2009/02/28
Nobody Knows Everything
Cognitive development takes place at all ages. Hence, the learning process is endless and adults should not be omitted from receiving new information. In fact, adults who have once strongly incorporated certain beliefs in their private theories could not be necessary wrong. However, it often happens that they misunderstood important correlations of different topics. And by doing so, they father nescience, i.e. general lack of knowledge. One has to be careful about pre-existing knowledge in order to prevent the creation of misconceptions. The HSCA´s (Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics) video document “A Private Universe” (1987) describes a few examples of scientific misconceptions such as the seasonal changes and the phases of the moon. I will compare and contrast A Private Universe´s genre, audience, subject, purpose and specific selection of examples with Eleanor Duckworth´s “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” (1996). For this purpose, I chose to study the contents of the fifth chapter “The Virtues of Not Knowing” (1975) and the ninth chapter “Making Sure that Everybody Gets Home Safely” (1985).
It is important to realize that we have a notable difference in a medium and a subsequent difference in a target audience within the genre of non-fiction. Duckworth´s The Having of Wonderful Ideas is an educational book aimed at mainly the academic community and the documentary A Private Universe is recorded for the general public. Both Duckworth´s Chapters 5 and 9 are essays based on her earlier research and interactions with students. While Chapter 5 uses explicitly only examples of young primary-school students, Chapter 9 also adds an example of a parent. Similarly, A Private Universe establishes an additional dimension of comprehending information by mentioning examples from primary school, high school and university students and even some faculty members. Since its examples achieve the highest level of variety and the actual recording appeals to the broadest audience, one could state that A Private Universe is the most objective and the most efficient piece of work. However, I would oppose this because I think that The Having of Wonderful Ideas is equally efficient. It successfully manages to catch the attention of a more specific audience by taking a different approach.
In particular, the concentration in The Having of Wonderful Ideas on mainly student examples has its own specific value in considering the question of education. A subject usually defines a purpose. Making Sure that Everybody Gets Home Safely (Chapter 9 of Duckworth) describes the education from the point of view of a teacher. It uses an example of a parent questioning the contemporary public safety in times of the nuclear tension in the 1980s and seeking a simple answer. The adding of this particular example underlines the “tendency to oversimplify” (Duckworth, Chapter 9, p.120). However, one should keep in mind that there was “no simple answer to arms race” similarly as there is “no simple answer to how to work with children in the classroom” (Duckworth, Chapter 9, p.121).
Similarly, the use of examples in The Virtues of Not Knowing (Chapter 5 of Duckworth) is not coincidental. The author underlines the need for change in the contemporary teaching style in the USA by recalling experiments with two primary-school students, Jac and Alec. Both Jac, working with a volume and a shape of glasses, and Alec, evaluating a pendulum’s motion inside the class environment, are mentioned in order to emphasize the importance of an individual mind in the 1970s education. Back then, teachers appreciated a quick right answer instead of acknowledging an evaluation and personal reasoning. Figuring out did not count (Duckworth, Chapter 5, p.64).
Contrastingly, A Private Universe considers the education mostly from the point of view of a learner. Moreover, it considers rather a global subject than an issue of a specific time. Showing variety of examples from students at different levels stresses that our “personal theories are deeply engrained” (HSCA, 18:05) and that “every time we communicate, new concepts compete with the pre-conceived ideas of our listeners” (HSCA, 18:46). The extensive example of a middle-school student Heather (HSCA, 6:00-18:04 with short intermissions) should warn us that even the cleverest students at a glance may have difficulties with interrelating basic scientific concepts. In order to highlight this point, authors of A Private Universe use another example of a boy who clearly has no idea about the moon phases and tries to reason it by his ´clouds theory´ (HSCA, 5:00). Remember that it is not only him, but it is also Heather herself who attempts to explain the moon phases by the ´theory of bouncing light´ (HSCA, 8:10) which she had read on her own in a different upper-class physics chapter about light refraction. That theory had merged into a different one in an improper way. In addition, even though she manages to yield a perfect explanation after she has been lectured (HSCA, 15:46-16:26), she still holds to her ´theory of bouncing light´ (HSCA, 16:39-17:09) and blends new concepts of direct and indirect light to her own (HSCA, 17:30-18:04). If the teacher would have been satisfied with the correct explanation and would have not questioned her further, Heather´s misconception absorbed from previous outside class sources (self-taught readings) could have persisted in her mind forever. Unfortunately, it often happens so and many fine students keep incorrect ideas in their minds. The danger comes from falsely integrating different concepts. Consequently, teachers should make sure that students speak their concerns about pre-existing knowledge.
Similarly to Heather´s example, Duckworth´s Chapter 5 shows the great value of constant reasoning and questioning. Alec is an ace of his class and the class is probed about the speed of a pendulum on its highest point. Initially, everyone follows Alec´s belief that the pendulum slows down. But it is only his classmates´ courage to oppose Alec´s seemingly correct ideas that makes him quietly change his mind. He is convinced by the reasons and realizes: “You know, I have learned one thing in the class – I do not always have such great ideas” (Duckworth, Chapter 5, p.68).
The third example of an “original, deeply held belief” can be found in a shape-weight relationship (Duckworth, Chapter 9, p.114). It has been proven that 8-9 year-old children suppose a weight difference of a clay ball and a clay sausage made out of the same volume of clay. Several of Duckworth´s subjects are so confident in their feelings and beliefs that they try to reason their theories by questioning the reliability of scales (Duckworth, Chapter 9, p.114). This initial stubbornness in keeping personally engrained ideas is similar to Heather´s reasoning in A Private Universe.
When I read Duckworth and saw A Private Universe, I could immediately recognize the similarity of the cognitive development theme and the deliberate selection of examples. The concept of the cognitive development is a theory describing mental development through different stages up to a level of adult intelligence. It was firstly introduced by a Swiss philosopher Jean Piaget and Eleanor Duckworth co-worked with him what significantly influenced her ideas. I also believe that education should not be perceived as a finite process. We should be aware that the comprehension of new information occurs through interaction with our pre-existing knowledge on a daily basis, no matter how old we are.