Modern Western education teaches
us collectively, and then kicks us out to beg for a job where we will
work, for the most part, individually. No wonder this crazy system,
which gets it exactly backwards, is so inefficient and dysfunctional.
What if we were to invent an intelligent system, one which recognized
that we learn in unique and individual ways. What would it look like?
In an earlier article,
I described the cognitive experts' theory of how we learn: We take in
information through our senses, at least when we're paying attention.
Then we process this information through our personal mental models or
'frames', coded right into the neurons of our brains, kicking out any
concepts that don't fit the frames and any references we don't
understand. Next, we store the filtered, processed, regurgitated,
parsed 'learnings' in our 'working memory', the brain's RAM, where they
continue to be molded, considered, and amended until we have
essentially 'decided what they mean'. Then they get filed away in
long-term memory, to be accessed and extracted if and when they are
ever
needed again, or forgotten if they are not.
Picture a teacher in a classroom telling 20 students about, say,
monarch butteflies. Because the learning process is so individual, the
twenty students will end up with twenty very different conceptions of
what the relevant information is and what it means. If you don't
believe me, debrief with a bunch of people who have just attended a
presentation -- you'll be astounded at the different perceptions you'll
hear. The best way to convey information is to do it in a way that can
be self-paced and immediately tested, by prompting participants to
articulate the learnings in ways that make sense to them, to challenge
and discuss them, and to apply them in a useful context. Telling
stories also helps the learner to grasp the concepts in more concrete
and memorable terms. Good teachers, of course, try to compensate both
for the lack of context in the sterile classroom (using visual aids)
and the differences in the way we internalize information (by
discussion and exercises), but teaching-by-telling, in a classroom, is
a hopelessly dysfunctional way to impart both information and skills.
There is a reason why 'on the job' training has such an excellent
reputation. It provides an immediate context that makes learning
easier. It provides an immediate chance to practice or apply what has
been learned. And it provides one-on-one coaching for the many aspects
of learning that may require iterative reinforcement, and a chance to
ask questions. It's especially valuable when what is to be learned is a
skill, not information.
| Ideally, then, education should not be 'taught', but instead
illustrated, demonstrated, self-taught by doing, evoked through discussion and questioning,
in an interactive, iterative, and personal way that will accommodate
different learning styles and frames. Ideally, too, it should take
place in a location where it can be learned 'live' and immediately applied in an
appropriate context. That means not in a school. |
The map above was developed by reviewing a variety of school,
university and applied curricula, and considering how they might be
applied in three different contexts: making a living, deciding where
and with whom to make a life, and gardening. It lists six main fields
of information about the world that would provide useful knowledge to
do this work, eight core skills that would be useful to apply to this
work, and two sets of applied skills or competencies that integrate the eight core skills.
How might these be crafted into a curriculum without 'teachers' and
without walls, a curriculum that could replace the boring and
impractical curricula that are taught in most schools and universities
today?
The best way to explain this is to describe a day in the life of a
'student' in, say, her late teens. Let's suppose our student, Kim, is
looking to be a musician, a writer, or a veterinarian. How might she
acquire the 16 critical learnings in the above map, in a way that also
integrates the technical learnings of music, language and medicine she needs for her chosen work?
I described in an earlier post
the (up to) 12 steps involved in the creative problem-solving process.
The chart at right simplifies this process. Whenever we face problems
we draw on three resources: The information we have acquired
("know-what"), the skills we have acquired ("know-how") and the
assistance of others through conversation, collaboration and/or
canvassing ("know-who").
Our success, and the quality of the solutions we come up with, is a
function of the quality of these three inputs, and our ability to apply
them effectively. For Kim, the problems, the context
we want her to use to learn and practice applying knowledge and skills,
is that of her three chosen fields of endeavor, music, language and
medicine. So suppose one of the information modules that Kim has to
complete (part of the third field of information, The Economic System)
is The History of Agriculture, with Richard Manning's Against the Grain as a suggested reading. It might be paired up with the second of the core skills, Critical Thinking.
And suppose the chosen application for these learnings is Animal
Nutrition, related to Kim's interest in veterinary medicine. So her
assignment for the next two days is to do the History of Agriculture
reading, and the self-study on Critical Thinking, to call on the people
in her self-compiled Animal Nutrition resource list (which would
include other people also studying Animal Nutrition, and some
veterinarians, and some experts, and some potential customers, people
with animals), and to bring all of that information, skills, and people
help to bear to address some specific assigned problems in Animal
Nutrition. From those people, and in applying what she's learned, Kim
also picks up what she needs to know of the technical learnings of veterinary medicine.
See how this could work? It meets all of the criteria in the pink
coloured box above. It entails no scheduled classes and requires no
bricks-and-mortar buildings. Integrated, contextual learning. And
what's the chance Kim's going to be bored doing this?
Let's try a couple more examples. From the sixth field of information
(Arts, Science & Technology) the information module is Acoustics,
paired up with the fourth of the core skills Attention Skills: Making
'Sense' of the World (learning to listen not only to music but to bird
songs and train whistles), and the chosen application is Composing
Harmony. The resources could include scientists, musicians,
musicologists, experts in meditation, engineers in recording studios,
and, of course, other students of music.
Or, from the fifth field of information (Human Nature) the information
module is Negotiation & Conflict Resolution, paired up with the
sixth (Collaboration & Collective Wisdom) and eighth (Story-Telling)
core skills, and the chosen application is Writing About Making Love
Last. The resources could include negotiators, teaming consultants,
James Surowiecki, Thomas King, Tom Robbins and other successful
writers, and other student writers.
This approach turns education on its head, and centres it on the
student instead of the teacher and on learning instead of teaching.
There would be no need for what we now call 'teachers' with this
system. Instead, we would need learning facilitators, and personalized
curriculum developers to organize and coordinate the resources
(information, self-directed learning materials, lists of people to talk
to, and appropriate 'pairing' of the information modules, the core
skills and competencies, and the people in the community who can
provide context in which to learn them). Kind of like bibliographers,
connectors and coaches rolled into one. Giving each student a
personalized 'map' of what to learn and where to find the resources,
and then leaving them to their own resources to go out into the great
wide world and learn.
That's my model for education. To me it seems inclusive, flexible,
engaging, and yet eminently practical. It is participatory, both in the
way it requires students to practice what they're learning, and in its
outreach to the community. And with the money we would save on school
buildings and administrators we might even be able to pay Messrs
Manning, Surowiecki, King, Robbins and millions of other writers,
doctors, musicians, teachers and experts to spend some of their time
mentoring the next generation.
Or is my vision clouded by my own mental models, my own instinctive and
perhaps naive belief that motivated young people will learn on their
own, their own way, and need only a gentle framework and some
occasional coaching from someone who will listen to them, instead if
teaching them, in order to make a living for themselves and those they
love, joyously, in our brave new world?
|
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
