[CAUT] Learning...

[Israel Stein]

At 11:00 AM 11/12/2007, Ed Foote wrote:
>Israel writes:
>
><<   It still seem to me that the widest variety of methods and
>approaches I was exposed to - without being told which is the best -
>was in my time at the North Bennet Street School. From a variety of
>teachers - with diametrically opposed approaches. Some of them I
>still use. Some I have rejected as inappropriate for the
>circumstances in which I find myself working. Some don't fit the way
>my mind, eyes or hands work. >>
>
>Greetings,
>          I could have written the above, verbatim.  Our life's experience is
>based on our perception, and that is based on our perspective.  No way will a
>self-taught tech have the perspective of one schooled in the craft by a
>variety of instructors.  And yes, the quality of the instructors is 
>the biggest
>factor in the success of the schooling.  Maybe any of us could reach 
>the higest
>level, given enough time.  Is is possible for a dummy to figure out in five
>years what a genius figures out in five minutes?  I don't know, but 
>I suspect a
>threshold somewhere that separates what you can learn on your own, 
>and what must
>be taught.

Ed,

I guess we are going farther and farther off on a tangent to the 
discussion (which is why I changed the subject line) but this is an 
interesting question. From the past few years'  teaching at PTG 
conventions, at the chapter level and in various other contexts, it 
seems to me that the issue may not be intellectual capacity or some 
sort of threshold but every individual's intellectual makeup and 
specific brain functions.

Some individuals are able to abstract specific bits of data from 
their experience, convert them into algorithms or processes and apply 
those to various situations - modifying them as necessary. These 
sorts of people can teach themselves well or require a minimum of 
guidance to learn complex processes. In the past they were the 
inventors and the innovators - and today they occasionally get there too.

Others need to have this done for them - and can't learn anything 
without someone showing them how, and explaining the concepts involved.

And then there are the ones who - after some guidance - learn how to 
handle this process of abstracting and organizing information from 
experience, and can teach themselves after a period of being taught...

And others - as Ron N correctly points out - can only be "trained" to 
repeat specific sequences of actions - little or no capacity for 
conceptualization. The more I teach, the more I see how hard it is to 
put your finger on how people learn - every class brings more surprises...

No matter how one learns, it is always good to check one's own 
experience and conclusions against those of others. I typically try 
to avoid broad generalizations, but this one I will state 
categorically: the capacity of humans to delude themselves is 
infinite. Something to keep in mind when trying to learn something 
without outside help...

Israel Stein