• Corroded@leminal.space
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I would be interested to see how a self paced learning program with a dedicated teacher would end up if it was focused on embracing getting sidetracked. I know I’ve sat through history classes in the past and had semi-unrelated questions I wanted to research or ask about but didn’t want to waste people’s time. In situations like that I would prefer to have a computer to get a quick answer versus pondering it in the back of my head.

    There must be some truth to an idea that you don’t learn as much from an answer from a question you didn’t ask.

    • someguy@lemmyland.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Man, I remember a couple teachers that encouraged randomly asking questions like that, and the whole class was really engaged. It was very rare but an amazing environment to learn in. I feel bad that there’s so many people that never got to have those sort of teachers.

      • Corroded@leminal.space
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        It’s like the educational equivalent of a gateway drug. Some of the electives I took like programming really encouraged it and that’s what kept me interested even afterwards with subpar instructors.

        • Jamie@jamie.moe
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          I think at a certain point, you should be able to drop math as a subject and take programming instead. There’s no shortage of math concepts in programming that still require understanding of underlying concepts, but I can easily say if I had that option in school, I’d have learned way more in a programming class than I ever did in math.

          • Corroded@leminal.space
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I mean programming is a way to get someone engaged and to some degree there can be creativity. It would almost be like a more topical and realistic version of a word problem

    • Jamie@jamie.moe
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I had a history teacher in school that liked me even though I barely paid attention in class. I was bored in the class itself, but loved history and would spend the entire period just reading the textbook because I found it interesting. So even though I didn’t pay attention I would still ace assignments like nobody else in there.

      I was usually a couple chapters past the class at any given time.