Doubt-Based Learning™ seeks a world where barbeques are easy to assemble by people who think about the directions instead of reading them; where BMWs can be repaired with beer cans by people who think about the problems instead of passing them off to repair shops; where people who think are the rule rather than the exception.

1. Doubt-Based Learning™: Making Johnny Think
For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses.
(Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)

2. THE PROBLEM
In his paper, “Writing for Truth, Not Fun or Profit” (published in the 1992 Proceedings of the
International Technical Communicators’ Conference), the author writes:
The issue isn’t that Johnny can’t read. It’s that Johnny can’t think.
Much is made of the differences between classroom, instructor-led learning and distance learning;
between paper and e-learning materials. People argue over whether education is suffering because
“Johnny can’t read,” or because teachers have failed to adapt to the fact that reading is no longer the most
effective communication medium. Doubt-Based Learning™ ignores this argument, insisting that any
issues in education today revolve not around whether “Johnny can or can’t read,” but around whether
“Johnny can or can’t think.” Doubt-Based Learning™ insists that even in the most mundane of routine
tasks, intelligent thought produces better results.
THE CAUSE
The reason Johnny can’t think is that no one expects it. Education consists of learning a series of facts.
Knowledge consists of being able to remember these facts and repeat them.
This approach to education has been questioned since at least the time of Socrates who famously
concluded, “the only thing I am sure of is that I am not sure of anything.” Later philosophers would add,
“and I’m not even sure of that.” Doubt with a capital “D.”
Doubt-Based Learning™ opposes traditional learning in that it does not ask a person to repeat a collection
of facts. It asks a person to think. Facts will be discovered in the process.
And Doubt-Based Learning™ asks a person to think openly. In his paper, “Writing for Truth, Not Fun or
Profit,” the author goes on to argue that even if a person is taught to think, he or she is taught to think
only from one perspective, within one system of rules. For instance, early computer programmers were
taught to look at a problem from the perspective of the computer. They learned to create flow charts.
The first instruction is “Start.” Then the computer is told to do something. Then something else. And
eventually, “Stop.” A flow chart for making brownies would look something like this:

3. This is logic from the computer’s perspective and it is the principle way computer programmers worked
for years.
Eventually computer programmers began looking at things more from the perspective of the data
involved in the process instead of the computer’s logic. They developed data flow diagrams (DFDs) where
the process for making brownies would begin with a diagram that looked like this:
Any inputs to the process are on arrows entering and outputs are on arrows exiting. Note the different
principle at work in the data flow diagram from the initial flow chart. The data flow diagram gives
the problem and all the tools available to solve it and the results that are expected. The programmer
is expected to work through the process of seeing how everything relates and making it happen. The
flow chart, on the other hand, tells the computer what the first step is without giving any clue as to the
expected outcome or the problem to be solved.
Suddenly instead of seeing a problem as a series of decisions that occur in a straight line, the programmer sees
the problem as a process of analysis, examining layers of possible combinations, and choosing from them.
To put this into real life, consider a parent teaching a child how to make brownies. The flow chart model
has the parent saying something like this:
1. First, go to the kitchen.
2. Open the second cupboard on the left of the stove.
3. Take out the Pillsbury brownie mix from the top shelf.
4. Open the box.
5. Get scissors from the drawer to the right of the stove.
6. Cut the plastic bag in the brownie box one inch from the top edge of the plastic.
7. And so on…
Bake Brownies
Brownies
Dirty DishesIngredients
Utensils

