Recently, I wrote a defense of psychologist John Carroll's claim that what separated stronger and weaker students wasn't a fundamental difference in learning potential, but a difference in learning rate. Some people learn faster and others more slowly, but provided the right environment, essentially anyone can learn anything.
In arguing that, I primarily wanted to dispute the common belief that talent sets hard limits on the skill and knowledge you can eventually develop. Not everyone could become a doctor, physicist or artist, the reasoning goes, because some people will hit a limit on how much they can learn.
However, in arguing that the primary difference between students was learning rate, I may have also been committing an error!
A recent paper I encountered suggests that the rate of learning among students doesn't actually differ all that much. Instead, what differs mostly between students is their prior knowledge.
"An Astonishing Regularity"
The paper, "An astonishing regularity in student learning rate," was authored by Kenneth Koedinger and colleagues. They observed over 6000 students engaged in online courses in math, science, and language learning, ranging from elementary school to college.
Source: Scott H. Young
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