Landscaping the Learning Environment to Create a Home for the Complex Mind

1. Landscaping the Learning Environment to Create a Home for the Complex Mind 2001 David Kinsey Lecture Jan Visser President, Learning Development Institute jvisser@learndev.org 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

2. http://www.learndev.org 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

3. What I intend to do during this lecture “I am going to…bring together some of the ideas expressed in my recent work, and to reflect on my decades‑long experience in creating the conditions for the development of learning in an international context. That experience, and my reflections on it, has led me to recognize that learning is an immensely more complex phenomenon than most of our current practice to promote and facilitate it would have us believe. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that the complex human mind is poorly at home in much of the environment supposedly created to nurture it. Neglect of the essential conditions for its sustenance and growth has led the mind to lose its natural habitat, putting it at risk of becoming extinct. My emphasis will therefore be on what should be done to landscape the learning environment in such a way that the complex mind can find a home in it.” 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

4. THE STORY OF A WALK 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

5. A STORY OF LEARNING LE VALLON Mon coeur, lassé de tout, même de l'espérance,N'ira plus de ses voeux importuner le sort ;Prêtez-moi seulement, vallon de mon enfance,Un asile d'un jour pour attendre la mort.Voici l'étroit sentier de l'obscure vallée :Du flanc de ces coteaux pendent des bois épais,Qui, courbant sur mon front leur ombre entremêlée,Me couvrent tout entier de silence et de paix.Là, deux ruisseaux cachés sous des ponts de verdureTracent en serpentant les contours du vallon ;Ils mêlent un moment leur onde et leur murmure,Et non loin de leur source ils se perdent sans nom.La source de mes jours comme eux s'est écoulée ;Elle a passé sans bruit, sans nom et sans retour :Mais leur onde est limpide, et mon âme troubléeN'aura pas réfléchi les clartés d'un beau jour.La fraîcheur de leurs lits, l'ombre qui les couronne,M'enchaînent tout le jour sur les bords des ruisseaux,Comme un enfant bercé par un chant monotone,Mon âme s'assoupit au murmure des eaux.Ah ! c'est là qu'entouré d'un rempart de verdure,D'un horizon borné qui suffit à mes yeux,J'aime à fixer mes pas, et, seul dans la nature,A n'entendre que l'onde, à ne voir que les cieux.J'ai trop vu, trop senti, trop aimé dans ma vie ;Je viens chercher vivant le calme du Léthé.Beaux lieux, soyez pour moi ces bords où l'on oublie :L'oubli seul désormais est ma félicité.Mon coeur est en repos, mon âme est en silence ;Le bruit lointain du monde expire en arrivant,Comme un son éloigné qu'affaiblit la distance,A l'oreille incertaine apporté par le vent.D'ici je vois la vie, à travers un nuage,S'évanouir pour moi dans l'ombre du passé ;L'amour seul est resté, comme une grande imageSurvit seule au réveil dans un songe effacé.Repose-toi, mon âme, en ce dernier asile,Ainsi qu'un voyageur qui, le coeur plein d'espoir,S'assied, avant d'entrer, aux portes de la ville,Et respire un moment l'air embaumé du soir.Comme lui, de nos pieds secouons la poussière ;L'homme par ce chemin ne repasse jamais ;Comme lui, respirons au bout de la carrièreCe calme avant-coureur de l'éternelle paix.Tes jours, sombres et courts comme les jours d'automne,Déclinent comme l'ombre au penchant des coteaux ;L'amitié te trahit, la pitié t'abandonne,Et seule, tu descends le sentier des tombeaux.Mais la nature est là qui t'invite et qui t'aime ;Plonge-toi dans son sein qu'elle t'ouvre toujoursQuand tout change pour toi, la nature est la même,Et le même soleil se lève sur tes jours.De lumière et d'ombrage elle t'entoure encore :Détache ton amour des faux biens que tu perds ;Adore ici l'écho qu'adorait Pythagore,Prête avec lui l'oreille aux célestes concerts.Suis le jour dans le ciel, suis l'ombre sur la terre ;Dans les plaines de l'air vole avec l'aquilon ;Avec le doux rayon de l'astre du mystèreGlisse à travers les bois dans l'ombre du vallon.Dieu, pour le concevoir, a fait l'intelligence :Sous la nature enfin découvre son auteur !Une voix à l'esprit parle dans son silence :Qui n'a pas entendu cette voix dans son coeur ? Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869) 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

