JOURNAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION THEORY AND PRACTICE

Adopting a Beginners Mind to Craft Experiments that Break the Curse of Knowledge

Author(s): Russell Engel

Citation: Russell Engel, (2013) "Adopting a Beginners Mind to Craft Experiments that Break the Curse of Knowledge," Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, Vol. 13, Iss. 3/4, pp. 93 - 100

Article Type: Research paper

Publisher: North American Business Press

Abstract:

The experiment and lesson developed in this paper aim at dealing with the curse of knowledge, or the

disharmony between what instructors believe they are teaching and what students are learning. This

paper proposes that by adopting a beginner’s mind, instructors will be able to mitigate the disharmony.

To adopt a beginner’s mind, an instructor must first recognize any priors he holds that will be important

for understanding the topic that differ from the priors that students likely hold. The best way to deal with

these mismatched priors is to craft an experiment that develops the priors in a straightforward way.