Monday, May 23, 2011 Toronto

6:00 am

The temperature is +17 C, with a high predicted of +23 C.

From the Environment Canada website:

Today Becoming cloudy this morning. 30 percent chance of showers late this morning and early this afternoon. A few showers beginning this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm late this morning and this afternoon. Wind south 20 km/h becoming southwest 40 gusting to 60 late this morning. High 23. UV index 4 or moderate. Tonight A few showers ending late this evening then clearing. Risk of a thunderstorm early this evening. Wind west 20 km/h becoming light after midnight. Low 14. Normals Max: 21°C Min: 11°C

2:15 PM Science

I have finished reading the first chapter of "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch. I bought the book yesterday and have already been rewarded. The first chapter is the best description I have read to date on the nature of science and of knowledge.

The key idea is that of "creating a better explanation". Simple yet profound. Testability is part of this, but the critical aspect is that of creation. Explanation is "a statement about what is there, what it does, and how and why". This is not a very good description, but it does capture the essential components when talking about the physical universe.

It does not (yet) discuss the cognitive dimension of ideas and how they are connected and how they are created, which has a lot to do with what one already "knows". The real issue is psychological. How does the brain/mind work? This can be approached neurologically (physically) or psychologically (by creating cognitive models). Both approaches have merit, but they are different domains of discourse.

One of the reasons we have made little progress in education over the last century is that we have not been trying to create cognitive models. This brings to mind a statement I made over a year ago about trying to use a software program called STELLA to build a systems-dynamic model of Learning. Educational Psychology has lost its way. It is no longer a scientific enterprise but has become a political one. There is a surfeit of opinion, and a glut of authorities, but no real explanations of how learning works or how we can foster it. There are, to use Deutsch's term, some rules-of-thumb (which may contain some truth) but there is no model that connects these rules to an underlying theory. It is time to begin building such models so we can examine and compare them, revise them, and begin making some progress.