Improvement of
Knowledge Generation
and Transfer
Alexander Liss
Crisis of Education in the
In the time, when an average person has to
understand and know increasingly more in increasingly broader area (politics,
finance, economy, employable skills, etc.) the large majority of the society
neither has adequate Knowledge nor has skills or tools to acquire Knowledge. The
problem is not in absence of abstract Knowledge, without which one could
survive nicely end even flourish. There is lack of Knowledge, which is
crucially important for functioning in the rapidly changing environment and
society. This is a deficiency, which makes individuals and the society as a
whole prone to crises.
Knowledge has to be perpetually generated, adjusted
to specific situations and personalities, and passed to willing recipients.
Knowledge generation is not embedded well into economic system – not
compensated well. Education system is in disarray. This is a problem mirroring
the problem of lack of Knowledge.
Current Socio-Economic Crisis makes this situation a
critical one, a Crisis of its own. The society has to restructure itself, it
needs highly functional system of Knowledge Generation and Transfer to handle
this task, and it does not have even an adequate system to handle a stable
state of society.
Note that attempts to improve only some parts of this
system in isolation – fix school system, for example, did not work. The broad
and radical approach is needed.
A society perpetually generates logically organized
information, which is applicable with some interpretation to various situations
– the Knowledge. This is an essential social activity it is desirable from
social and from individual points of view.
Successful generation of the Knowledge is
universally perceived as reward on its own – one feels better equipped to deal
with future challenges. Sharing of the Knowledge between members of a
cooperating social group is natural, because it strengthens the group.
Naturally, in advanced societies there are
specialists. Successful Knowledge Generation specialists have to have flexible
mind trained to see logical inconsistencies and imbalances, which they
naturally apply to social issues, hence they cannot be conformists and could be
difficult to fit in some relatively rigid organizations and even in social
groups. Still, the same ability to challenge commonly accepted views are
invaluable in times of a crisis or when a substantially novel organization has
to be created. Hence, they are eagerly deployed as advisers.
A quick evaluation of quality of results of a
Knowledge Generator could be done only by other Knowledge Generators
specialized in a similar area. This naturally leads to forming of “guilds” of
specialist concerned only with opinions of their peers. As a negative
byproduct, this creates a barrier in the Knowledge Transfer from such a “guild”
to the rest of the society.
Efficient planning of the Knowledge Generation is
impossible. The Knowledge Generation happens at the edge of understanding of a
society and any planning at least some understanding of the road ahead, which
does not exist in this case. It is possible to narrow an area, where such
activity is channeled. This does not work on a level of the society as a whole,
because rather sooner than later an important direction of research would be
missed. The experience of centralized governing of scientific research supports
this observation, such governing inevitably leads to low efficiency of research
and missed opportunities.
Hence, the only viable mechanism organizing Knowledge
Generation is based on self-assessment of the quality of results and level of
skills of Knowledge Generators by Knowledge Generators themselves and use of
this assessment by the society to plug Knowledge Generation into social systems
and into market.
There is a particular area of the Knowledge
Generation is associated with growing culture generated by the society:
technological, financial, business, etc. In this area, research is narrowly
focused and this provides some limited ability to plan it and manage it. In
addition, some results of such research could be quickly embedded into market
economy and this allow for allocation of large share of resources of the
society to this particular area of the Knowledge Generation. However, research
in this area cannot replace fundamental research.
Even in this area, the society has to rely on self-assessment
of Knowledge Generators.
Attempts to supplement such self-assessment with
various forms of government directed distribution of resources only lead to
rise of specialists in getting resources according to actual mechanism of this distribution
and not according to quality of delivered new Knowledge.
At this point, the Knowledge Generation is a craft,
which is passed from a teacher to a disciple. Hence, training of new Knowledge
Generation specialists is very limited.
Knowledge Generation specialists need socially and
economically comfortable niches to occupy, while they do their opaque work.
Historically these niches were found with universities and colleges, government
run organizations and research departments of private organizations. Number of these
niches either does not increase fast enough to serve growing needs of the
society, or even decreases in times of economic difficulties.
Because number of such niches is very small, it
creates unfortunate initiative to limit the number of newly trained Knowledge
Generators.
Transfer of the leading edge Knowledge is done via
publications and gatherings. Unfortunately, this form of the Knowledge Transfer
is inefficient – publications and the right to attend such gatherings are
extremely expensive. Such expensive system served well in a slow changing
society, where a person hardly needed to be involved with leading edge of
research and it was a rarity, when one needed to be involved with many
different areas of research.
However, when the society and technology is changing
fast, efficient access to leading edge research is a necessity. This inefficient
Knowledge Transfer is in conflict with current needs of the society, but the
unfortunate tendency of protecting the craft from outsiders rather reinforces it.
Presence of Knowledge Generation specialists in an
organization has its benefits. They uplift the intellectual level in
organization, its ability for critical analysis of the situation and hence
chances for survival and attractiveness for young educated specialists. Also,
they usually have strong abilities to organize the thoughts and this is
translated into clear presentation of the Knowledge in understandable and
memorable way. However, these advantages are not easily quantifiable and it
times of economic difficulties they are discarded as immaterial. Only
universities value them as magnets for new students and try to retain Knowledge
Generation specialists through tough times.
