While preparing for a workshop I was co-facilitating, we became very aware that we had to create a balance between giving information and sparking insights. It was apparent to us that participants were looking for information. However, we knew that information alone was not enough to nurture the kind of growth we were looking for. For that, we needed to help them find their own insights.
Information is everything you gather from the outside: data, knowledge, stories, models, frameworks, etc. You can get information from many different sources, but the flow is always an outside-in one.
Information is objective and acquired through addition.
Insights are pieces of wisdom emerging from the inside: sudden dawn of illumination, a random "a-ha" or eureka moment. They can take many forms. A new perspective on things, a deeper understanding of someone or something, a crystal clear vision of yourself and so on.
Insights are subjective and discovered through subtraction.
Their unpredictable and subjective nature makes insights more challenging. You can not engineer them or choose them. You can only clear the space and welcome what wants to emerge.
That's why it's easier to focus only on information.
And that's what most education systems do. They showered people with information.
However, if we are genuinely committed to growing, we need both.