Reverse Influence
I have always found my syllabus baffling. It usually introduces me to a new raw topic at a bit advanced level. Now after almost completing my engineering course i see that the whole charade was like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Things now make sense a bit, i see somethings i learned from college, even though much of it doesn't make sense. Now on retrospection, i have felt the same way at many occasions in the course of my formal education.
To easily point out an instance it was in 6th Grade where my computer teacher introduced us to the word "Parameter". The idea of parameter was entirely new to me, i had absolutely no idea what it was. But now I use it even in my everyday speech!. The point is, if I now set a syllabus for 6th Grade i would be definitely teaching them those things because now its very basic level stuff for me.
The question is that, even though the concept is basic, are we introducing it in the right way to the students? I coined the term "Reverse Influence" to explain this situation. A reverse influence is a situation where a guy with a higher level of knowledge undermines the basic starting levels of the subject. I spot this throughout our education system.
Using big words and compusively categorising and building mathematical or theoretical models comes only at later stages of the process of learning. At a point a student will feel by himself that there should be a system, a model, or a theory to explain. That is the stage where theoretical models should be introduced.At such a stage learning happens automatically. By-hearting and barfing them on an examination sheet is not learning. By skipping those steps that lead to the introduction, we are taking away all the fun!!..
Even the idea of me naming this phenomenon as "reverse influence" is itself a reverse influence. I know what i am talking about very well, but that is not the case for a starter. A guy who have a major in a subject is learning the subject very well, he may have deep knowledge on the subject, but that doesn't mean he can successfully introduce a new comer to his subject. Even if he tries his deeper knowledge will undermine his ability to point out the stepping stones.
If we take a look at our basic curriculum, we can see a lot of examples. Trigonometry, Automata Languages etc are the victims of the wrong introduction. Has anyone taught you who and why they came up with trigonometric functions sin, cos, tan?. Instead of starting about the stupid properties and a 1000 other knickknacks to remember about them why dont they actually show us how they got it, and how they use it?. If we have to open the full potential of the learning community then introduction to a subject should be done properly. So, instead of selecting topics for kids to learn, select the right things for them to learn.
