Times Higher Education Campus, 17 February 2022:

“Imagine a corn farmer who believes that each seed of corn has a particular fixed capability for growth. He comes out to the field each year soon after planting and decides which few of the new sprouts are best. Then he only waters and weeds those few. At the end of each season, he sees how much better his chosen plants have grown and congratulates himself on how well he selected.

It’s easy to recognise how foolish this farmer is and how much potential yield he’s wasting. Yet our current system of higher education is based on similar, long-held but incorrect assumptions, and thereby wastes an enormous amount of potential intellectual capital. Just as wiser farmers avoid these assumptions and achieve far greater productivity, the same could be achieved by our institutions of higher education…”

In this article, our 2020 laureate, Professor Carl Wieman is busting myths about talent, and tearing up the tired ideas that still grip many of our education systems.

Read the full article here.

Photo credit: Literary photo created by jcomp www.freepik.com