6. “Reading poetry…with a friend – looking out over the majestic waterfront in Rotterdam.”(Painting by Eric Visser) 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

7. A STORY OF LEARNING Why was this different from reading poetry in school? 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

8. A STORY OF LEARNING “What more is life than a prelude to the eternal song of which death sounds the first note?” (Lamartine) 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

9. A STORY OF LEARNING 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

10. THE STORY OF WALKING TO LEARN 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

11. THE STORY OF WALKING TO LEARN POETRY ART NATURE SCIENCE PEOPLE LIFE DEATH PURPOSE MEANING HUMANITY KNOWING LEARNING 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

12. LEARNING STORIES PROJECT • Research project of Learning Development Institute. • Part of LDI’s “Meaning of Learning” focus area. • Motivation of project: • Learning is an underdeveloped concept: there is a need to explore the meaning of learning in its broadest sense. • Need to extend learning research beyond inquiry into the consequences of instructional practice. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

13. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH Elucidating the meaning of learning in the perspective of potential broadening of the concept of learning. • Determine what people perceive to be their most meaningful learning experiences. • Determine the conditions that have enabled these meaningful learning experiences to come about. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

14. SOURCES OF DATA The learning stories, i.e. Narrative descriptions responding to three concerns: • Elucidation of the participants’ most meaningful learning experience. • Clarification about why these learning experiences are considered meaningful. • Determination of the key conditions that allowed these learning experiences to occur. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

15. INITIAL STUDY • 36 narratives were collected from people ranging in ages from 18 to 65. • Authors of narratives are diverse in terms of ethnic, cultural and socio-economic background, as well as in the degree and nature of their involvement in formal education. • 33 of the narratives were written by professionals and 3 of them were written by students. • Use of Sapsford & Yupp’s (1996) iterative methods for analysis of unstructured data. • Further detail: see http://www.learndev.org. • Ongoing effort, now also involving, Florida State University; University of Northern Colorado; and UMass, Amherst. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

16. RESULTS (1) What makes a learning experience meaningful? • Ownership of knowledge. • Maintained across the lifespan. • Laying path for continued growth. • Implications in the ‘real-life’ context. • Connection with helping others to learn. • Overcoming negative perceptions of self. • Discovery of persistence as strategy to manage life’s challenges. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

17. RESULTS (2)What are the conditions that promote and facilitate meaningful learning experiences? • Reinvention of a negative condition as a challenge. • Presence of role model or emotionally-significant support. • Opportunities for independent exploration of one’s learning and metacognition. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

18. OVERALL CONCLUSION “Perhaps the most striking finding in the analysis of the various case stories…is the tremendous complexity of interconnected events that somehow, though not necessarily in a linear fashion, result in the emergence of a new state of consciousness, a heuristic experience that makes the learner aware that he or she has learned, and has done so meaningfully.” “It took 45 years and an accidental radio broadcast to make the pieces of a puzzle fall into place in such a way that their separateness became resolved and a new synthesis emerged, thereby raising new questions.” 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

19. Learning undefined “Human learning is the disposition of human beings, and of the social entities to which they pertain, to engage in continuous dialogue with the human, social, biological and physical environment, so as to generate intelligent behavior to interact constructively with change.” “Human learning is the disposition of human beings, and of the social entities to which they pertain, to engage in continuous dialogue with the human, social, biological and physical environment, so as to generate intelligent behavior to interact constructively with change.” “Human learning is the disposition of human beings, and of the social entities to which they pertain, to engage in continuous dialogue with the human, social, biological and physical environment, so as to generate intelligent behavior to interact constructively with change.” “Human learning is the disposition of human beings, and of the social entities to which they pertain, to engage in continuous dialogue with the human, social, biological and physical environment, so as to generate intelligent behavior to interact constructively with change.” “Human learning is the disposition of human beings, and of the social entities to which they pertain, to engage in continuous dialogue with the human, social, biological and physical environment, so as to generate intelligent behavior to interact constructively with change.” Visser (2001). Integrity, completeness and comprehensiveness of the learning environment: Meeting the basic learning needs of all throughout life.In D. N. Aspin, J. D. Chapman, M. J. Hatton and Y. Sawano (Eds), International Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

20. RELATED CONCEPTS • Mind • The seat of the mind • Consciousness 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

21. MIND • Anglo-Saxon origin: “gemynd” = memory • Distinguish between two views of memory: • memory as static concept (stored information) • memory as dynamic concept, i.e. giving meaning, intentionality. • We are all “memories in the making” (Yusra Laila Visser) • Commemorating David Kinsey means participating in his mindfulness, his intentionality. • Mind = construction of intentionality, a process that contributes not only to our own existence, but that enhances existence in general. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

