Educators should teach facts only after their students have studied the ideas, trends, and concepts that help explain those facts.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reas

In recent years it has been proposed that educators should first teach their students about trends and concepts, adding in the facts only after students have a firm grasp on the former. A small group of researchers from the University of California system, dissatisfied with a lack of conclusive evidence, have countered this view with contemporary research that elucidates just how time consuming and deleterious to student success and morale this approach can be.

The primary finding of their study was that it takes significantly longer to teach through concept and trend first than it does to teach concepts and facts simultaneously or to teach facts and then ground them in examples. This was particularly evident in mathematics. When professors showed numerous examples of the same problem type, somewhere around a third of their class on average came to see the correct trend. The other two thirds came to a wrong conclusion about the concept under discussion, or failed to see commonalities at all. Not only did the utilization of this teaching method require considerable time, it proved deleterious to students confidence.

With this knowledge, the same group of researchers designed and conducted a second study to broaden their scope of understanding. Understanding that teaching concepts and trends before facts was not a particularly fruitful endeavor, they decided to evaluate whether teaching facts and concepts simultaneously or teaching facts first was most beneficial to students and most efficient. They found that in five disparate subjects (mathematics, human physiology, sculpture, sociology and classic literature), when teachers concepts alongside facts the students grades improved. Further, their teachers saw marked improvements in the students' confidence and enthusiasm for the subject under study.

The researchers did find that in select subjects, teaching concepts first was effective and efficient. This was most notably true of philosophy and of history, though researchers are yet unsure of why. However, these two seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

In conclusion, given the contemporary research, it is most beneficial for educators to stress facts and their conceptual framework simultaneously rather than teaching facts second. While there are exceptions to this, it is a more sound basis for educational policy.