Dear LO' ers,
Recently, some strange thoughts developed in my mind. One of them is an
off spring of the dialogue on organizational learning through the learning
of the individual employees.
The following question arised in my mind:
Is there a difference between learning with a goal, and learning without
such attractive focus in the future?
The answer(s) is/are probably complex. Some lines of follow-up thoughts
came in my mind:
How does a young child learns and how doe a young student learn, motivated
by reaching the focus through receiving his/her certificate? And how is
the learning of some one who is eager to get clues of a personal problem?
Are there differences in patterns of learning are there differences in the
frequencies of 'steigerungs', differences in the 'quantity' of developed
knowledge, which part of this knowledge flows into tacit knowledge and
which part stays in the active part of the mind? Lots of questions.
Answers to these questions are in my mind interesting for many reasons.
One of the reasons is e.g. the dialogue on the Sudbury Valley School but
also for an organization. In this latter case it might be interesting to
know how the learning curve is for an organization where its future
goal(s) is not so clear for its workers/learners and how this curve looks
like in an organization where every member knows wher to go, with 'all
noses/minds' towards the same direction.
In another context it is also interesting. This context is in a situation
where a group is confronted with a common enemy. Here in the Netherlands
we had from say 900 - 1600 the sea AND the water from the other side (high
river stands) as common enemy and of course there are many, many other
examples. In this situation an enemy is the focal point. Maybe not such a
positive focus as the certificate of the young student.
I am very interested in your thoughts on this subject.
Leo Minnigh
--Minnigh <minnigh@dds.nl>
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