Education
comes not from books, but from practical experience
Education is the transmittance of knowledge or skills from a
source to students and other learners. There are two ways of transmitting
knowledge, via books or by offering practical experience. Unlike the practical experience that hands-on
activities provide, books are more passive and the authors tend to transmit
their knowledge or skills uni-directionally to readers. Practical experience is
sometimes important in certain fields to give the big idea and has multiple
areas of interpretation and learning experiences.
First consider a situation in which education comes from
practical experience and not from books. Experiential learning is superior in
most instances of education, because of the higher level of engagement of
students that leads to better retainment. For example, one cannot learn to swim
or do math by reading a book; one must practice, make mistakes, and learn from
the errors. Likewise, many students either volunteer ot take up jobs to learn
certain values, handling the public and developing social skills that are not
clearly represented in books. Another example is in medical education. Medical
students in human anatomy class are not restricted only to book s but have labs
to give a big picture and learn visual skills and orientation of the major
organ systems and organs. Although it may be learnt from books, practical
applications of the knowledge must be learnt as well to become a well rounded
physician. As a result, only when
students apply the skills or knowledge they learned in a practical setting such
as swimming laps or doing math problems can these skills truly be learned and
valued.
In contrast, some subjects must be learned from reading
books, and with no practical experience. In many college classrooms World
History courses aim to teach students the contributions of Ancient
civilization. For example, reading the books and primary sources can give
chances for students to give own interpretation of the material. By doing so, students
can actively engage with the material and start thoughtful discussions.
Likewise, history books compared to other subjects are well written with
thorough revision in order to suit the audience of the text. A trip to museum
on ancient civilizations is very limiting because there are only specific
exhibits. Without background reading and knowledge it is meaningless. Thus in
study of history , it is often times
better to gain knowledge from books rather than practical experiences, because
there is more room for interpretation.
All in all, educators must be holistic in their approach to
education and gain a fine balance as to when students should be educated
through books or practical experience. Thus whether or not an education is
gained from practical experience or books is circumstantial. For skill based
professions such as Medicine, practical experience provides a better education
by applying knowledge to real life situations and thus learn skills with
practice. However, for most cognitive and academic subjects, a strong background knowledge in the often
abstract topics can only be obtained through books. As in the case of history,
without books, practical experience is pointless. Certain background knowledge
is needed from books to make personal connections for essays.
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