Knowledge Generation specialists lead insular life
and this causes broad rejection by the society, which is engaged in market
activity, where success is associated with material compensation (mad scientist
is a broadly accepted image of a Knowledge Generator).
Knowledge Generation system usually grows slowly.
Only in times when a society is in fear to fall behind in competition with
another society or with the force of nature, there is a push to speed up this
process. For example, when the
The entire subsystem is stable, it was built-up in
times, where education was rarity, it survived severe shocks caused by major
wars, it adapted to demands of modern society. However, it is inadequate, it
does not serve well needs of society.
At this point, the society is facing a real threat
of inability to handle changes brought by the combined effect of population
growth, technological development and global economic restructuring.
Economic crises are frequent.
Important decisions related to possible global warming
are driven not by Knowledge but by hysterical, politically motivated movements.
This is the time to reform the Knowledge Generation
system.
Children are creative thinkers, who learn eagerly.
Knowledge, which the society has to pass to them is well understood and well
prepared for Knowledge Transfer. Teachers make this transfer repeatedly and
quickly hone their knowledge Transfer skills. Tuning of Knowledge Transfer
procedure, adjustment of it to needs of individual student, is not difficult.
Hence, school presents an ideal setting for the Knowledge Transfer.
There are specifics of Knowledge Transfer, which are
clearly seen in school.
In each well defined separate area of Knowledge, a
person is able to learn only one new major idea a day. This is applicable to
adults also. Hence, one can see teaching of distinctive disciplines done in
parallel and Knowledge delivered in measured daily portions.
Because Knowledge delivery is often sequential,
where today’s portion relies on already learned, understood and internalized
previous one, gaps in Knowledge are especially detrimental. In any good school,
these gaps are detected early and fixed.
Main driver of Knowledge acquisition is a natural
desire to know. In a good school, this driver is not dulled, but sharpened
through measured feeding of the mind with Knowledge and protection from
frustration. Fear and duty could help to overcome some temporary psychological
problems, but they cannot be used as drivers of Knowledge acquisition –
memorizing is not Knowledge acquisition; it is only a small part of it.
Together with Knowledge, children acquire important
skills.
Ability to work many hours in a row to acquire
Knowledge is learned, it is not natural, and it is learned in school.
Ability to maintain focus on a narrow subject is
also learned in school.
School polishes logical thinking, and this takes a
long time.
Critical thinking – ability to detect logical
contradictions, accept them as a natural state of things, and not succumb under
pressure to discard a point of view, which contradicts to a generally accepted
one, is a crucially important skill, which is learned in a good school.
Ability to seek for sources of ready Knowledge is
trained in a good school.
Most importantly, in a good school, children learn
how to adjust the Knowledge, which they have already, to new situation and
share it with others. Essentially, this is a step of generation of new
Knowledge. It is an essential part of Knowledge acquisition.
Knowledge Transfer in school is well understood and
easily could be organized with relatively simple preconditions. Schools, where
the Knowledge Transfer is a main goal, are inexpensive, orderly and efficient
in achieving this goal. The fact that the Knowledge Transfer does not work well
in so many schools is a sure sign that other goals tramp the goal of the
Knowledge Transfer there.
Note that proper organization of a school is not a
simple matter: one has to strike a proper balance with parents and their world
view, assure respect for teachers, take in consideration diversity of students,
etc. It is challenging to set it up that the Knowledge Transfer works in an
optimal way; little room is left to serve other goals.
When the school is overwhelmed with goals unrelated
to the Knowledge Transfer, as increase of funding, search for “better
teachers”, making children play and “feel good” does not do any good.
Smaller classes and prettier buildings do not do
much, when children are not directed to learn.
Teachers quickly adapt to the requirements of the
school. When the school ignores Knowledge Transfer and puts emphasis on other
things, teachers deliver these other things at expense of Knowledge Transfer.
A “new and improved” teaching technique (learning
through games, for example) does not bring desirable results also. First, why
this technique is not used in education of privileged children? Second, does
this technique teach important skills, which one acquires during Knowledge Transfer,
as ability to focus for many hours and to work diligently for long hours. These
skills are not natural. These are important skills to have. Fortunately, these
skills are acquired in a process of the Knowledge Transfer.
There are patterns of efficient Knowledge Transfer,
which could be found when Knowledge is transferred to children or adults.
There is great variety in the ways an individual
mind learns. Some learn slowly other quickly, some rely on associative memory
others on organizing new information into logical structures, some create
associations with concrete examples others with abstract ideas, etc. Different
people rely on different sets of mental images in organizing new information.
This does not depend on the field, where they operate, but it is a way their
mind works. Some create stories, some create visual images, some create images
of some physical body or phenomenon, etc.
To communicate some general idea to all people with
varying mechanisms of perception, we developed a universal dry language of
logical description, specialized according to a set of “disciplines”.
