Case-Based Reasoning Meets Learning by Doing

Goal-Based Scenarios:
When one is talking about learning by doing, the proscription is clear: never teach anyone to do anything
that they didn't want to learn to do in the first place. If micro-scripts are acquired in the service of real
goals that students actually have, they will not be forgotten.
The same is true of learning by cognizing. We cannot acquire new knowledge unless we truly wanted that
knowledge. As in learning by doing, the issue is that goals have to be real. We cannot tell a student
something and expect them to remember it, unless they wanted to know it in the first place. Now, it is
clear that this is wrong if we take a literal view of remembering. We can force students to memorize
information for long periods of time, especially if we give them mnemonics such as alphabetical cues or
rhymes. All this does, however, is enable them to tell that information to themselves each time so that
they can hear it again. It does not enable functional recall of that knowledge.
Recalling information functionally means being able to recall it at the precise moment that it might be of
use, and this entails having learned it with respect to its use in the first place. To ensure that this happens
easily the knowledge to be acquired must be learned in terms of its potential use. This is fairly difficult to
achieve in school for the rather simple reason that much of what schools want students to know has no
actual use. Even when that information does have use, the schools have often long since forgotten what it
was. To see what I mean here, let's consider the functionality of the knowledge that I wrote down earlier
and see how it can be broken down into the following classes:
Useful for understanding a domain:
Richard Daley is the mayor of Chicago, following the path set for him by his father.
Michael Jordan may well be the best basketball player who has ever lived.
The Balkans have been a hotbed of trouble ever since the Ottoman Empire caused one ethnic group
to be divided into two religions.
Useful for making day to day decisions:
It is the freshness of the fish that matters most in determining the quality of sushi.
1970 was a great year for Bordeaux and the wines of that year are still drinking well.
Useful for understanding life:
Kurt Vonnegut was an author esteemed by the children of the 60's who still seems relevant today.
George Bush used the Gulf War as a political instrument for his own re-election but it didn't seem
to help.
If you want to get ahead in life, follow your natural instincts and ignore the advice of your
compatriots.
One way to get rich is to never spend a dime.
If you want people to like you ask for their advice.
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