Russell Ackoff
Russell Ackoff was an architect, organizational theorist, etc.
On Learning
- The educational system is not dedicated to produce learning by students, but teaching by teachers—and teaching is a major obstruction to learning. Witness the difference between the ease with which we learned our first language without having it taught to us, and the difficulty with which we tried to learn a second language in school. Most of what we use as adults we learned once we got out of school, not while we were in it, and what we learned in school we forgot rapidly—fortunately. Most of it is either wrong or obsolete within a short time. Although we learn little of use by having it taught to us, we can learn a great deal by teaching others. It is always the teacher who learns most in a classroom. Schools are upside down. Students should be teaching, and teachers at all levels should learn no matter how much they resist doing so.
A student once asked me in what year I had last taught a class on a subject that existed when I was a student.
A great question. After some thought, I told him 1951. "Boy," he said, "you must be a good learner. What a pity you can’t teach as well as you can learn." He had it right.
Difference between Information, Knowledge, and Understanding
Information is contained in descriptions.
Questions begin with: Who, What, When, Where, How Much
Knowledge is contained in instructions.
Questions begin with: How to. Skills.
Understanding is contained in explanations.
Questions begin with Why.
Normal educational technique: information -> knowledge -> understanding.
Can be powerful to reverse and begin with answering the Why question, and let that drive back to knowledge and then information.
Top-down versus bottom-up.
Videos to watch
Naval Postgrad Training:
Tape 1 and 2: https://vimeo.com/257050065
Tape 3: https://vimeo.com/257526863
Tape 4: https://vimeo.com/257229228
Tape 5: https://vimeo.com/257237896
Tape 6: https://vimeo.com/257239590
Tape 7: https://vimeo.com/257241270
Tape 8: https://vimeo.com/257529225