Via PHP Everywhere, ONJava.com: 'Head First Java' Author Interview.
So much learning could be so much more efficient (and fun) if we all paid attention to the needs and goals of our brains, rather than doing things a certain way because that's how everyone else does it. We've known forever (at least since Socrates anyway) that learning is at its weakest when the learner is a passive receiver of information. The learner has to be engaged and actively flexing some neurons. The brain is tuned to pay attention to novelty and chemistry. For example, if something really scary or exciting happens to you, it takes only one episode and you remember it forever. Yet no matter how hard we struggle to learn something technical, it often takes multiple, sometimes dozens, of exposures to the content before it really sinks in and you're able to recall it when you need to. That's your brain trying to do you a big favor.
Very little of the interview has to do with Java specifically; the interview has many great insights into teaching in general.
Friday, June 20, 2003
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