Learning as a Way of Being

1. Learning as a Way of Being By Peter Vaill

2. Permanent White Water • The complex, turbulent, changing environment in which we are all trying to operate • Defines the difficult conditions under which people exercise their will and judgment within society’s macro-systems • It is the nature of macro-systems to upset all attempts to get subparts to run smoothly

3. Permanent White Water Characteristics • Full of surprises • Tends to produce novel problems • Features events that are ‘messy’ & ill-structured • Costly • Raise the problem of recurrence

4. Our Reactions • Life outside one’s comfort zone • The meaning we attach to our experiences • Have we lost meaning?

5. Learning • Changes a person makes in him- or herself that increase the know-why and/or the know-what and or the know-how the person possesses with respect to a given subject. • Hard to define: • A process, not a state • Occurs both as overt, observable behavior and as an inner condition of attitudes, ideas, and feelings.

6. Institutional Learning • Combine the criteria of efficiency, speed, and volume with the three philosophical principles of goal-directedness, learners’ responsibility for valuing goals, and learners’ lack of responsibility for originating goals • Why is it dysfunctional for us? • Isn’t goal-directedness good?

7. Self-Directed Learning • The learner has substantial control over the purposes, the content, the form, and the pace of learning • The learner is the primary judge of when sufficient learning has occurred • How can we know enough to direct our own learning process?

8. Creative Learning • It takes courage

9. Expressive Learning • Doing things and learning in the process • Especially important in getting the ‘big picture’ stuff • Resonates in the total person in an integrated flow of mind, body, and spirit, no matter how humble or mundane the activity

10. Feeling Learning • Need to develop self-acceptance of the feelings that arise during learning because these feelings are part of the learning

11. On-Line Learning • “The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursuing his own education. This will not be a widely shared pursuit until we get over our odd conviction that education is what goes on in school buildings and nowhere else.

12. On-Line Learning • Not only does education continue when schooling ends, but it is not confined to what may be studied in adult education courses. The world is an incomparable classroom, and life is a memorable teacher for those who aren’t afraid of her.”

13. Continual Learning • Entails the difficult psychological achievement of open-mindedness • What are the characteristics of a reflexive beginner? • Zen mind, beginner’s mind?

14. Reflexive Learning • Human consciousness is naturally reflexive: it notices itself, and it notices itself noticing itself. It thinks about itself. • Vaill said last week if he could redo this book, he would put this one first….why?

15. Two Questions • 1. What has been the process of your learning, that is, what is the stream of ideas and experiences that your learning ahs been composed of that brings you to your present degree of understanding and ability?

16. Two Questions • 2. Why have you engaged in this learning process (both your original motives and the motives that have kept you going)

17. A succession of relative unplanned experiences • Feelings of continual discovery • Pleasure and delight • Autotelic (self-justifying) • Empowered mood • Ownership of the learning process

18. Characteristics • Freedom to question, to disagree • Fun • Reinforced • Meet’s the individual’s needs • Use their own experiences to learn • Genuine concern for the learners • Curiosity encouraged and rewarded • No doctrine • Nonjudgmental climate

19. Characteristics • Tolerance for mistakes • Acceptance • Follow their inclinations • Nurturing environment • Tolerance of differences • Noncompetitive • Fosters creativity • Interdisciplinary

20. Characteristics • Concern for attaining desired outcomes • Diversity among learners • Variety of learning sources • Time to reflect built in • Opportunity to teach • No one feels stupid • Self-paced • Stretched out of comfort zone

21. What does that mean for us?