blackelk wrote:
Interesting.
"Lei Bao, associate professor of physics at Ohio State University and lead author of the study, said that the finding defies conventional wisdom, which holds that teaching science facts will improve students' reasoning ability."
What would Richard Dawkins think?
I dont think Richard Dawkins would be surprised at all. He advocates teaching children how to reason and think for themselves rather than forcing facts (or fantasies) down their throats. Of course, facts are important, and schools should certainly teach to a good level of general factual knowledge, but learning how to reason and find out facts for yourself is far more useful in the long run. Both western and eastern schools are clearly not particularly good at this. My own experience is comparison between British and French modes of teaching science - the french know a lot more in terms of techniques to use and the factual knowledge, but are generally less imaginative and less able to develop their own hypotheses. I guess one has to be at the expense of the other given a limited amount of time. When a student studies science at undergraduate level things are very straightforward - learn facts and regurgitate them in exams - even practical classes are predetermined for fact-finding and learning. When the student starts real research (a PhD) there is a huge learning curve because for the first time they really have to think for themselves. Some make it, some don't. However, even outside of science, in the general population, reasoning and independent thought are important. I think the best way would be philosophy classes from age 11 - not so much based on the history of philosophy, but the methodology and its application to all situations.