Description in this language neither reflects the way the Knowledge have been
generated nor the way the Knowledge is perceived. It is an intermediate
language, which one learns.
When one learns how to generate Knowledge, one
learns how to present results in this language. This is a part of training of
the Knowledge Generator.
When one learns how to acquire the Knowledge one
learns to translate from this language into the ways one’s mind works. The
Knowledge acquisition is facilitated by the specialists in the Knowledge
Transfer – teachers. They adjust the message delivered in this special language
to the specifics of one’s perception and level of one’s existing Knowledge.
Teachers have to work with groups of students. The
larger is variety of the perception mechanisms and Knowledge levels of students
in a group the lower is efficiency of the Knowledge Transfer.
This factor is mitigated in colleges with officering
of courses, which student select according to their perception mechanism – they
take courses, which they understand better. Specialized schools provide
selection of students with similar perception mechanism; hence in theory they
should be more efficient in the Knowledge transfer. In good schools, students
are grouped to reduce diversity of learning mechanisms in a group.
When diversity of learning mechanisms in a group is
large, a teacher adjusts the Knowledge Transfer to only some sub-group in a
group; the rest of the group suffers from inadequate adjustment and falls behind.
Which sub-group is selected for such targeting depends on factors, which have
nothing to do with efficiency of learning. If a teacher’s job is evaluated by
the number of those who under-perform, then the sub-group consist of those who
learn slowly and whose level of existing Knowledge is low, if he is evaluated
by the number of successful students, then the sub-group consists of
over-achievers. In any case, such large diversity leads to a large group of
students having inadequate instructions.
The methods of Knowledge Transfer for homogeneous
groups of learners are quickly developed and shared; this improves the
efficiency of such Knowledge Transfer.
Knowledge is acquired, when one could transfer it
successfully adjusting it to recipient’s specifics of learning and one could
apply it. Both criteria have to be met.
Knowledge is an active social phenomenon; hence
ability to modify it for transfer or for decision-making is essential. In some
respect, such modification is Knowledge Generation on a small scale.
Hence, Knowledge Transfer includes teaching such creative
modification and application of transferred logical constructs.
The quickest and most efficient Knowledge Transfer
starts with the desire to solve some problems and the search for Knowledge,
which helps to do so. Then even absorption of information prepared in a
universal form unrelated to one’s tasks, is accompanied with perpetual attempts
to interpret it and apply to one’s known situations.
This approach to learning is natural for young
children. Bad education system suppresses it and it has to be relearned then.
The contradiction between needs of the society for
Knowledge Generation and Transfer and existing system are so large that one
should expect a Radical reorganization in this area. The problem exists for
awhile already, and there are no substantial improvements. Most likely, the
system as is cannot adjust gradually; hence it will be reorganized radically.
Following is needed:
·
Increase
in number of scientists engaged in basic research and their funding
·
Improvement
of Knowledge Transfer from basic research to applied research and to practical
decision makers in engineering, economy, politics, etc.
·
Expansion
and improvement in adult education to support new emerging areas of commerce
and mitigate loss of jobs in existing areas
·
Reduction
of cost of higher education
·
Increase
of level of Knowledge achieved through school education
There is little hope that the government could solve
these problems. A market mechanism should be engaged to provide a lasting
solution.
A new set of products and services is needed:
·
Short
courses dedicated to narrow scientific subjects delivered electronically with
variants for different target customers
·
Short
series of lectures dedicated to narrow scientific subjects delivered
electronically with variant for different target customers
·
Computerized
systems of short duration interactive learning (the modern version of in class
exercises and homework)
·
Deployment
of these courses, lectures and systems of interactive learning by organizations
providing high education, adult education, and school education
New forms of scientific gathering should be
developed and promoted, forms with rely on electronic communication without
need for physical presence in one place.
Electronic publications of scientific
results should be a norm.
A broad group of people should be involved
in review of scientific publications. There is a large group of specialists in
Knowledge Transfer, who need to be involved in such reviewing process to
improve their social standing and to be engaged in intense intellectual
activity. There is a group who would like to be involved in it out natural
interest in sciences.
They have to be engaged in reviewing after
an official publication and in reviewing before such publication.
Good reviews should be published and
compensated.
This will speed up reviewing process,
improve its quality, increase publication volumes and will make new forms of
publications economically viable.
It should be possible to have a choice of
school. To some degree it exists with specialized schools and specialized
classes in a school, however it is insufficient to provide reduction of
variability of learning mechanisms in a class and to provide healthy competitions
between schools as organizations. The issue is regulatory, this is not an issue
caused by shortage of resources; hence it should be solved accordingly.
In the time of a severe economic crisis,
current education system is not adequate. Current forms of college education –
expensive and taking too long for the amount of Knowledge received, are not
affordable. Young people have to start work earlier; hence the society needs
some forms of school, from which one could graduate earlier with a sufficient
set of skills. Most importantly, many skills, which allowed gainful employment
are insufficient in a new environment, hence new intensive and inexpensive
forms of adult education are needed.
This new demand should cause emergence of
new more efficient forms of organization of education, which in turn should
affect existing ones.