I'm reading Dan Willingham's latest book, When Can You Trust the Experts?, and enlightenment struck in Chapter 6. Educationally, we are in the Dark Ages.
There is no truth in education, "experts" believe theirs is the only way, and all other ways are harmful. No one understands why anything happens, everything is speculation and guessing. We have not defined what goes on in a classroom, and barely scratched the surface of the question of how a person learns. Individual teachers can achieve brilliant results, but those results are almost never duplicated. Teachers learn their craft by copying the techniques of experienced elders. Charlatans abound with substandard and/or irrelevant "studies" selling high-priced programs that yield paltry results.
This is exactly like early medicine. No one understood anatomy or the causes of disease (many believed it came from smell). Even after the invention of the scientific method in the 1600's, research was mostly haphazard until the 20th century. Doctors learned from more experienced colleagues by copying their methods. Self-proclaimed "experts" traveled around selling miracle "cures" for every ailment.
The practice of medicine got a lot better; maybe there's hope.
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