Understanding Underpins Education

My friend’s exam taught me about education.

Fred looked into the distance. His thousand-yard stare marked a man who’d completed a gruelling exam.

“So, what kind of things did they ask?”, I ventured.

“Everything. I had to define terms, process steps, perform some calculations”, Fred responded, without shifting his gaze, “for two hours, without a toilet break.”

“Well, you got your certificate. Do you feel smarter?”

Fred lowered his sunglasses and looked at me, cross-eyed. “Do I look any smarter?”

Suggests Ackoff, “There's an old adage among educators that an ounce of knowledge is worth a pound of information, and an ounce of understanding is worth a pound of knowledge.

Unfortunately in the educational process, 90% of our time is spent in conveying information, 9% conveying knowledge, and 1% conveying understanding.

Information is what is contained in the answer to questions that begin with words like: who, where, what, which, how many, when. If I say ‘where is the washroom?’, and somebody says ‘down to the right’ - that's information.

Knowledge is contained in the question that begins with ‘how’ - ‘how do I get the mobile from here?’.

Knowledge is contained in instructions. Information is contained in descriptions.

Understanding is contained in the answers to questions that begin with ‘why’, and they are by far the most difficult and the most valuable.”

Deming continues, “[students] pass courses by acquiring information - know all the capitals of all the states.”

So, asking ‘why’ helps us understand the causes behind the phenomenon we observe. But how do we shift from sharing information and knowledge, to growing understanding?

Goldratt suggests, “What's your favourite question of a four-year-old kid? ‘Why?’ [...] When you answer, you’re asked immediately ‘Why?’. Then you say ‘Go to your mother!’.

We are killing this fantastic talent of cause-and-effect in our kids. They have it! Instead of encouraging it, [...] we are teaching them to memorise.

Here's the end result: all these very smart people. Something so obvious is not clear to anybody because none of us are trained in building cause-and-effect trees.”

The takeaway? Encourage ’why?’s, not fact retention. Even if it’s 3am and your kid is asking why they need to go back to bed.