Myth: Learning by doing is best

Myth

Learning by doing is the best form of learning. Everyone must have experienced the value of learning by doing. This form of learning often leads to memories that last for years. No wonder, some educators believe that learning by doing should monopolize educational practice

Fact

Learning by doing is very effective in terms of the quality of produced memories, but it is also very expensive in expenditure of time, material, organization, etc. For a child without metacognitive skills, learning by doing might indeed by the best choice in most contexts. A child cannot or should not add new knowledge to SuperMemo (see: SuperMemo does not work for kids). The experience of a dead frog's leg coming to life upon touching a wire may stay with one for life (perhaps as murderous nightmares). However, a single picture or video of the same experiment can be found on the net in seconds and retained for life with spaced repetition at the cost of 60-100 seconds. This is incomparably cheaper than hunting for frogs in a pond. When you learn to program your digital recorder, you do not try out all functions listed in the manual as this could take a lifetime. You skim the highlights and practice only those clicks that are useful for you. We should practice learning by doing only then when it pays. Naturally, in the area of procedural learning (e.g. swimming, touch typing, playing instruments, etc.), learning by doing is the right way to go. That comes from the definition of procedural learning
See: Discovery learning

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