Educators should teach facts only after their students have studied the ideas, trends, and concepts that help explain those facts.

The proposition that educators should teach facts only after the students have studied the ideas, trends and concepts needed to explain the facts is an allusion to the deductive method of teaching where observations or facts are preceded by generalization. The opposite of this approach is called inductive method where facts have to be taught first before conceptualizing. Given that both pedagogies are advantageous in their own right, depending upon the circumstances, the binary recommendation is not wise.

At the first blush, the recommendation appears to have considerable merit considering the manifold advantages of the teaching method that instils ideas before telling facts. This approach is particularly helpful to teach subjects or topics where there are large numbers of facts and concepts to be covered in a shorter time. For example, students can be taught about some laws of physics and then asked to predict the result of a number of related experiments. Similarly, pupils can be taught about a mathematical theorem or formulae and then asked to solve myriad related numerical or word problems. There are studies in psychology or statistics, where due to a very large sample size, it is not unwise to understand the resulting trend instead of tediously scrutinizing every sample result. This methodology will give a teacher more control and predictability on the learning outcomes because it is up to him or her to select sequence of information to be presented. Interestingly, many scientific theories have been conceptualized first using the deductive approach before any corroborating fact or observation could be confirmed such as Higgs Boson particle, ‘string theory’, etc. Therefore, this technique appreciates the theoretical aptitude of students required to contribute as such.

Teaching facts before ideas, concepts or trends can also be helpful in certain cases. For students pursuing Law studies, learning facts about internet phishing can help them challenge the relevance of modern cyber security laws thus paving for their reforms. In management, case studies help students to learn about the dos and don’ts when managing an enterprise which then helps to formulate management concepts. If the responsibility of generalizing a trend or idea from the given facts is placed upon the students, it will invoke their greater participation thus rendering it a student-centred approach. Moreover, the greater the time is spent on generalizing certain observations of facts more will be the retention and transfer of knowledge. This, additionally, is a more natural way of gaining knowledge.

Furthermore, not every child has the mental ability to grasp concepts before learning facts. For instance, that the earth revolves around the sun is a fact and the gravitational force is the underlying concept or idea. It is understandable that for a child it is easier to learn about gravity from the fact that the earth revolves around the Sun and not vice versa. Similarly, it is not easier for students to fathom the concept of wave-particle duality in electrons without first being presented the facts and observations of the double slit experiment. There are many abstract ideas such as Darwin’s theory of natural selection, chemical reaction mechanisms, photoelectric effect, etc. which seem easier when explained through facts.

In conclusion, while studying concepts, ideas or trends before facts may be better for some subject or topics, the converse strategy has its own benefits subject to the topic being taught and the mental maturity of the students. While the former pedagogy allows for faster learning of large number of concepts and facts, the latter is a more student centered method paving for better retention and transfer of knowledge.