Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:742] Re: " Love has little need of institutional support" and "rather than learn (without extrinsic reward) most people would rather ...."
From: Nelson, Dennis (nelsond@ny-arng.ngb.army.mil)
Date: Wed 29 Nov 2000 - 15:33:02 MET
From: "Nelson, Dennis" <nelsond@ny-arng.ngb.army.mil> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:742] Re: " Love has little need of institutional support" and "rather than learn (without extrinsic reward) most people would rather ...." Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 09:33:02 -0500
Without institutional support, lust, infatuation and other feelings may be
mistaken for love and the implications and commitment involved in love be
tragically unrealized.
Absent institutional support, males may not realize how a simple glance
might mean a whole lot more to a female, and females may not realize that a
simple return of politeness may mean a whole lot more to a male.
Without institutional support, couples may find it much harder to keep their
vows of lifelong commitment given in what they believed to be a period of
love without an understanding that love commits to the full journey, through
the bad times, not up until the bad times.
Without institutional support, couples may not know the increased baggage
each broken love affair (vice commitment) brings to the journey and
subsequent relationships.
If we are to compare learning to love and the need for institutional
knowledge, the idea that
support and basics will enhance exploration and innovation would seem to be
true.
Re: learning without extrinsic reward other activities such as relationships
etc are desirable.
Can learning be separated from anything we enjoy doing? We love our parents
as they teach us and support us not only in physical, but emotional,
intellectual, and spiritual learning, as well. We are with someone we love
because we enjoy learning more about our personal feelings, our feelings for
the others, and about our relationships and the joy and bittersweet joy of
sharing others' happiness and sadness, respectively. We enjoy golf or any
activity in the learning of how activities can go right, how activities can
be made to go better, how surviving bad times can gain us more confidence to
attempt and thus learn more.
Tying all this to role playing: much better we learn that life is
structured. There are absolute truths about what kinds of activities and
behaviors lead to peace, kindness, gentleness, joy, selflessnes, etc., and
other activities and behaviors that lead to guilt, sickness, isolation and
other pain and suffering. In the properly structured role play, the lessons
can be permanent and the effects of the lessons learned more temporal.
Without role play, the lessons may never be learned, and the effects more
eternal.
My point of view is more "while there may be more than one right
answer, some answers can definitely be "wrong." I believe (and it's only a
belief) that "exploration" is as human a thing as "love," and has as little
need of institutional support (in this case, inclusion in a curriculum) as
love itself.
Speaking of gender studies, research is showing that in literacy for
example, teaching approaches that favour analyzing interpersonal
communication and empathy are problematic for boys who have other images of
themselves. Like it or not, boys generally are more into action than
romance... To me this suggests "different strokes for different folks."
>
> 'My complaint with some constructivist thinking is that there seems to
> be the assumption that freedom comes from the removal of structure.'
>
>
> In any teaching & learning situation - there is structure imposed by
> teachers and learners usually in unequal measures. A central feature of
> this structure is the hierarchy of power and control embedded in the
> 'classroom' environment. Teachers and students walk into a room and take
> up their known and understood positions of authority and subservience.
> The structure is familiar and if left unquestioned supports an
> instructivist mode of teaching and learning. Of course this setting can
> be changed and challenged in a face to face situation but what excites
> and interests me about web based pedagogy is the potential it offers to
> challenge orthodoxies and to encourage a move towards autonomy in the
> learning process.
Aren't you overlooking the fact that most learners are bought into the
system? If they're not getting their certificate or other extrinsic reward
(including algorhythm for academic success, or other measure of "success"),
then most people would rather be playing golf, knitting or spending time
with loved ones. Who is the instructor (using that term loosely) to suggest
that exploration is any more a valid learning objective than memorizing
history? If the learners want to memorize history?
I'm not trying to be beligerent here. I had this experience teaching in
Taiwan and it really made me aware how values-laden any educating effort
really is.
This is what motivates me in designing the loose
This is wonderful. There are so many kinds of learning that take place.
Maybe some kind of balance is the way to go. Thanks Cathy.
Michael
>
> Cathy
>
>
> --
>
> Catherine Burke
> 7 The Windses
> Grindleford
> Hope Valley
> S 32 2HY
> Tel: 01433 631907
>
> Dr. Catherine Burke
> Lecturer in Education: Child & Family Studies,
> Bretton Hall College
> West Bretton
> WF4 4LG
> 01924 830261
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> List address to send message to everyone:
> ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
> Details of current discussion:
http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
> Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
> Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
> Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of IFETS-DISCUSSION Digest 97
> *********************************
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> List address to send message to everyone:
> ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
> Details of current discussion:
http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
> Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
> Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
> Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
---------------------------------------------------------
List address to send message to everyone:
ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
Details of current discussion:
http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
End of IFETS-DISCUSSION Digest 99
*********************************
---------------------------------------------------------
List address to send message to everyone:
ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
Details of current discussion:
http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
List address to send message to everyone:
ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
Details of current discussion: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Wed 29 Nov 2000 - 20:11:21 MET