insight, foresight, moresight
Been reading about learning lately, thanks much to discovering Seb's Open Research blog. I'm meant to be a teacher here at camp -- in the bunk and in the computer lab -- and I'm trying to figure out the best ways to learn from my campers and peers here as well.
A few good reads, first on some of the Enemies of Learning, by Charles Feltman.
Our inability to admit that we don't know
Julio Olalla: "to be a child is to live in awe of the discovery of domains of action whose existence we were not capable of even anticipating."
When knowing is so highly valued and not knowing devalued, I may assess that admitting I don't know something would cause others to devaule me. This can also prevent me from beginning the learning process.
Ignoring the body as a dimension of learning
New learning changes the body's physiology. Depending on what we learn, it may create changs in the neural structure of the brain, the electrochemistry of our nervou systems, even the shape of the body.
And another, an interview in eLearn Magazine with Don Norman, "the guru of workable technology."
I'm a big believer in motivating the student by getting them excited about the problem and then thrusting them into the problem before they're ready. They have to be unready in just the right amount. If they're too unready it's confusing and they give up.
-- Don Norman, Q&A with Don Norman