Some thoughts about self-education

[wrobel]

I deeply respect people who are engaged in self-education. Nevertheless the problem of self-education is as follows. A person reads textbooks and forms his own opinion about what he has read. Then he tries to solve a problem and faces the fact that his answer is not equal to the one in the end of the book.
Then he goes to specialists and asks them what the story is. He expects that specialists will help him to solve the problem and they will do that by using his own understandings and interpretations which he developed while reading textbooks. But what can a specialist do if these understandings and interpretations are mostly inadequate?
Sometimes it is a big challenge for specialists indeed. Usually it is an easier task to reteach a person from the beginning than explain the problem in his language.

 

[fresh_42]

I agree. The main difficulty is the lack of a control instance. PF would be a good place to fill this lack. Unfortunately, many people use LLMs these days instead. They tend to please their clients rather than ask the challenging questions that are necessary for learning. I don't want to derail the subject in that direction, especially as there are already enough threads about LLMs. My main point is the control instance. At university, you have discussions with fellow students, weekly homework, tutorials, seminars, and exams. I always say that the main difference between mathematics and physics is the language, and I mean literally the way things are expressed. But learning languages on your own is challenging, too. They require practice. Hence, it is all about that control instance. You described a situation without any, or a sort of oracle (the scientist asked to help), I mentioned the problem with possible replacements (PF, LLMs). It seems as if some sort of control instance is inevitable in either perspective. The question of a replacement for control mechanisms at the university is thus the center of the problem.

 

[Klystron]

I also agree with the origial post, but the problem can be corrected. For example I read prodigiously as a child, adding many new words and expressions to my vocabulary. Not hearing the new words I would sometimes mispronounce them. This problem was later corrected by attending school, listening to adults speak, and watching films and such made from the source material I had read. (Reading phoneticly helped but phonics usually encountered at school supporting formal education.)

As one learns more advanced mathematics, one's knowledge of physics deepens built on some basic levels of understanding. Errors and incorrect reasoning should be amenable to change as learning continues throughout life.

 

[gleem]

While helping people online with homework like PF is valuable, it is cumbersome. The people must present their whole spiel, misunderstanding and all, in one fell swoop. In reading the post, the advisor might have liked to halt it at the point where the person was beginning to go astray and direct them to the correct direction.

Additionally, there are many competing viewpoints from other advisors who intervene during one's attempted dialogue with the person. These competing posts may be a distraction, drawing the person's attention away from your approach. They may also be significantly different from yours and sometimes confusing.

Sometimes, after many responses, the person may give a courteous thank you, but leave us wondering if our help was understood.

One thing that I thought might be of value is for one of the advisors to summarize the solution or post the" best" solution at the end of the discussion. This might be helpful to others who later peruse the Forum, find the problem of interest, but do not want to spend too much time working through the multitude and sometimes circuitous suggestions and approaches.

 

[mcastillo356]

I study by myself. It's tough. The thread explains it perfectly.

 

[WWGD]

The process of learning can be improved by using this informal training to complement a more traditional education. But the latter is itself out of phase with the modern times, using obsolete books, materials. I was able to pass exams by learning on my own; classes were a waste of time for me.

 

[TensorCalculus]

I deeply respect people who are engaged in self-education. Nevertheless the problem of self-education is as follows. A person reads textbooks and forms his own opinion about what he has read. Then he tries to solve a problem and faces the fact that his answer is not equal to the one in the end of the book.
Then he goes to specialists and asks them what the story is. He expects that specialists will help him to solve the problem and they will do that by using his own understandings and interpretations which he developed while reading textbooks. But what can a specialist do if these understandings and interpretations are mostly inadequate?
Sometimes it is a big challenge for specialists indeed. Usually it is an easier task to reteach a person from the beginning than explain the problem in his language.

There's definitely truth to this: using textbooks (and these days, a little bit of the internet) to teach yourself everything does have its drawbacks. But I wouldn't say that it leads to closed-mindedness or an inherent inadequateness in the person's understanding of science. I'm nearly fully self-taught yet when I do talk to specialists, or get taught in class, I often find that if what I learnt from mainstream textbooks doesn't match up exactly with what I'm being taught, I can fairly quickly adapt. Especially because I've gone through a fair amount of textbooks that use different notations and different conventions: I'm used to switching my mindset in a way. I don't think I stand out much in a class of people who have actually been "properly" taught the concepts I've taught myself.
That being said, I'm in no way an expert physicist or anything. Maybe I'll be proven wrong.

 

[Neutrin0]

I deeply respect people who are engaged in self-education. Nevertheless the problem of self-education is as follows. A person reads textbooks and forms his own opinion about what he has read. Then he tries to solve a problem and faces the fact that his answer is not equal to the one in the end of the book.
Then he goes to specialists and asks them what the story is. He expects that specialists will help him to solve the problem and they will do that by using his own understandings and interpretations which he developed while reading textbooks. But what can a specialist do if these understandings and interpretations are mostly inadequate?
Sometimes it is a big challenge for specialists indeed. Usually it is an easier task to reteach a person from the beginning than explain the problem in his language.

I agree with you partially, if a person is fully self taught then they are 100% going to have to relearn what they taught themselves but if they actually take classes on the subject they learned they can learn more in depth and get hands on experience so say they do a 50/50, 50 they learn themselves 50 they learn or relearn from classes seems like an effective system that could work, thoughts?

 

[fresh_42]

... thoughts?

We may not forget that different people learn things in different ways. What is appropriate for one does not have to be suited for others. I love discussions in front of a chalkboard, but I also know people who learned best with a book in hand. Knowing your best circumstances for learning is half the way.

 

[Neutrin0]

We may not forget that different people learn things in different ways. What is appropriate for one does not have to be suited for others. I love discussions in front of a chalkboard, but I also know people who learned best with a book in hand. Knowing your best circumstances for learning is half the way.

I like that point of view and to be honest I agree with, we all can learn differently some faster than others by book and some others by chalkboard.