Over 8 years, undergraduate students at Northwestern university were assessed on their performance on topics when their introductory class was taught by an “expert” on the topic. These students’ grades in subsequent advanced classes were logged and studied.
The trend of the results was clear – taking an introduction class from an expert decreased performance.
After a recent post on downhill skiing, Rebecca responded with an insightful note. She grew up skiing competitively and is both an excellent skier and a good teacher. But she’s, in her words, terrible at teaching beginners how to ski.
“Skiing always reminds me that you don’t want to learn from the ‘natural’ or from the person who has been doing it forever… or even from ‘the best’ — you want to learn from the person who fought hard to gain the skills (and developed a cognitive understanding of how they work), ideally not that long ago.”
This lesson on experts reminded me of this note. It is a good one – thanks Rebecca.
H/T: Hidden Potential by Adam Grant (for the study)
