To be told or to be encouraged

An educators conundrum

Research carried out by Elizabeth Bonawitz and Patrick Shafio, published in Cognition, addresses the question of whether teachers should ‘tell pupils’ the way things are or encourage them to ‘explore’ and ‘play.’

Over a decade ago, in the review of the National Curriculum, Michale Gove (then Education Secretary) was reported as saying.

“lessons should emphasise the learning of facts and equip children with essential knowledge” and. “every child must be given a “profound level” of mathematic and scientific knowledge” — Michael Gove (The Guardian 20th Jan 2011)

I remember the collective sigh of educators who saw this as yet another call for a return to ‘traditional’ approaches that ‘served us well in the past’.

While Gove made this statement well over a decade ago, it still seems that for many, ‘education’ is about “learning stuff.”

That may be the case, but we live in a society where knowledge is growing exponentially. For example, it has been suggested that technological knowledge doubles every 72 hours!

So how can ‘facts’ be treated as anything other than the learning of ‘temporary information’?

Historical “facts” are matters of interpretation and cultural perspective. (I like the…