Terri:
This is a belated response to your comments of August 25, where you state
that
>If we understand "learning" as the process of making meaning, of coming to
> make sense of our world and ourselves in the world--including how we name,
> group, and symbolize things--then whether it's learning or unlearning is
> perhaps not relevant.
I don't completely disagree with you here, but I think that there is in
some situations a value in identifying ng unlearning, and recognizing the
differences between situations where one's unlearning of one thing is a
pre-requisite of learning another. Perhaps this simple example will convey
what I mean:
Two people, Alan and Betty, are learning the same skill. This skill is
completely new to Alan. He has never done anything like it before. Betty
has been performing the same task for five years, but using slightly
different methods. This new skill is quite similar to her old skills. The
differences are subtle, but the new method is said to produce much better
results.
I feel that even though Alan and Betty are learning the same skill, Betty
is likely to have some ingrained behaviours and mental processes which
could stand in her way to mastering fully the new skill. I think this is
more than simply LEARNING about the advantages of the new methods over the
old. It is also a matter of suppressing old habits, behaviours, and
thought patterns. This is what I mean by un-learning.
Brock Vodden
Vodden Consulting
brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca
--"Brock Vodden" <brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>