Teach the Brain Forums

[QUOTE=geodob]Hi Rob ,
What are the priorities in learning?
I would suggest that it is still the 'filling the empty vessel' model?
Where the greater concern is with 'what to pour in?'
What are the priorities in learning?
I would suggest that it is still the 'filling the empty vessel' model?
Where the greater concern is with 'what to pour in?'

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February 28, 2005

Hi Geoff,

Quote from Geoff: 'What are the priorities in learning'?
I would suggest that it is still the 'filling the empty vessel' model?
Where the greater concern is with 'what to pour in?'

Rob quote: I could not disagree with you more. Experiential learning doesn't even look, feel, or taste like 'filling the empty vessel' model? Your statement of greater concern is with 'what to pour in?' ... cannot not compute with me at all. It is anachronistic.
Geoff quote: What are the priorities in learning?
I would suggest that it is still the 'filling the empty vessel' model?
Where the greater concern is with 'what to pour in?'

Rob quote...I believe that processing is very important, however the other suggestions about filling the empty vessel is dead wrong.

So......have a good day. Let's go fishing; I think we would enjoy each others company.
Rob

Hi Rob ,
It seems that I created a bit of confusion, sorry about that.
I was speaking in terms of the general educational approach, where in fact I was arguing for the experiential model.
Which directly addresses the issue that I raised.
Where experiential learning, involves the spectrum of neurological processes, and contributes to their development in a cooperative neurological situation.

In terms of the fishing, blue fin tuna are running here at the moment, but the only problem is that you need a large boat, as they are so big?
Geoff.

Hi Rob and Geoff,

Your discussion about the vessel metaphor reminds me of an extremely interesting and powerful article by Lakoff and Johnson:
Lakoff G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapters 1-3 (pp. 3-13).

The article discusses the impact of metaphors on the way we perceive and interact with the world. As you suggest, we have metaphors for the learning process that are often inaccurate. Another metaphor that is built upon the transmission-oriented one that you reference is, the brain as a computer. There are many shortcomings of this metaphor as well.

Cheers,
Christina

Good day,

This is a very good read...I would really like your thoughts on any aspects of this long article......retrieved from the internet on March 2, 2005.
Best,
Rob URL: http://reviewing.co.uk/research/experien...arning.htm

March 12, 2006

Good Morning

It is most difficult for students who have learned a task experientially to learn a task declaratively. The assessment should be different and the teaching is much different. The url was retrieved March 12, 2006
and should have a look see.

I have a feeling; just a feeling that there are too many cooks in the kitchen with political power....
Best,
Rob URL: http://reviewing.co.uk/research/experien...ning.htm#1

March 24, 2006

Good Morning,

Interesting url retrieved on the internet today regarding experiential learning. URL: http://www.sabrehq.com/cutting-edge/team...onents.htm

Warment regards,
Rob

April 10, 2006
Good Morning,

Interesting and fun read for children and for adults too....url found this morning. Url: http://staff.washington.edu/chudler/baw06oh.html
Best,
Rob

April 26, 2006

Good Morning,

Experiential learning can also include what is sometimes called "street smarts". Actually is this not meant in any way to denote "gangs". It is specifically meant to illustrate that learning by doing involves both the declarative and nondeclarative memory....mostly nondeclarative and actually is tantaumont to "the so called muscle memory". There is a great deal to be said about technical high schools that these days would most likely be called technology high schools with an emphasis on artificial intelligence.

Talk about an interesting curriculum that would most likely satisfy consumers and the students themselves. Learn by doing....along with satisfying cognitive approbation of the society. Hummmmmmmmmmmmm......let me give this some more thought.
Be well,
Rob

May 27, 2006
Good-Morning,
Best
Rob



Thoughts without contents are empty
Intuitions without concepts are blind.
~Immanuel Kant~

June 3, 2006
Good Morning,
Best,
Rob


Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
- Winston Churchill

Learning isn't a means to an end; it is an end in itself.
- Robert A. Heinlein

Good morning everyone, take care, byeee

tearszsz Wrote:Good morning everyone, take care, byeee

June 12, 2006
Good Morning Teaszsz
Best,
Rob

June 27, 2006

Good Evening,

Late Sunday afternoon my wife Sandy and I returned to our home in Solana Beach, California in San Diego County. We flew back home from Santa Clara, California which was a very short one hour flight. We were there to honor the World's Greatest Swimming Coach of All Time and the 55th Reunion of the Santa Clara Swim Club.

