CHAPTER 1 Cognitive Process-Based Education Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. —Oscar Wilde Learning begins with a goal. However, when we think about education and school, we often forget this. Someone, somewhere, decides that a student must learn about Napoleon, but fails to ask how such learning might conform to a goal that the student consciously holds. We don’t forget this when we try to teach a child to walk or talk, because we know that the child does want to learn to do these things. When we teach a child to hit a baseball, we usually determine beforehand that the child wants to learn to do this. But, we forget this simple idea of goal-directed learning as soon as we design curricula for schools. Who cares if the child wants to learn long division? Make the child learn it. It is very important. Full speed ahead! Somewhere along the way, many students get lost. They may get lost in high school, or in college, or in job training. But somewhere they learn to shut off their natural learning instincts, the ones that drive them to improve because they really want to accomplish some- thing. Instead they try hard to do what they were told to do—they study, they pass tests, and eventually their love of learning is gone. The feedback that they previously have gotten from accomplishing a real goal, one that they truly had held, has been replaced by pleasing the teacher, or getting a good grade, or progress in their goal of getting into a “good college.” Designers (and teachers) of courses must contend with this truth: The students that you have may not want to learn what it is that you want to teach. What to do? 7 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023747