An online learning group was hosted by Barry Wall to help understand the current cultural milieu at this point in human history.
- What was new to me?
Many of the models presented were new to me, but others I was familiar with. On re looking. at the hitherto unknown models, I realise that I have actually encountered some of the concepts before, but perhaps under different guises.
- Was there something that changed my views and why?
Some ideas presented in this session were aligned to what I already had thought about the nature of learning were the coo of my schema.When I started university-level study as a mature age student over 12 years ago, I found it quite challenging to get my skill set up to speed in order to complete assignments. In addition, I often felt myself in a state of disequilibrium as I tried to incorporate new ideas into my schema. Most of that last sentence actually displays language and concepts of education and learning that I knew nothing about when I started my degrees. However, I do recall often feeling unsteady, sometimes even uncomfortable and definitely challenged by all of the new things I was learning. ‘Discombobulated’ might be the correct word for it.
A new way to describe this sense of challenge when learning and when confronted by the sheer amount of stuff that I do not know, was covered in Month 1 of the Warrior Teacher (WT) program. Namely, when we have access to knowledge, and the greater the sphere of understanding that we have, particularly in this information and tech-rich world, we continue to encounter a broader and broader range of things on the borders of our understanding that we still do not know. The analogy of a balloon growing was helpful to visualise how this happens. Things on the borders can be murky and messy and are often confronting.
I think there is some sort of connection here to something Jonathan Pageau describes, in a symbolic manner (short clip), about the nature of things that sit out in the margins as part of the truth anyway. In old scribed texts, Marginalia is often of bizarre creatures, sometimes shocking and grotesque and sometimes silly and humorous. They represent the unknown- the things we are worried about or scared of because we do not understand them yet. These things seem like they are furthest from the centre of the truth, but something within their representation holds keys to a deeper understanding of the world we live in day to day.
Perhaps the challenge today is that our margins of what we already know are growing larger and larger, and so the number of unknowns that we push up against and must confront is growing exponentially larger, overwhelming and challenging to our current schema. We have to meet the dragons in the margins and confront them before they trounce our boundaries unannounced and when we are unprepared to defend where we stand.
- What did I not understand?
Upon re-reading the first month’s materials, the concepts presented are not so overwhelming to me. Many of the ideas in them are things I have encountered in some form or another before, particularly through a lot of the educational podcasts that I follow.
- What has the learning caused me to reconsider?
To understand better how my sphere of control and influence on others’ thinking may be enacted and also limited. The idea is that there are many pointless conversations I am probably having about the things I know about the culture that causes me to get riled up, especially when I feel that I am not being understood. I have to reconsider how I will discern which conversations are worth my time engaging in, or how to engage in them more effectively. I should avoid highly emotive conversations wherever possible, for it is unlikely to lead anywhere that is good for me or my interlocutors.
~~~
By Rebekah Martin
Leave a Comment