Self-disciplined, freedom-granting educational systems breed procrastination and teacher overload

Evidence

Culpabilization, obligation, and verification are the series of power relations exercised by the typical professor.’ But, as Foucault points out, at the College de France, courses are open to anyone who wishes to attend: “If it interests him, he comes; if it doesn’t interest him, he doesn’t come.”* At the College a professor is paid to present his work, and “it 1s up to the audience to say or to show whether or not it is interested” — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 12 (#expands, via linked claim)

Reinforcement-learning researchers know this as the problem of sparse rewards, or more succinctly as the problem of sparsity. If the reward is defined explicitly in terms of the end goal, or something fairly close to it, then one must essentially wait until random button-pressing, or random flailing around, produces the desired effect. The mathematics show that most reinforcement-learning algorithms will, eventually, get there—but eventually, in practical terms, might arrive long after the sun has exploded. — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 672 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: University study methods grant students freedom at the cost of personal connection to teachers; Pedagogical power operates through guilt, obligation, and verification — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 12; End-goal-only rewards make learning impractically slow — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 672 (+6 more)

Related

• Pedagogical power operates through guilt, obligation, and verification (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• University study methods grant students freedom at the cost of personal connection to teachers #expands (0.82)
• Pedagogical power operates through guilt, obligation, and verification #expands (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 12
• End-goal-only rewards make learning impractically slow #complicates (0.75) — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 672