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Richard Feynman

Knowing the names of things

2017-11-27T17:52:07+00:00January 30th, 2017|Featured|

Many people have written many thousands of words about the difference between knowledge and understanding, but I think Richard Feynman nails it here: You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing - that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. This is sometimes used to belittle the idea that knowing what things are called is useful. Of course I agree that [...]

Some assumptions about scripted lessons

2016-01-31T22:24:10+00:00January 31st, 2016|Featured|

"So long as we use a certain language, all questions that we can ask will have to be formulated in it and will thereby confirm the theory of the universe which is implied in the vocabulary and structure of the language." Michael Polanyi In this post I wrote about the fact that one of the tenets of Direct Instruction (note the capitals!) is scripted lessons which aim for 'flawless communication'. Let me be clear at the outset: I am not advocating the use of scripted lessons, nor am I claiming DI is the best way to teach. What I am suggesting is that [...]

Cargo cult teaching, cargo cult learning

2017-03-27T22:54:04+01:00December 10th, 2015|English, learning|

…it is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives… Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Aphorism, 1620 Cargo cults grew up on some of the South Sea islands during the first half of the 20th century. Amazed islanders watched as Europeans colonised their islands, built landing strips and then unloaded precious cargo from the aeroplanes which duly landed. That looks easy enough, some canny shaman must have reasoned, if we knock up a bamboo airport then the metal birds will come and lay their cargo eggs for us too. This is the [...]

The closed circle: Why being wrong is so useful

2016-06-15T22:55:21+01:00October 30th, 2015|psychology|

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others. Fyodor Dostoevsky A closed circle argument is one where there is no possibility of convincing an opponent that they might be wrong. They are right because they're right. Imagine you wake to find yourself in a psychiatric ward, deemed by all and sundry to be mad. Any attempt to argue that you are not, in point of fact, mad, is evidence that you are 'in denial'. Any evidence you cite in support of your sanity is dismissed as an elaborate attempt to buttress your denial. There is no way out of [...]

#ResearchED – Everything you know about education is wrong

2014-09-07T17:36:49+01:00September 6th, 2014|Featured|

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong. Charles F. Kettering I realise I must have come as something as a disappointment for all those expecting the curly-headed medical mischief-maker, Ben Goldacre, but it was wonderful to have the opportunity to try to explain where my thinking currently is on the thorny matter of education research. Really I have no right to a place on the big stage at a conference like ResearchED; I've never done any proper research; I have no qualifications beyond my PGCE. I'm just a very geeky chancer with a big gob and [...]

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