[Edu-sig] a non-rhetorical question

[kirby urner]

On 7/7/07, Jeff Rush <jeff at taupro.com> wrote:

> Taken for what its worth as an outsider to the educational system, I've never
> seen much focus on teaching people "*how* to learn" an arbitrary topic.  It so
> often seems to be trickery (not in a malicious sense) and indirection, to
> reach that ah-ha moment.

This is what I like about the O'Reilly 'Head First' series, which pays a lot of
conscious attention to "metacognition".

http://safari.oreilly.com/0596008678/hfobjects-preface-2-sect-4?imagepage=xxv

Some of the pedagogical principles (spelled out in each book):

Make it visual (words within or near graphics)
Conversational and personalized style (what math books often avoid -- too proud)
Keep it weird (unusual, surprising)

Related:

http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2005/01/brainstorming-about-pedagogy.html
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2003-October/003204.html
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2007-February/007740.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/edu-sig@python.org/msg03821.html


Kirby