Simple computer programs operating with essentially linear inputs can model very complex learning characterized by nonlinear outputs, ones that mimic human development. A difficult but readable book, Rethinking Innateness by Elman et al. , does an excellent job of setting forth my views about learning and development. Of all of the efforts at effective teaching, none has a better track record than mastery learning. At the college level, mastery learning is sometimes called personalized systems of instruction. While this rhetoric may sound as if I'm a neobehaviorist, I'm not.
Successful teaching involves feedback from the teacher.
Feedback is what makes kids learn. You probably can guess, then, that I don't think much of open-ended inquiry strategies. Guided inquiry, on the other hand, seems to work quite well in restricted situations. Graduate Degrees . Finishing a degree takes a great deal of a mentor's time.