Skill and Knowledge

From Weekly I/O#54


Learning new things is different from practicing new things. Passive learning brings knowledge while active practicing brings skills.

Book: Ultralearning

Transfer of learning (the ability to apply and use what we learn) has been seen as the "Holy Grail" of education. However, tons of studies paradoxically have confirmed that what we aim to learn doesn't transfer to the situation we need it. It especially rarely happens in instructional settings.

Learning new things and practicing new things sound similar but can produce drastically different outcomes. Passive learning brings knowledge, while active practicing brings skills. The things we learn from listening to lectures in the classroom are hard to transfer because what we acquire is mostly knowledge. However, what we usually need in our daily life are skills. It takes extra effort to translate knowledge into skills. For example, when learning a new language, the skill to use our phone to look up translation quickly is not easily transferrable from memorizing more vocabulary.


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