Tales of the Undead…Learning Theories: The Learning Pyramid
Candice Benjes-Small, ACRLog, March 30, 2014

It's worth re-running this item (shared this week by Doug Belshaw). "Since the 1960s, experts have been trying to convince people that the learning pyramid is bogus. But for every article written exposing its weaknesses, there seem to be dozens of instances where it is invoked as truth in presentations, websites, and trade publications." If you want proof someone hasn't done real research, watch for the cone of experience to show up in their work.

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Crows Understand a Fundamental Part of Logical Reasoning
Jason G. Goldman, Animals, March 30, 2014

David Hume wrote, "It is certain that the most ignorant and stupid peasants — nay infants, nay even brute beasts — improve by experience, and learn the qualities of natural objects, by observing the effects which result from them." We see this over and over again; this link adds to that evidence, as we see crows using heavy objects to raise the level if water in a glass in order to reach food floating in it. Whatever theory of learning we have, it seems ervident that it must be simple enough that children and animals can use it, and this seems to me to rule out theories requiring complex constructivism or the making of meaning. Because crows don't make meaning.

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