Education in a Postfactual World. Patrick M. Whitehead
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EDUCATION IN A
POSTFACTUAL
WORLD
EDUCATION IN A
POSTFACTUAL
WORLD
From Knowing to Understanding
Patrick M. Whitehead, PhD
Foreword: Jamie Barker, PhD
Afterword: Gary Senecal, PhD
Education in a Postfactual World: From Knowing to Understanding
Copyright © 2018 Patrick M. Whitehead
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
BrownWalker Press / Universal Publishers, Inc.
Irvine, California • Boca Raton, Florida
USA • 2018
978-1-62734-685-6 (pbk.)
978-1-62734-686-3 (ebk.)
Typeset by Medlar Publishing Solutions Pvt Ltd, India
Cover design by Ivan Popov
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Whitehead, Patrick M., 1986- | Barker, Jamie, writer of foreword. | Senecal, Gary, writer of afterword.
Title: Education in a postfactual world : from knowing to understanding / Patrick M. Whitehead ; foreword by Jamie Barker, PhD ; afterword by Gary Senecal, PhD.
Description: Irvine, CA : BrownWalker, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017950761 | ISBN 978-1-62734-685-6 (pbk.)
| ISBN 978-1-62734-686-3 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Science--Study and teaching. | Teaching--Methodology. | Effective teaching. | Thought and thinking. | Learning, Psychology of. | Educational change. | BISAC: EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / Science & Technology. | EDUCATION / Learning Styles. | EDUCATION / Aims & Objectives.
Classification: LCC LB1025.3 .W447 2018 (print) | LCC LB1025.3 (ebook) | DDC 371.302/8--dc23.
To Flynn Patrick Baxter
Table of Contents
| 1 | You Are Becoming Your Facebook Profile or, Abstractification by Facebook |
PART I: FACT-MINDED METAPHYSICS
| 2 | The World of Facts |
| 3 | Knowing versus Understanding |
| 4 | Losing, Regaining Consciousness |
PART II: FACT-MINDED EDUCATION
| 5 | Fact-minded Learning |
| 6 | Fact-minded Students |
| 7 | Dangers of Fact-minded Education |
| 8 | Your Brain on Education |
| 9 | Physics |
| 10 | Biology |
| 11 | Psychology |
Afterword by Gary Senecal, PhD
Acknowledgements
Iam grateful to the graduate education that I received in the department of psychology at the University of West Georgia (UWG). A few names that come to mind are Chris Aanstoos, Neill Korobov, John Roberts, Hans Skott-Myhre, Eric Dodson, Lisa Osbeck, and John Kim, not to mention the many fellow graduate students that helped me sort through novel ideas at various bars in Carrollton, Georgia. While at UWG, I received more than an education: I learned how to take responsibility for my own learning. This supplied the freedom and flexibility to challenge the academic disciplines that I had found so compelling. This book has been a way for me to organize my thoughts about philosophy, education, and science, as they changed throughout my education. By reading this book, my hope is that college students can feel a bit of the freedom in inquiry and learning that I was fortunate enough to experience first-hand.
Since most of these chapters came together while I was a graduate student, many of them have parts that have been presented at various conferences