked.  Many of the children couldn't learn as fast. So I was aggravated.  They were depressed.  I have been thinking about this for over 60 years! Then I went to St Paul's School in NH.  Now I was the one who was behind. This was one of the country's best high schools, but still felt wrong. One day in the SPS library, I saw a book: Summerhill -  The First Children's Democracy.  Reading this book gave me the idea that there were other systems than the lock-step schools that I had been stuck in. My first own-speed learning experience Next, I went to Columb...
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A Very Brief History of Education

Parents and their communities have always given the best education they could afford, to their children. Alexander the Great was tutored by Aristotle.  Most children received little or none. Then some states became rich enough to provide one teacher for every 30 children.  One 30th of a teacher was infinitely better than none! The teaching was based on hope that children could learn in lock step.  The fact is that we all learn at our own speed. We learn at a different speed than others.  We learn at a different speed on each subject, and even on different topics. A student who is behind the teacher is not learning.  A student who is ahead of the teacher is not learning. A far better way to teach When I was a student at Columbia, one of my courses was all in the textbook.  The text covered what a teacher would have spoken.  Students were free to read quickly when possible, or review when necessary. The quizzes were in the book.  Te...
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