A common problem that many students have across all levels of education is a failure to gain a thorough understanding of the subject matter being taught. I believe that the primary culprit is our over reliance on standardized, multiple-choice tests. Information is presented as a disjointed collection of individual facts to memorize so they can be recalled on a test. Think of these facts as data points. People make poor data storage devices. Computers do a much better job. Now that everyone carries a computer in their pocket that is connected via the internet to supercomputers all over the world, there is very little reason for people to spend much time practicing personal data storage by memorizing and recalling facts. Instead, we should focus on what we are better at: understanding. By studying relationships and processes in addition to data, we gain an understanding of subject matter that is far deeper and more consequential. This level of learning exceeds what is possible by simply storing “facts” in our imperfect personal data storage units.
It takes very little to make our collection of facts useless. A few years ago I was asked to write some technical literature for schools teaching HVAC in Georgia. I readily agreed, after all, I live in Georgia. After agreeing I found out the literature was to be for the Republic of Georgia, the one next to Russia! They don’t measure things in BTUs, CFM, tons of cooling, pounds, Fahrenheit, or any of the other thousand factoids I have rattling around in my head. Things like “400 CFM per ton” instantly became useless. Memorized snippets of code nearly as useless – I had to look up their laws and codes. Most every “fact” that I thought I knew became irrelevant.
Fortunately, the principles that make the refrigeration cycle work are still the same. Although pressure is measured in kilopascals, temperature in Celsius, heating and cooling capacity in kilowatts, the processes and relationships are the same no matter which Georgia you are working in. While most of us will not have to worry about working in the “other” Georgia, we will have to adapt to technical advancements and changes which can make our set of “facts” just as useless. Take “400 CFM per ton”. Most new equipment does not come set for 400 CFM per ton out of the box anymore. New refrigerants are going to bring a whole new set of PT charts, so those saturated pressures at 45° and 100° are going to change. It is far easier to adapt to tomorrow’s technology if you truly understand today’s technology. Teach the processes, not an assortment of facts.