I want to explain the concept of "cryptographic keys" to high school/university-level students.
I can imagine approaching this in two different ways:
- "Cryptographic keys are ..."
- "A cryptographic key is ..."
On the surface level, these two openers are barely any different, but I wonder if using the plural version ("XYZ are ...") incurs a greater mental debt on a learner. When a concept is referred to in its plural form, it takes on a much more abstract image when I try to visualize it in my mind, which for me is more difficult to work with. On the other hand, a concept referred to as a singular instance ("An XYZ is ...") collapses down into a single unit, which I think is easier for me to mentally visualize.
I guess in a sense, a plural form concept is to a wall as a singular instance of a concept is to a brick (or at least that's how I imagine it might feel to a learner).
What do you guys think about this, and are there any pedagogy studies about this? I tried finding some online but my Google-fu is failing. Might be time to try ChatGPT.
If not purely for knowledge, if you are aiming to prepare some educational material for others, possibly even the example provided, I would suggest you at least not worry about cognitive overhead to quote this degree. If that is what is happening, awareness of it and the desire to reduce it is far more than most educators / mentors / etc have. And that a lot is contextual.
In your example, the burden of being a teenager in high school is far more cognitive overhead to the learner than if the educator is using singular or plural when describing a new concept.
Again, I would be interested in such research as well, and there are applications outside of the classroom. Probably stronger ones.