I was recently sent the article, “Unlearning is Often a Part of Effective Teaching.” Sounds interesting enough from the title, but the piece is ultimately impressive only for how many words are used to say so little. The title itself conveys all the information you will get from the article, which never goes into greater detail than the title claim, provides any examples, or even any evidence to back up the claim.
They call this kind thing clickbait online I guess, but it mirrors the empty recycling of research publications in academia in many ways. As many have noted, the relentless drive to quantify research quality and impact by publication metrics drives scholars to publish more or less the same thing over and over again, adding little new. It’s a publication arms race that doesn’t contribute meaningfully to new knowledge. A moratorium on the publication arms race would not only improve the work life of scholars, it would also give us all the time to develop richer data, more creative ideas, and better conclusions than is currently the case.
