Muhammad Betz (mbetz@sosu.edu)
Tue, 27 Jul 1999 09:06:47 -0500
From: "Muhammad Betz" <mbetz@sosu.edu> Subject: Education & Learning Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 09:06:47 -0500
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"The main point for our discussion, specifically, is that if we are born to
learn directly one-on-one from people who are to as individually as
possible nourish, protect and help us grow, perhaps that is how we are
to learn from and train others, also. If true learning and training are our
purpose, it must be so. If our purpose becomes to supply cannon fodder
or assembly line automatons, or service industry helping hands, then
maybe some other system is correct."
Dennis R. Nelson
I understand the point Mr. Nelson is making here. However, I would like to
offer some alternative views. The above view does not account for
biological aspects of learning (the next IEFTS discussion). I have recently
been rereading, "Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human
Knowledge," by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz was an ethologist and a Nobel Laureate
in Medicine (1973) who studied animal behavior to learn about human
behavior. In this work, he gives accounts of research on the evolution of
animal learning and, basically expounds on the concept of genetic-based
learning or innate learning. Many intricate behaviors and predispositions
are not taught directly, they are passed on by genetic predispositions.
Humans, like animals, don't need schooling to learn many of their most
essential skills and understandings.
The schools of education in Saudi Arabia, where I studied for one year, are
called schools of upbringing and instruction. Instruction is only a
component of the school environment. There is also an institutional
component that supports the instructional component. I think that to expect
teacher education or public education to consist solely of instructional,
one-on-one, mentoring as if there were no institutional component is a bit
extreme. There are constraints and imperfections, yes, but the SYSTEM is
not an Orwellian nightmare and success in the SYSTEM is the rule, not the
exception.
Regards,
Muhammad B.
Muhammad Betz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Educational Instruction & Leadership
Southeastern Oklahoma State University
(580)924-0121 x2326
fax:(580)920-5708
mbetz@sosu.edu
www.sosu.edu/ebs/eil/faculty
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