Erroneous Narrative of Education
Narrative fallacy is deeply embedded within formal education and it is not something that we will be able to undo very quickly in the near future. A lot needs to be reconsidered; foremost, education itself needs a new narrative.
... Mrs Wilson, my sixth grade teacher... believed that people’s IQ scores told the whole story of who they were. We were seated around the room in IQ order, and only the higher-IQ students could be trusted to carry the flag, clap the erasers, or take a note to the principal... everyone in the class had one consuming goal - look smart, don’t look dumb. - Carol Dweck
... a cornerstone of lifelong learning is the capacity for objective self-assessment... (however) ... teacher and student collude in shifting the developmental burden from self-assessment to pleasing others. The result can be adults who spend their careers currying favour rather than doing something they truly regard as meaningful. Few educators would espouse this, but the system of specialisation and control produces it. - Peter Senge
The impossibility of education follows us from childhood through to adulthood, from the classroom to the meeting room to the boardroom. In order to please, you need to get the answer correct - "look smart, don’t look dumb". A singular correct answer though is possible only when the problem is well-defined and has a well-defined solution - a game. When a game with fixed rules and pre-determined outcome is deployed in the classroom, a spurious order is installed through limiting the number of permitted narratives to one; ludic fallacy then manifests itself.
There are two latin words for education - educare and educere. Educare means to train or to mould. The intentions are directed towards preservation and inheritance of knowledge and practices. This approach to learning tends to be additive and quantitative in nature; its associated narrative industrial and mechanistic. Students are first the raw materials that require moulding or have specific qualities added to them. If this process is successful, they will roll off the other end of the conveyor belt as finished products; pleasing if they have passed the quality check (the exam!) and are therefore not defective. Otherwise, the raw material is defective (how else could the machine produce flawless products with the other inputs) and needs to be discarded; these students are failures.
Conversely, educere means to draw out from within. The intentions are for students to be creative, solving novel problems, and dealing with changes. Such an approach is qualitative and subtractive. This form of learning is subtractive because it requires the elimination of inhibitors to growth or the demise of an old form, such as a sapling growing out of its seed or the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. The narrative is agricultural and organic; the students learn and grow as they interact with the environment.
In the former, education is done on the learner, as if they are inanimate objects - a process of dehumanisation. In the latter, education is done by the learner, with the school providing the right conditions, and the teachers facilitating the cultivation of qualities, for life to flourish.
We need to restore the organic narrative and retire the mechanistic narrative.
Role of Mistakes in Learning
The industrial narrative of education demands the answer correct - "look smart, don’t look dumb". There is no room for mistakes because they are indicative of deficiencies and inadequate performance, that the student (raw material) is not good enough. This is the fixed mindset. The role of mistakes in learning is that there is no role for mistakes in learning, they should never be allowed to happen. Or is it?
Consider this instead, what if mistakes are bread crumbs that line the path of learning, flagging weaknesses that need addressing, improvements to be had? When mistakes are corrected, student capabilities grow and become more robust. This is the #growth_mindset. It gains confidence from mistakes because mistakes are precursors to and enablers of learning. This organic narrative of education necessitates transformation, that realities do not stay static but evolve continuously. Even if the answer is correct (for now), further possibilities are not precluded.
The necessity of transformation lies in the endeavour of bringing chaos into order (the definition of which, according to Dr Jordan Peterson, is "when the actions we deem appropriate produce the results we aim at"). Ironically, we resist change because we believe that change brings order into chaos instead; that something we are familiar with, have been practising for a long time, and can confidently predict the unfolding of events, will be thrown into the unknown.
However, are we genuinely getting the results we desire by doing what we are doing? If no, has the process stopped working? Has the efficacy of the process been eroded by environmental shifts? If yes, are these the results truly what we thought them to be or have we concluded wrong earlier? What if the correct answer is not correct after all, that we are in chaos instead of order?
Each time a negotiation successfully brings chaos into order, we should celebrate and earnestly codify that narrative. However, permissible narratives cannot be restricted to one. We must resist the temptation of fooling ourselves into thinking that we already know, for sure. The growth mindset is potential that has yet to take form, thus it is chaos. It is dynamic, continuously renews, and considers multiple narratives, even contradictory ones. Hence the proclivity to jump into the safety of conclusions must be eliminated, i.e., subtractive learning is required. What exactly needs subtracting?
fear of mistakes - if we want learning and creativity to be possible
egos - if we want humility so that we listen, communicate, and collaborate better
impluse - if we want to think better
certainty of the correct answer - if we want to stay curious
Learning is not the transmission of neatly packaged knowledge that is once delivered then eternally preserved so that it doesn't get messed up.
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