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Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

So what is Twitter serving up as 'education' or 'learning theory' related content these days (that is, as recommendations based on the content of my @OLDaily feed)? This sort of stuff: "the specifics of what we want students to learn matter and the traditions of subject disciplines are respected.  Skills and understanding are seen as forms of knowledge and it is understood that there are no real generic skills that can be taught outside of specific knowledge domains.  Acquiring powerful knowledge is seen as an end itself; there is a belief that we are all empowered through knowing things and that this cannot be left to chance.  There is also a sense that the creative, 'rounded and grounded' citizens we all want to develop – with a host of strong character traits –  will emerge through being immersed in a knowledge-rich curriculum." Think of this as the hydroxychloroquine of education policy. It's not simply that I think this is a mistaken view of learning and development, it's that this view is aligned very closely with a particular political perspective, and serves the need of that perspective more than it reflects what learning actually is and what learners actually need.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: May 08, 2024 04:14 a.m.

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