The Education Problem: Raj Reddy (Part 9)

Our discussion now focuses on a key element of the ‘learning by doing model’: mentors, and evolves into the root of education – the process of learning.

SM: Right now what is happening is at a very low level. There is no “methodology”, just a connection with a tutor who knows the material, sort of like a personal trainer. RR: Let’s imagine a scenario where the person on the other end takes the same problem or some other problem, and then you have a shared terminal where they can both be looking at the same thing. The tutor can work through the solution with the student, this is learning by example. If you already know how to do it, then it is a problem. But if you are thinking through the problem and solving it on the spot, which is what doesn’t happen in a conventional lecture.

The lecturer prepares everything and knows how to prove a theorem, and he just goes there and writes down the theorem. There is no clue how he got to the proof, he just emits it as the end product. What the student really needs to learn is the thinking process behind how he got to the proof of the theorem.

SM: I think the missing piece is teaching students how to think. RR: Yes. Exactly, how to think. The net result is, in this particular case, if there are a number of technologies available to teach you learning by doing, learning by example, then I want to go one step further. After I do it I need to immediately challenge you to do it as well. The tutor then can see what the student is doing, and the student has to explain herself out loud as well.

If you can do that you are in a position to learn much better. The only issue is that it requires one on one tutoring with a human being on the other side. The next step is to build an intelligent tutoring system with video script of the same thing that I just told you about, learning by example, where the tutoring system helps. The student is trying to do a problem, and gets stuck, so the tutoring system can show a video tape to walk the student through the answer, then gives the student a new problem to try and solve, and gives you three more problems.

If a mistake is made on problem one, then the student did not understand what was being taught. Until the student can do three successfully, she cannot move on. In this way, it is like having a private tutor forever. The tutoring system keeps giving them as many examples as the student needs for the idea to sink in. The proof is that they must solve three problems correctly, sequentially.

[To Be Continued]

[Part 8]

[Part 7]

[Part 6]

[Part 5]

[Part 4]

[Part 3]

[Part 2]

[Part 1]

This segment is part 9 in the series : The Education Problem: Raj Reddy
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15