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| Me, at my placement 3 March 2014 |
It seems like a good time to be reminded that "No One Knows What the F@&* They're Doing."
In this charmingly titled article, Steve Schwartz* outlines three kinds of knowledge, which I'll share below sans inappropriate language:
1. The Things You Know
2. The Things You Know You Don't Know
3. The Things You Don't Know You Don't Know
He suggests that the goal of education as it currently exists today appears to be to "cram as much information as possible" into that first category. However:
I am going to be bold and suggest that this is wrong. The goal isn't to put as much as possible into the first category, it's to take as much as possible out of the third category.While I'm not fond of his comma, I'm quite taken with the idea that it's more important to build up both categories one and two; it's important both to know things and to know that you don't know things. And that's what we can help our students with, too. The people who are dangerous, Schwartz suggests, are the people who run around not knowing what they don't know. So I'm taking it on myself to help make not-dangerous people via my teaching.
I also found this article interesting because as I apply for jobs, as we're a little over three months from program-completion, I feel like I'm in a position where I should know a lot. I should be a knowledgeable teacher. In some ways, I am; in others, perhaps I am not. But when I don't know, I sometimes get impatient and frustrated. What I need to do in those moments is to be okay with the things that I know I don't know. I am reminded by Mr. Schwartz that
When you find yourself in a situation where you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t ever feel ashamed for not understanding something, even it seems like it should be obvious; if you don’t understand it, then it’s not obvious, plain and simple.I recommend the article and his follow up post, as well...
* Steve Schwartz is a software smarty-web guy who apparently also deals in "monitoring online conversations" - 'cuz there's nothing creepy about that.
And interestingly, perhaps our ultimate goal in the classroom should be:
ReplyDelete"How to equip students to figure out the The Things You Don't Know You Don't Know, so they can then now identify The Things You Know You Don't Know, and finally become The Things You Know"
Having trained 4th year medical students and medical / surgical residents for years I can tell you there are few creatures more dangerous on this earth than a 4th year or intern because they don't know what they don't know. They have to be responsible for killing someone who would not have otherwise died before most will reflect (does not apply to surgical residents, they don't learn) on what they lacked in their provision of care.
ReplyDeleteThis must be why they say "Ignorance is bliss." If you don't know what you don't know, you must therefore assume you do know. Does that logic hold true? :)
ReplyDelete