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Why is the whole education system set up so that students learn theory first?

I'm watching this video that talks about how to learn anything in 20 hours, i'm skeptical though, it seems unrealistic to just power through something in 20 hours even if you are fully focused the whole time.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB6K60mkmhoHe says that you should learn in theory specific parts and then instantly turn to practical and trying to cram everything in theory is not an efficient way to learn, i've heard this so many times before that practical is more important than theory, but if that's the case then why do we even have universities that have extensive degrees?

Why do students go to college so many years before actually committing to doing it practically if it's so much more effective, you would think universities had a reason why they taught in theory then once you graduate you become practical in your job, there must be a reason why they won't teach you practical rather keep it all in books, this is the way it's been done for so many years that anyone that is pursuing a profession rather than a job goes to uni before actually doing, I am skeptical when they say learn practical before you've fully grasped the theory.

I always thought that you would learn the theory before approaching the practical because often tackling practical things can get you stuck if you've had no in class studies.If many university students were to learn practical before theory rather than the other way around, wouldn't this just make the learning process slower, many tradesman will say something like this, but there jobs aren't really hard in theory IMO, they are just hard to get used to doing practically.

What would even be the point in books, uni's, college's, all this, if it were just quicker and easier to learn from "the school of life" and job experience.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 1
This wouldn't work i'm afraid.
Reply 2
Original post by john2054
This wouldn't work i'm afraid.


Explain
Reply 3
Original post by NullDrone
Explain


Universities serve a specific purpose of higher education, which isn't just to imbue occupational skills, but also academic rigour, and an overall broadening of the minds of her students. This cannot be conveyed from a purely occupational format, sadly!
Reply 4
Original post by JohnGreek
Judging from my own revision, I think it's true that the system requires you to know the theory first before practising it. However, I think that there's a reason why theory comes first - it's that learning it allows for more consistency and for one to interact with an entire discipline instead of merely the aspects of it that are common on an everyday basis.

For example, an aspiring lawyer needs to be familiar with various aspects of the law, and certain key cases, even if he may not exactly remember their details, or come to use most of them, when practising years later. Likewise, a mechanic will need to be familiar with all the components in a vehicle instead of just the ones he has to service regularly. In Maths, you see that abstract/pure maths are the ones that have often been used in practical applications.

I think that there's a lot that the "school of life" can teach you, mostly in relation to interpersonal skills. However, I wouldn't regard it as a substitute to "specialist" knowledge.


I also think it's slightly bs that he would think that you wouldn't struggle when approaching a topic in practice in your first day, and that you wouldn't struggle even if you knew the key parts, I imagine you would run into a huge wall where you just wouldn't know what to do and wish you had learnt the theory first. I also very much doubt you could reduce 4 years of knowledge into 10 hours, it seems very optimistic, I would like to see someone do that rather than just claim in theory that it's possible, I bet even if you learn intensively it's still not that quick.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 5
Original post by JohnGreek
I agree - learning the theory first is crucial in most skilled areas :smile: Even jobs like working the tills at a supermarket have a certain amount of "theory" behind them, in telling the employee how to behave, what to do, and in which order.

While some people obsess with "practical learning" or "learning as you go along", the reality is that a tiny minority of jobs are completely intuitive these days (like, idk, breaking rocks in a mine or something). You've gotta learn the theory first, and then learn how to apply it. That can be pretty damn tough imo.


That also makes me wonder, if it's so much faster then why do so many apprenticeships often take over 3-5 to complete? They emphasize how important the practical is, yes it is important, but I think that it's not just some fast way to becoming an expert, the guy on the video talks about learning the key skills of a subject, if you were going into a job, yes you might be able to do it, but if you have holes all over your knowledge then you are in trouble. I do agree with starting on the hardest and most key thing first though, universities shouldn't just brush over the most essential things quickly, they should put them at the beginning of the course when everyone's fresh and spend extra amounts of time on them, to me they have unrealistic expectations for someone to just be given one lecture on calculus then have an exam the next week. I would say the 20:80 applies to jobs, 20% of the education you would use 80% of the time in your job, then 80% of the education would be used 20% of the time, but still, if you are going for a profession rather than a job, you need to have specialist knowledge regardless of how often you use it.
(edited 7 years ago)

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