Learning By Doing

A SCIENTIST IN INDIA went into a remote part of the country, and place a computer in a wall, such that it could not be stolen, turned it on, and departed. Over a period of time, he watched what happened from a hiding place. This in a country where rural residents know what computers are, but for the most part have had little or no experience using them. The people most curious about the computer were children. Adults strolled by, but generally didn't seem interested. Perhaps they assumed that the machine was there for some unknown purpose unrelated to them, perhaps their curiosity had been extinguished by adulthood, most probably they assumed that if they tinkered with it, they would get in big trouble. But children came in droves, with great curiosity. Many of the children spent a lot of time at the computer, many of them returned frequently, regularly, day after day. Finally, the scientist approached one of the children, intending to find out whether any of them had figured anything out, or had even perhaps learned the rudiments of it use, such as clicking the mouse. When questioned, one child said: "its a good machine, but we need a better processor, some more random access memory, a new mouse, and a bigger monitor." Indeed, they had learned something. Emboldened and encouraged, the sociologist placed a tutorial on the menu, explaining the structure and function of DNA. All this in English, just as everything on the computer was in English,to which none of the children had ever been exposed.a After several weeks, the scientist asked a child whether she had looked at the tutorial, and had gained even the slightest glimmer concerning the topic of DNA. The child responded: "I don't understand much of it. Its obvious that the improper replication of DNA molecules causes cancer, but the precise mechanism, at the molecular level, is beyond my understanding, but it seems to me that in this area the tutorial was rather vague." So much for rote learning. All hail to those who advocate hands on education, learning by doing, and freedom to learn by trial and error.