Maybe 'absolute best' isn't really a thing.
Everyone has a different perspective on learning. Some profess school to be the best way to go while others are of the opinion that education and school are divergent concepts much like the difference between faith and religion.
So the question arises: is there a singular method of learning that can be considered to be "the best" or is learning a subjective activity. In other words, if everyone learns differently, is it possible to come up with a unified method that works for everyone?
The short answer: No. The long answer: Absolutely!
Before we get into how my two answers can possibly be so different, what are the different learning types that I'm talking about?
Let's start with..
UNI-DIRECTIONAL LECTURE BASED LEARNING
Anyone who has watched a tutorial video should be very familiar with this. The "Expert" discusses the topic in some detail and gives their views on the subject. This type of instruction can work quite well for things that are functional; the how-to kind of thing.
As I see it, there are three main problems with this type of instruction. First is one of analogy, second is one of methodology, and third is one of implied knowledge.
ANALOGY
The analogy problem arrises whenever you are learning something conceptual. Conceptual things, by definition, can very often be illusive without the right example – and examples are the key here. Here's one now:
The other day I was driving and listening to a podcast, as ya do. Tom and Bob were discussing the rule of time preference in Austrian Economics and Bob felt that, although the time preference rule was primary to Austrian Economics, it was unnecessary.
Now, I've studied economics for a long time and, for a novice, I have a pretty good grasp of the subject – certainly enough to have concluded that the Austrian school is the one that I find to be (by far) the best at explaining the reality of human action.
But this conversation was a bit difficult for me to grasp.
Bob was removing something that was vital to my understanding of the subject as a whole. He was even giving a bunch of examples as he went. And, of course, each time he did so, I would argue with the podcast. (Back in the day if they saw you barreling down the road arguing with yourself, someone would come and take you away – not so much anymore.)
But it wasn't until the last example when I finally understood what Bob was getting at – that last example finally made his argument clear and concretised all of the others. Am I convinced? Yeah, kinda, I'll have to live with it for awhile – but don't change the subject!
The point is that, without that last example, I wasn't getting it. I bet thousands of the other listeners understood his point after Bob's first or second examples, but those examples weren't speaking to me. It's all about what relates to the student.
What relates to one person may be completely foreign to another and, for me, it was only the third example that worked.
METHODOLOGY
Very often a how-to seems definitive – this is how it's done and it's the only way to do it. But as most of us have found out by now, there are only a very few problems in the world that have but one solution.
The same is true of step-by-step instructions. These are the steps thought to be the best by the instructor but they may not be the ONLY way to do it. It's what makes one contractor different from another and one manufacturer better than another manufacturer.
But, unless you have access to divergent options and are willing to spend the time to learn more than one, you may walk away from the lesson with the impression that you've just learned the definitive way to get something done when, lying hidden, is a much better way.
THE OVER-EXPERT AND IMPLIED KNOWLEDGE
If you're at all familiar with the old version of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, you may already see the possible problems that can arise from this type of instruction: implied or prerequisite knowledge and experience (especially when it comes to timing!)
Very often the instructor is such an expert that they simply cannot understand what you don't understand. They throw out terms like blanching, braising, and deglazing and assume that you know, not only what they mean and how to perform them, but also what it takes to get them done and how long the processes will take.
Of course, one general fix to this type of learning is...
BI-DIRECTIONAL LECTURE BASED LEARNING
This one seems kind of obvious – add a Q&A to the lecture and problem solved, right? I mean, if you don't understand what blanching is, ask the instructor to explain it. It seems reasonable enough but it also means that, for every person that already knows what it means, they are waiting for you to catch up.
This is the exact problem that turned Bush's "No Child Left Behind" act into the reality that was "Every Child Left Behind!" By relegating everyone to going at the speed of the slowest person in the class, the entire process breaks down.
There are a number of possible fixes to this problem, and many of them are made exponentially better since the advent of the net. Let's go through a few of them:
PRIVATE TUTORING
Okay, simple enough. If there are things in the lecture that you don't understand, a private tutor can explain them without slowing down the rest of the class. This can be a great solution if you can find the right person to help you and, unless you are very lucky, can afford both the expert and the tutor.
MULTIPLE LECTURERS
This one is generally a more modern phenomenon of the video tutorial age and is simple enough to grasp. If you want to learn how to do something, watch 2 or 3 videos by different people on the same subject.
Yeah - this one can work quite well. Watch three different tutorials and you'll get 3 different perspectives on the same subject. All of which will most likely have a different analogy and, chances are, one of them is bound to speak to you.
Overall, this is a pretty good method and, if you've got the time to pull it off, it solves many of the issues that we've covered.
SOCIAL SUPPORT
This one is definitely more modern. Sure, back in the day we had study groups in university but those were limited to the students at a single campus, all of whom were listening to the same "expert" lecturer. If the lecturer was bad, the students were bad - so no help there.
But, since then, the rise of net based forums and private groups has expanded this concept considerably to include experts and students from all over the world. The value of the modern forum or private group far outstrips the old study group concepts except for one thing...
In a study group, you're all in the same place and you can talk. Questions, concepts, and challenges – you know, discussions – happen and they happen fast. Online forums and private groups are much slower processes and, because everyone is writing, can often be confusing (depending on the communication skills of the participants).
On the other hand, online groups have a major advantage over live discussions in that everything stated is recorded for other to read regardless as to when they come looking. If you have a live discussion with a group of people, unless that discussion is recorded and posted, only those present and involved in the discussion benefit.
In an online forum or private group, the "discussion" is recorded for everyone to see, no matter when they come.
BACK TO THE TOP
So there we have all of the learning possibilities that I can think of. It's time now to get back to the initial question: is it possible to come up with a unified method that works for everyone?
My short answer was "NO" and it still is. No, I don't see a single method that works for everyone for all of the issues I outlined above.
But my long answer was "absolutely" and here's why...
Well, I don't like the premise of the question.
So, after all that, it was a trick question?!
Yeah, totally.
When it comes to the CodePanic Master Classes, I find the combination of all the methods works best for everyone.
My CodePanic Master Classes, for example, start with uni-directional lectures via video tutorial where we go through each topic using multiple examples and covering multiple methods. These lessons are grouped into concept bundles allowing each student to proceed through the bundle at the pace in which they are most comfortable.
Each concept bundle is followed by live Q&A sessions allowing each student to submit questions, enhancing their understanding and minimising confusion. This bi-directional learning method reinforces and strengthens the course information using additional examples and methodologies.
To eliminate the "slowest common denominator" problem, our live sessions are organised by topic-group and level. Students may proceed through the live sessions at their own pace or, if needed, they may linger within a topic group until they feel prepared to move forward.
Each live Q&A session is recorded and posted for students to review at any time and, in combination with the CodePanic Insiders private support group, this rounds out the approach with historical questions, answers, private help and tutoring and, most useful of all, diversified techniques and opinions.
The best, most unified method, it turns out, is the method that comprises them all.
*1 - Yes, I know I was the one who stated the question – shut up!