Commentary Instead of making students memorize a bunch of useless facts, we need to help them think like scientists and historians. This is best accomplished by an inquiry-based learning approach that allows students to guide their learning process and discover key concepts on their own. Does this make sense to you? It probably does if you’ve recently attended a faculty of education, an institution where teachers are trained. Not only that, but this message is also what teachers are usually told at their regular professional development sessions. The problem is that this approach is wrong. Not just wrong by a little, but by a lot. Despite claiming to be based on solid evidence, the real science of teaching and learning actually points in the opposite direction. In fact, students learn best when they are immersed in a content-rich learning environment that builds up their background knowledge. Practice is also a …