Figuring Things Out

About 20 minutes into a really interesting talk on Information Overload at the Web2.0 conference in New York this year (I think) Clay Shirky says something that is simultaneously so basic and so insightful about teaching that I had to put it down somewhere:

"...we've known the formula for hydrochloric acid for some time now. We're not asking the students to figure it out because we need to know it. We're asking them to figure it out because we need them to have experience figuring things out." (via BoingBoing)

It's so easy to lose sight of the fact that this is one of the, if not the fundamental goals of education. They need to have experience figuring things out.

Long after they've forgotten their last piece of trigonometry, knowing how to figure things out will be the thing that keeps carrying them forward in life.

The question is how I should conduct my practice in light of this. Clearly, I want to emphasize this attitude in class. And I want to give them lots of opportunities to figure things out. And I want to demand that they figure things out. i.e. I need to expect it of them. And I want to model figuring things out. The implication of this last thing is that I need to not have everything figured out when I go into class. They need to see me do it.