22. ENHANCING EXISTENCE Three interwoven spheres of existence in Yoruba culture: • the world of the living • the world of the unborn • the world of the ancestor. Every individual has the responsibility to enhance the process of existence during his or her passage from the world of the unborn to the world of the ancestor. One is thus part of the community of those who came before and those who will come after us. “The responsibility of creating an environment, which makes this particular passage in which one finds oneself congenial, is a communal responsibility.” Wole Soyinka 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

23. MIND’S MATTER – and the problem of scientific inquiry “...the mind is not the brain but what the brain does, and not even everything the brain does, such as metabolizing fat and giving off heat” (Pinker, 1997, p. 24). Mind is a process, “a special kind of process depending on special arrangements of matter” (Edelman, 1992, p. 7). “Science has, for many centuries, had difficulty in dealing with the mind. Proper scientific inquiry assumed processes that excluded, as much as possible, intentionality.” “Science manipulates things and refuses to inhabit them” (Merleau-Ponty, 1964). 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

24. MAN VS. MIND - DUALISM Descartes: Separation between the worlds of mind (res cogitans) and science (res extensa). Kronig (1969)…reflecting on half a century of his involvement in theoretical physics and reacting to imminent tendencies during the late nineteen-sixties, preferred to qualify as “pseudo-sciences” those endeavors that, while trying to model themselves on the rigor of the physical sciences, wished to include the human being as subject in their considerations. Descartes (1596-1650) by Frans Hals Ralph Kronig (1904-1995) 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

25. TWO EVENTS THAT COMPELL US TO PUT THE MIND BACK INTO NATURE • “Changing views of the physical sciences themselves…and of the role of the physical sciences in (re)-connecting human beings to the experience of reality” (Nicolescu, Heisenberg, Pauli and Bohr).” • “The development, started during the later part of the 20th century, of technologies and methods that are allowing our very humanity, or what we thought it was, to become the object of scientific inquiry and manipulation. This includes the insights we are getting into the workings of the brain as well as our genetic make-up. Subject and object are, so to say, looking each other in the eye; they can no longer be kept apart.” 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

26. CONSCIOUSNESS I wonder why I wonder. I wonder why I wonder why I wonder. I wonder why I wonder why I wonder why… Richard Feynman (1918-1988) 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

27. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

28. LEARNING • Bipolar relationship between reality and consciousness. • We use bipolar relationships to organize our perceptions. • Both helpful and cumbersome. • The power of classical logic…and its limitations. • Learning as “included middle” to elevate ourselves above the apparent opposition of consciousness and reality. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

29. ORGANIC INTEGRITY OF LEARNING • Do away with notion that learning is predominantly consequence of instruction. • All elements in people’s learning are relevant and essential, but there is no linear way in which things connect (ex: see my story). • Things fall in place because we exercise our mind and make choices. • The mind as kaleidoscope. • Diversity: prerequisite for and product of community life. • Communities of mind. • Cognitive ecology. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

30. THE LEARNING LANDSCAPE • Connotations such as • harmony • beauty • robustness • diversity • ecological integrity as overriding concerns (as opposed to current preoccupation with such issues as cost-effectiveness). • Multiplicity of layers (sub-landscapes), such as: • instructional sub-landscape • socio-cultural organization sub-landscape • media sub-landscape. 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

31. thank you Jan visser jvisser @ learndev.org 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA

32. Web resources used: • Lamartine & Poème “Le Vallon:” http://www.chabons.com/vallon.html • Painting “Waalhaven bij demagnetisering I:” http://www.ericvisser.nl • Liszt: http://www.d-vista.com/OTHER/franzliszt.html • Brassens: http://perso.worldonline.fr/loutreaux/Brassens.html • Kinsey: http://www.umass.edu/cie/Kinsey/kinsey_dialogue_series.htm • Soyinka: http://www.a;bany.edu/writers-inst/soyinka.html • Descartes: http://iquebec.ifrance.com/lesolympica/portretparHals.htm • Kronig: http://www.delta.tudelft.nl/delta/jaargangen/27/37/memoriam.html • Feynman: http://www.search.caltech.edu/Archives/ 2001 Kinsey Lecture – UMass, Amherst, MA