>The final part there is key—if the student leaves with a good understanding of the ideas in the abstract, but no idea when to think about the ideas again, it’s no better than if they’d learned nothing at all.
Hard disagree. As you will agree, learning about the world is also supposed to bring excitement and pure joy. That enjoyment doesn’t have to always translate into a conscious idea about revisiting the topic again. I have taken a few lectures where my small audience was fully engaged, asking questions and definitely enjoyed their time. But I doubt the subject matter was of direct relevance to most of them in their regular working life. They may occasionally think about it but doubt it’s much. Does that mean those lectures were a complete waste of time for them? I don’t think so. Just because those lectures didn’t fundamentally change their thinking doesn’t mean they were useless. And I assure you that these people were “people who genuinely want to learn and be there”.
Thank you for writing this, lots of useful advice and ideas to think about.
>The final part there is key—if the student leaves with a good understanding of the ideas in the abstract, but no idea when to think about the ideas again, it’s no better than if they’d learned nothing at all.
Hard disagree. As you will agree, learning about the world is also supposed to bring excitement and pure joy. That enjoyment doesn’t have to always translate into a conscious idea about revisiting the topic again. I have taken a few lectures where my small audience was fully engaged, asking questions and definitely enjoyed their time. But I doubt the subject matter was of direct relevance to most of them in their regular working life. They may occasionally think about it but doubt it’s much. Does that mean those lectures were a complete waste of time for them? I don’t think so. Just because those lectures didn’t fundamentally change their thinking doesn’t mean they were useless. And I assure you that these people were “people who genuinely want to learn and be there”.
Thank you for writing this, lots of useful advice and ideas to think about.