Teaching social sciences Archive

  • The explosion of digital information about all aspects of our lives, the places we live in, etc. will radically transform the way we write history in the future.  Read on.

    History in the future

    The explosion of digital information about all aspects of our lives, the places we live in, etc. will radically transform the way we write history in the future. Read on.

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  • During my recent field work in India, I was impressed by the depth of social understanding by common people I met in the villages. Often, their views on the society were more sophisticated than many works I read in the academia. This has made me question not just what we learn in the social science disciplines, but also how we learn. I feel that the process of disengaged reading comfortably away from the hustle-bustle of the society compromises our learning. I have been thinking about how we can “teach” social sciences better and this talk by John Seely Brown was...

    Learning as doing: John Seely Brown’s exciting ideas

    During my recent field work in India, I was impressed by the depth of social understanding by common people I met in the villages. Often, their views on the society were more sophisticated than many works I read in the academia. This has made me question not just what we learn in the social science disciplines, but also how we learn. I feel that the process of disengaged reading comfortably away from the hustle-bustle of the society compromises our learning. I have been thinking about how we can “teach” social sciences better and this talk by John Seely Brown was...

    Continue Reading...

  • During fieldwork in India, I was amazed by the differences between common people that I interacted with, and the well trained students in the Western world.   There were significant differences in the questions each asked and the observations they made.  I was often left wondering if more training in the disciplinary world leads to less sophisticated understanding of this complex social world.  Read on...

    Disciplinary training: More trained, less able

    During fieldwork in India, I was amazed by the differences between common people that I interacted with, and the well trained students in the Western world. There were significant differences in the questions each asked and the observations they made. I was often left wondering if more training in the disciplinary world leads to less sophisticated understanding of this complex social world. Read on...

    Continue Reading...