re: #346 Cathartic Expression

If you preoccupy the mind with a task like memorization, it tends toward and internalizes that ability. Critical thinking skills, if not taught at the same time, will tend not to be internalized. The pathways, which can vary from tens of thousands to millions of connections, with the higher number of connections will be favoured over those with fewer.

It’s easy to see from this that once those pathways built by the memorization training will take over when critical analysis is attempted.

_{(I know, nobody really cares about this, but it clarifies my own thinking)}

Excellent analysis.

This is a seriously big deal to me as a retired science educator. My students would come into Bio101 with a few memorized facts but no real thinking about the creativity that it took for those facts to be discovered. For instance, Watson and Crick who finally untangled the structure of DNA. I loved seeing how their attitudes about science changed after reading The Double Helix that I required. Great book that is fun and exciting reading, even for those who were never into science. One of my final assignments in the course was to develop a sci-fi movie/book concept based on what they had learned throughout the course, asking them to think outside of the box and apply the basic principals to a “what if?” scenario. Funnest papers of the year to grade.