Theory-free and fact-free but method-focused and trust-driven education: insights from Google, Excel, and eBay

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.