Replying to LO28713 --
Dear Organlearners,
Leo Minnigh <minnigh@dds.nl> writes:
>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:
Greetings dear Leo,
I have been studying learning goals-objectives in the literature and
trying to incorporate them in my own teaching, thus learning myself what
works and what does not.
You are right, the answer is complex. When asking students whether they
set themselves learning goals-objectives, some say yes while others say
no. When asking the "yes" students how they do it, their anwers differ
almost as much as fingerprints do.
So I will rather tell you how it is with me personally so as to get al
least one authentic answer.
I cannot remember whether I have ever learned without a goal. I can
remember many cases in which I was to instruct learning something without
being told why. Unfortunately, since most teachers and lecturers do not
like "why" questions, to avoid their negative reactions i had to learn to
go to a relevant book and see whether I could find the "why".
The "imperative structure" in my own learning has four levels. The
best I can articulate them with familiar words are:-
longest duration - mission
long duration - aims
medium duration - goals
short duration - objectives
My mission has changed a few times, the last time in 1970 when i realised
that my calling was to become a teacher in authentic learning. My mission
will never be completed. The older i become, the more i wish i had the
time to go on.
My aims serve my mission. My aims last usually between several months and
a several years. Some aims have died off, some became dormant for a number
of years before reviving again, but usually the aims just get more through
the years. Some I pursuit hotly while I tend to neglect others because the
hot ones compell me more. Some I just keep working on intermittently as my
path crosses them.
My goals serve my aims. I have far more goals than aims. My goals last
usually between a week and a few months. I will easily jump from one goal
to another goal within an aim when my intuition or curioisty compells me
to do so. I will also jump from one goal in one aim to another goal in
another aim for the same reasons. I seldom complete a goal as i intended
to do. Those which I stopped focussing on, i seldom focus on again in the
same intensity.
My objectives serve my aims. I have had tens of thousands of them. They
last usually from less an hour than to a couple of days. I usually try to
complete an objective and do as best in it as i can. It would seem to
others that there is no serious pattern in the sequence of objectives. I
might finish of a few in mathematics, then jump to a few in history,
perhaps the next few in technology, etc.
The reason why i jump around so much, is my creativity. I may perceive an
association, probe a metaphor, seek a connection or explore the limit.
Aftre i have disovered the 7Es (seven essentialities of creativity), i
became conscious how much I had been following them in my learning. It is
they which cause my meandering between some objectives of one goal to
others of another goal.
Openness (with the other six operating in the background) has a curious
effect upon my learning. I would do some learning when suddenly i would
come upon something of which i have not the slightest knowledge. I will
then make time to explore this thing, often to the detriment of what I was
buzy learning. I have come to realise that this is one of my aims -- not
to keep out what I have become conscious off.
>Are there differences in patterns of learning are there
>differences in the frequencies of 'steigerungs',
>differences in the 'quantity' of developed knowledge,....
(snip)
My "Steigerung"s between objectives are at least a few every day. My
"Steigerung"s between goals are at least a few every week. My
"Steigerung"s between aims are at least a few every month. Should i
revisit a goal, which may happen within a week, my knowledge in that goal
increase. Should i revisit an aim, which may happen within a month, my
knowledge in that aim increase. The increases along a goal is usually less
than the increases along an aim.
>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.
I never know for long where to go because something would happen along the
road which cause me to change my direction. I have learned to live with
this "Brownian motion" (Steigerung) in my own learning. But this I do
know, when I get back on some goal or aim visited in the past, I follow
its direction once again.
>I am very interested in your thoughts on this subject.
Leo, I do hope that my personal account will be of some value to you. But
please, do not think that it is the same or similar with others. I have
learned that it is not and have learned to live with it and not cause them
trouble.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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