George Haines many times United States Olympic Swimming Coach and head coach for the Santa Clara Swim Club, Stanford University and UCLA suffered a stroke a few years ago and was severely disabled. He was working on this great reunion when he "passed on" in his sleep on May 1, 2006.

The reason for this study that began forty years ago when I was a young lad in my early twenties and George's assistant coach while working on my teaching degree is because I knew at the time that George was something special and his experiential method of helping young swimmers to be the best that they can be was not only confined to the numerous Olympic and World records they set, but the total involvement of his contribution and personal investment in each individual....they reciprocated in kind and a large family formed who loved this man very much and got to know what real integrity is....experientially.

On the evening of June 24, 2006 the conference hall in Santa Clara, California was filled with some of the greatest swimmers in the world and many others who came to honor George this incredible teacher and consummate human being. George Haines coached many wonderful swimmers including Donna de Varona, Chris von Saltza, Don Scholander, Mark Spitz, Pablo Morales, Claudia Kolb and many many others. George's swimmers earned 51 Olympic Gold, 17 Silver and 11 Bronze Medals during its proud history.

Can you imagine trying to recognize these people who came for this occasion from all over the world...because this man loved them and brought out the best in them and they were showing their devotion over five decades later; not only to George but to celebrate what they had learned that will never be just swimming....[ever so great] but the kind of person that they had become because of this total involvement called experiential learning by George.

Our memories of times spent together, were tested long term....and we could not only remember each other but what event and even small details of each other's lives. When I first walked into the 'get together'.....with hundreds of people chatting and a band playing, I recognized no one.....but after about 15minutes, it was all coming back. These fine people and they were kids when I knew them; not only had their own children now, but many had grandkids.

We knew full well that experiential learning which includes total interaction with our environment and total inclusion and participation sets up a winning combination for deep learning and long term memory...and retrieval.
Obviously, the swimming is a nondeclarative learning and memory; and you recall that personally in the pool. But what about the integrity and companionship and geniue love for one another....where does this come from? Well, it comes from experiential learning at the very best...He was a master at being "George".

Most all of the threads on our forum can be considered experiential ie., motivation, memory, learning, etc.etc. If we as teachers take the time to teach experientially, then our students will have a great learning opportunity.

Remember rejection hurts; include everyone.....
My Best,
Rob

July 12, 2006

You know what experiential learning is....this is a good example: My dentist's son is in Germany living with an family. The family only speaks German at home even though they are fluent in English. The young man has had many years of high school and college courses in German....and now within five weeks he will be really learning to speak the language. Why? Is this an example of experiential learning?
Best,
Rob

Good Morning:yes: March 20, 2007

Thought that I would share a moment with you about telling the truth about experiential learning; along with getting a very cold shoulder from the professor.

I had just completed my final exams and defended my dissertation when low and behold a former professor of mine asked me the following: Rob, now that you have completed your doctorate, there a number of students in my doctorate class who would like you to speak on what you learned in my international curriculum class. Would you be so kind?

Well, I said yes only after being assured that I could speak freely and answer questions directly with objective and subjection answers on my part.

Well, the class was full of doctorate candidates and there was standing room only....I noticed this since all the windows were open and the air conditioning was on full force. I was a little nervous because I was talking with my peers and the subject meant a great deal to me.

The questions and comments were at best banal and were very narrow in scope...my answers were also banal and really narrow in scope; then a young man ask me the following: Notwithstanding the lack of flexible scheduling in a doctorate program..how would your learning have been profoundly different and better if you could change the tenor of this particular class. I had him repeat the question and we even wrote it down word for word so that there was no misunderstanding.

I took a deep breath and said that to really really learn the international curriculum that was offered in this particular class, I would take the extremely high tuition costs for the class and set out to visit these countries personally; living with the communities and interacting with the cultures. I suggested that this would be real...and a consummate learning experience at really very little extra cost.

Well, I still believe this, but unfortunately the professor who turned very red and said to the class and directed his remarks to me was.....yes you might have learned a hundred times more, but you would not have received your doctorate since it would never be approved and you [meaning me] would be the loser. He then excused class.

I will never forget this experience; but I would do it again tomorrow. A similar experience occured in Denmark when I was asked to water down my first hand experiential knowledge of Glial cells....but this will not be the end of the those who ride a desk compared to those who really seek the truth.....a doctorate needs to mean more than to agree with some professors who have never been out of his local community.

