Brown & Duguid

(Let me start by saying that I followed the Twitter conversation about these chapters, and I agree with everyone else who complained about B&D. It's boring and dense and I just don't get it. Disclaimer: I work with children and am more well-versed in picture books than "academic" readings. I am not an "academic" in any traditional sense of the word, though I do wear glasses and read a lot.)

One point that I took away from the B&D readings this week were the differences between knowledge and information. Particularly, I was interested in their description of how each is acquired. Information is a commodity, while knowledge is a possesion. When you want to learn about something, you need information. When you want to learn to be something, you need knowledge (p. 128).

This relates to their discussion of learning by doing (pgs. 130-131). They discussed a study done by educational psychologists on how children best learn language - by practice, or by reading a dictionary. Children who learned by practice learned far more than children who learned via a book. I saw this firsthand when I taught pre-K. I taught my class the "theory" of letters - what they look like, the sounds they make. Some kids had trouble with the rote learning, but they all blossomed when we played with the letter mats. I scrambled up letter mats on the floor, and had children jump to certain letters - random at first, then spelling out their names and sight words. Learning the theory of something is important, and gives you a lot of information. Learning by practicing something gives you knowledge. If information gives you power, knowledge gives you success.

As far as implications for the US education system - teachers should be concerned with cultivating knowledge, not just delivering information. B&D say on p. 136 that "people learn in response to need." Shouldn't it be a teacher's job to ensure that there is no need? When my private school preschoolers moved on to public school kindergarten, several parents said that their children were miles ahead of the other kids, because they already knew letters, numbers, counting, writing, etc. They possessed that knowledge, which made them better students. Teachers, especially elementary school teachers, have the incredibly important job of delivering information and helping students convert that information into knowledge.