Abstract:
The distinction between patterns and processes is a major methodological and
philosophical challenge in science (Jasienski, 1996). The task of modern
education is to give students the tools enabling them to critically analyze
patterns and infer which processes generate them, whether in natural or in
social sciences. In contrast, most of educational effort still goes to fact
delivery and force-feeding students with classification schemes which provide
only superficial understanding of the world and become quickly obsolete. I
advocate a shift in educational philosophy towards building intuitive
understanding, heuristic methods of problem solving and powerful factfinding
skills. I provide examples how modern information technology makes
such a shift easy to implement.
