How should schools and universities teach their students? Pedagogy occupies the minds of all educators, although there are many different applications of this aspect of educational theory. For example, some answer the question above by advocating learning-by-doing. Students are given projects which involve a structured activity such as experimentation. This is enquiry-based learning. Others favour a process of information gathering to reach answers. This is resource-based learning. Although not recommended by educationalists, some students learn by rote or memorise the way to solve problems but this typically means the student has little understanding of what they are doing. Earlier this year, in an editorial in the journal Science, Bruce Alberts wrote about the trivialisation of science education. He commented:
“Tragically, we have managed to simultaneously trivialize and complicate science education. As a result, for far too many, science seems a game of recalling boring, incomprehensible facts – so much so that it may make little difference whether the factoids about science come from the periodic table or from a movie script.”
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