Jack Ring (jring@amug.org)
Tue, 12 Jan 1999 12:03:22 -0700
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 12:03:22 -0700 From: jring@amug.org (Jack Ring) Subject: [ifets] RE: Whence
Congratulations and thanks to Nora Carrol for the interesting paper.
I was struck by the similarity of the situation described in the paper with
the situation that exists in the first month of kindergarten. Children
seem to exhibit similar varieties in their a) learning styles, b) fears of
ridicule, c) and relationships to percieved peers and authority figures.
The difference is that these human invariants can be ignored as the
flatiron is heated up to suppress the wrinkles if individuality during K-12
while impressing the loneliness of isolated learning. Adults, however,
express themselves. The variety of styles, fears and relationships in a
collection of adults is amazing. Accordingly, the principle of "requisite
variety" (Ashby) tells us that any "learning environment" must exhibit an
even greater sprectrum of learning modalities. Alternatively, Lanchester's
Law tells us that we would be wise to segment adults into specific learning
sessions.
The universal advice to authors -- know your audience -- seems also quite
pertinent when considering adult learners. And we all would be well
advised to expunge "students" and "instructors" from our vocabularies.
Learning Styles are very significant. Pertinent, here are not only the
Theory of Multiple Intelligences (a number of years ago a professional
football player said he had become a better linebacker by taking ballet
lessons) but also the ideas of Isachsen and Behrens in "Working Together,"
New World Management Press, 1988, in which they correlate Meyers-Briggs
personality styles and individual learning styles to show that some people
like to learn by isolated study but others need to be in a group with high
interaction. This indicates to me that those preferring isolation may
value internet-based techniques but those needing high people interaction
will never apprecitate anything but face-to-face group situations. Authors
(and their media mediators) must learn to orient their materials to these
modalities. Also, other authors have the higher order opportunity to help
all these people learn to adopt other styles of learning. (Nora's paper
did not remark on whether the 32 she described exhibited improved or more
agile learning styles as a result of being immersed in the situation.
Nora's observation on that would be interesting).
Although we could talk about the utility of technology regarding adult
learners (books were not replaced by movies were not replaced by TV were
not replaced by Discuss Lists, were not replaced by Dialog Sessions (such
as this one), will not be replaced by Knowledge Utilization Environments),
Nora's slant of considering the target seems much more fruitful. Our
challenge will be to sort out the spectrum of adults learning modalities so
we can be more clear on what works in which situations.
As far as I have been able to discern,
1) when the challenge is to learn HOW to do, adults learn more, faster
from peers and power figures who are directly involved in the game in which
the adult is engaged than they do from the teachers, mentors, coaches,
researchers and theoreticians who stay on the sidelines. This does not
mean that the latter are insignificant. Beethoven's score is genius but he
doesn't help you much when it comes to learning to play the symphony with
feeling. The conductor is instrumental in the latter. But as jazz has
shown, co-conducting can be even more powerful.
2) when the challenge is to learn WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW YOU DON'T KNOW then
the guru is necessary as is demonstrated in Schon's wonderful account of
the learning process in an architecture studio in Educating the Reflective
Practitoner.
Jack Ring
32712 N. 70th St., Snottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
sendmail: jring@amug.org
602-488-4615, Cell) 602.369.4615, Fax)602-488-4616
Better make your New Year's Eve reservations early.
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