4. The data flow model would go like this:
1. There’s brownie mix in the cupboard.
2. Directions are on the back of the box.
3. Ask me if you have any questions.
Ten years later, the second child will still know how to make brownies. The first one will have to call
home for directions.
Traditional education tends to follow the first model. If one is trained to think, the thinking is expected
to fall into a very linear pattern. Doubt-Based Learning™, however, while it may tend to follow the second
model, is not based on that model. Rather, Doubt-Based Learning™ will insist that one understand both
approaches and be able to choose the most useful one for the circumstances.
Robert Pirsig, in his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, has a passage where his narrator
rants against bad technical documentation. He is trying to assemble a barbeque grill and the directions
are difficult to follow. They require him to keep flipping pages back and forth between directions and
illustrations. After a long diatribe on the poor instructions, he is interrupted by his son who is assembling
the grill without trouble. His son has folded the pages in a way that now has text and illustration next to
each other and everything makes sense from that perspective. The son was not limited to the single view
of the instructions that his father had, that they had to be read in sequence.
There is another scene in the book where the narrator complains about his neighbor who won’t fix his
own motorcycle. The neighbor rides the bike, but its workings are a mystery. He is about to bring the
bike to a repair shop to fix a part that needs a shim. The book’s narrator offers to fix the bike using a
shim made from an empty beer can, but the neighbor will have none of it. He has an expensive BMW
and surely no repair can be that crude. Of course, if he understood the problem, he would see that the
solution is exactly that crude (aka simple).
Sometimes it is hard to determine if a person can’t think or won’t, but a problem with traditional
education is that thinking is not expected, or if it is, it is only recognized if it follows one very linear
pattern. If it were expected, more people would think. And if it were less restrictive, more people would
think creatively.
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, attended a private Montessori school in Adelphi, Maryland. The
school was run by a person named Patty Barshay, who also designed the Montessori program for the
Prince Georges County public system of magnet schools. Years after Brin left her school, Ms. Barshay
was interviewed about her famous student. She said, “I never thought he was any brighter than anyone
else.” (“The Story of Sergey Brin,” Moment Magazine, February 2007) In an environment where everyone
is expected to think for themselves, the person who does so does not stand out.

5. THE SOLUTION
Doubt-Based Learning™ seeks a world where barbeques are easy to assemble by people who think about
the directions instead of reading them; where BMWs can be repaired with beer cans by people who think
about the problems instead of passing them off to repair shops; where people who think are the rule
rather than the exception.
So how does one conduct Doubt-Based Learning™? What are the tools? It’s all very well to complain that
people don’t think. Is there a way to make them think? Sun Microsystems used to have a think tank in its
Marlboro, Massachusetts offices. This was a select group of programmers and system architects with their
own section of a building. They were provided a lounge area with televisions, foosball machines, video
games and couches big enough to nap on. These people did not dress in suits and ties when they came to
work. And they came at odd hours, working when the inspiration struck. Other employees used to joke
that if the company paid them enough, they’d be willing to think, too.
Simply paying a person more is not the answer, obviously. If you aren’t thinking already, being told to do
so (or paid more) won’t change your basic orientation. Independent thought is something you get in the
habit of doing; and once you have the habit, it doesn’t turn on and off. And the way you get in the habit of
thinking for yourself is by being taught by people who expect it.
THREE PRINCIPLES
There are three fundamental principles of Doubt-Based Learning™.
(1) Teachers must expect students to think. The first principle of Doubt-Based Learning™ is
that teachers expect students to think. Lessons, whether classroom or distance, instructor-led or
self-paced, are designed to make a student ask questions. Exercises rely on role playing instead of
memorization, for instance. Consider something as simple as teaching a secretary to screen the
boss’s phone calls.
Instead of just saying, “When the boss is in a meeting, hold all calls,” conduct an exercise. Have the
secretary answer a call from the boss’s child. The child says he is sick and needs to be picked up from
school. Or, someone says she is an important business client and demands immediate attention. Or,
someone says he is in town for the day and hopes to catch the boss for lunch. Or, someone calls from
a headhunter agency returning the boss’s call.
The point is, the instruction to hold all calls is as clear as it could be. Yet the secretary’s appropriate
response is not. If the training recognizes this, the secretary will be a better worker for it. The
simplest task and the simplest job is done better by someone who thinks. The first principle of
training should be to make sure the student knows this is expected.

6. (2) Consider everything from multiple perspectives. The second principle of Doubt-Based
Learning™ is that nothing is ever one-sided. Looking at a problem from more than one perspective
is the only way to understand it. Something as simple as how to make brownies can be seen from at
least two different perspectives and depending on which perspective you adopt, your teaching will
be very different.
(3) Engage the whole brain. A third principle of Doubt-Based Learning™ stems from the second. To
look at a problem from multiple perspectives means to use different parts of the brain. Read about
a problem; then see it demonstrated in a video; then solve it with a hands-on exercise; listen to an
explanation; report on your own experiences. All these activities use different parts of the brain.
Mosaic Learning understands Doubt-Based Learning™. We design training for all occupations
and skills, using all available tools, consistently insisting that the simplest everyday task is better
performed by a thoughtful worker. We design for the classroom, for the web, for instructor-led, self-
paced, and blended formats. But regardless of the format, the principles are the same:
1. Expect the student to think.
2. Insist on multiple perspectives.
3. Engage the whole brain.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For more information about Mosaic Learning’s Doubt-Based Learning™ approach, contact us at
(301) 441-4700 or visit us online at www.MosaicLearning.com.