In particular, does anyone know of any other studies of education on critical thinking, resourcefulness, problem solving ability, or other skills bordering on rationality? I’m trying to get a grip on what’s actually known about learning and education. Since I don’t have much background in cognitive science, yet, this is a little daunting. In particular, jumping in and just reading papers without some sort of conceptual framework in which to place the research seems like really a slow road.
So: does anyone know any good places to start learning about learning?
Practically anything written for a lay audience is going to be worse than useless. Most of what’s written about education for a general audience is motivated by politics, rather than by a search for truth. Worse, much (most?) of the academic community studying education has picked up a lot of what I deem anti-epistemology, especially the primacy of stories over statistics.
My enthusiasm for this project waned, and I never did get to much sound research. In reflection, though, I’m sure such research exists. If I was to try again, I’d start by considering the ways that various research disciplines in educational psychology reach their conclusions; and then read in those disciplines that seem sane.
Thanks for the heads up. Do you think you could write up you experiences in a discussion post and ask people what they’ve tried? Are there other wikis for IA that you know about? This thread talks mostly about nootropics. I’ve researched those a bit and am now more interested in cognitive science techniques like anki, dual-n-back, etc. (though I’ve heard the evidence for n-backing is spotty).
More like this!
In particular, does anyone know of any other studies of education on critical thinking, resourcefulness, problem solving ability, or other skills bordering on rationality? I’m trying to get a grip on what’s actually known about learning and education. Since I don’t have much background in cognitive science, yet, this is a little daunting. In particular, jumping in and just reading papers without some sort of conceptual framework in which to place the research seems like really a slow road.
So: does anyone know any good places to start learning about learning?
Sorry for the bump, but what have you found out about learning about learning since this comment?
Practically anything written for a lay audience is going to be worse than useless. Most of what’s written about education for a general audience is motivated by politics, rather than by a search for truth. Worse, much (most?) of the academic community studying education has picked up a lot of what I deem anti-epistemology, especially the primacy of stories over statistics.
My enthusiasm for this project waned, and I never did get to much sound research. In reflection, though, I’m sure such research exists. If I was to try again, I’d start by considering the ways that various research disciplines in educational psychology reach their conclusions; and then read in those disciplines that seem sane.
Thanks for the heads up. Do you think you could write up you experiences in a discussion post and ask people what they’ve tried? Are there other wikis for IA that you know about? This thread talks mostly about nootropics. I’ve researched those a bit and am now more interested in cognitive science techniques like anki, dual-n-back, etc. (though I’ve heard the evidence for n-backing is spotty).
Thanks for your help!
van Gelder’s claims seem confirmed by Ortiz 2007′s meta-analysis: http://lesswrong.com/lw/dhe/to_learn_critical_thinking_study_critical_thinking/