Don't or Never say "You are Wrong" to anyone because you might be killing a great idea.
Don't forget to remember that
"A theory is correct until and unless it is proven to be wrong".
When
someone explains a theory in a wrong way, Don’t say “You are Wrong”.
There
are a lot of advantages in saying like that. I will try to point some of those.
This is especially for teachers because they are the one used to say this to
their students. So, I will take the case of the students.
When
someone comes and discuss you about some theory. Let’s say some Physics concept
for example force.
If
someone explains the force as the follows where he don’t know anything about
Physics (e.g. students),
"The
force is amount of thrust that is given to an object to move from its
motionless state. Depending on the amount of thrust the object will travel to
some distance. The movement is proportional to the thrust applied on the
object."
We Physicists know the explanation is
wrong. The force is not the amount of thrust.
But
that doesn’t mean he is completely wrong because his explanation is good. Moreover this is how the great Aristotle himself
thought for the first time. This point of view was agreed for more than many
centuries.
But you can ask me “yeah.. it is
Aristotle’s explanation. But it is proven to be wrong. Then, How will I say he
is correct?
You needn’t say he is correct. But either don’t
say it wrong. Instead of saying "you are wrong" just give him the situation of a real life problem where
Aristotle’s explanation of force would go wrong.
If he is arrogant in his theory,
then it is very good. He will try his best to prove that his theory is correct.
Every time when he comes up with some better explanation to explain the
situation, you will have to give new situations.
Depending
on the capability of the student’s new explanation, you will need to give him a
tough problem than the previous.
The
profit is for both of us. In the case of teacher and the student,
When
student comes up with good explanation, the teacher needs to think hard than the previous to give
him a more difficult problem. And to solve that difficult problem, the student
will have to take more effort every time.
At the end, both will be very clear on
that topic. They will know the history, they will know the different type of
problems faced in real life, they will know the various ways of thinking about the same concept, and how scientists overcome those problems in any concept, etc.
And also at each time he will understand his mistakes. Maybe he will come up with a better solution than Newton, Hamilton,
Lagrange and others. Maybe it is possible to create a new scientist.
From
this method both will learn new way of thinking.
Various
students will have various kind of thinking skills. If you can manage all those
students, you will be the one of the finest person in the world to clearly understand
the concept.
Note:
And moreover one should try to think in other's point of view when they need to
give the correct situation and problems. Only then they will get new ideas.
To
think in other's point of view, you just need to forget who you are and what you have
learned And completely go with your student’s concept. Then you will understand him.
And "student" doesn’t mean only students
but everyone who comes to discuss with you.