Be well,
:yes: Rob

:dazed: THIS IS YOUR PROFF

LOOK WHAT HE HAS JUST LEARNT NEVER GIVE AN OLD STUDENT ROOM TO RUBISH YOU,

BUT HIS HARD REPLY WAS CORRECT TRAVELING WOULD HAVE NOT GIVEN YOU THE DOCTORATE

but now you have got it, it must be for you time to jion me in perfecting basic skills teaching or trying to. well done and all the very best.

IT WILL BE ANOTHER EXPERENTIAL EXPERIANCE, I see you constantly trawling the net,thankfully for the likes of me.

unny: THIS IS YOU

:choc: -------------:yes:

Telemachus you are correct no child should be in a conventional classroom between four and eight years of age, but they have to become education ready, they have to have the best basic skills ability that every human child is capable of.

They have to be safe, safe from idiots that wish to boar them to death, safe from influences for which they are far from ready to deal with, they are in a state of enchantment, easily capable of learning vast amounts of peripheral facts, quite naturally and with no apparent awareness of learning any thing.

We need to teach by stealth in these early years, apart from becoming able in basic skills nothing in a strictly factual manner is essential.

So let us clear our own minds on just what we are trying to achieve. THAT MESSAGE IS CLEAR TO ME

"CAPABILITY"

Simply without capability in basic skills a child is heading nowhere fast.

Neurologists in research of mathematic ability finally agree that mathematic ability is capable of being extended just as far as the individual so wishes.

That is not a big step in human knowledge, Socrates and Archimedes could have told us that.

BUT FOR THE AVERAGE HUMAN THAT HAS NOT BEEN TAUGHT BASIC SKILLS PROPERLY IT IS SIMPLY UNBELIEVABLE "That means most of us"

mm was the first natural scientist to understand the human brain and develop systems in education to deal with it in a mass manner.

Thomas Edison would have said start with what she knew and work on from there.

FOUR YEARS OF ENCHANTMENT NO CHILD SHOULD BE WITHOUT

---------------unny: ------unny:

August 22, 2007

Experiential learning is now the salient learning skill or 'way of learning' in all enlightened graduate schools in the world. You say really...and I say yes....all enlightened graduate schools in the world. As you can see I have left myself a great deal of wiggle room...by using the word enlightened. I am not sure of the correct spelling of enlightened but for now that is what I have written.

Actually the University creed of publish or lose your job...is somewhat to blame for the lack of real deep thinking at the University level. The Universities are being pressed by the incoming students from enlightened high schools and grade schools who are not turning back from experiential learning. As a good political science student might say....experiential learning is freedom and we do not turn our backs on FREEDOM.

Be well,

Rob aka segarama

Experiential learning is many times precluded from classroom studies since the educational system does not know how to assess or evaluate this type of learning in order to give the student a grade. Isn't that a shame? Yes, and it occurs quite often.

If a student knows the answer to a problem, yet the teacher insists on the answer being on a special IBM form i.e. multiple choice fill in or true/false then, I believe there is a real problem with the educational system. I can believe that the ease of correcting the test might be the goal or objective of the assignment not finding the correct answer.

When will we take the time to look for quality in a student's work. The student might have learned how to solve the problem experientially and could with patience take the teacher and the class through a real learning exercise.

Remember, life is not about filling in true or false questions or multiple choice....it is a matter of performing.
Be well,
Rob aka segarama:yes:

A number of years ago, my schools had bomb threats called into the secretaries.
The police and fire department would not come on campus and told us to search the classrooms ourselves. The teachers union would not allow any teacher to search the classrooms. Finally, after reviewing the extracurricular activites of my staff, I asked the best qualified person to help me (expendable superintendent). I picked a volunteer aide who was at one time a Navy Seal. I got the best notwithstanding unions or anything else. He knew what he was doing. He learned experientially how to deal with situations like this. I was proud of my choice and would have picked him over the teachers, police or fire department.

That same year we experienced nine bomb threats...and found the culprit who spent several years in jail for his poor choice.

That same year, a kindergarten mother brought a gun on campus...the police were called. They would not come on campus...I was told to talk calmly to the gun toting lady and walk her off of campus where the police were waiting around the corner. They cuffed her and took her to jail.

Think about it....if you are in a touchy situation who do you call upon....the person with a doctorate and rank...or one who knows what he or she is really doing?

Be well,
Rob aka segarama:tourist:

Experiential Learning as mentioned before is now the thrust of espousal of Board members, schools, colleges and universities....time to stop faking it....this is difficult enough..but with really great rewards.....retrieved from the internet....2-9-08; URL http://www.learningandteaching.info/lear...rience.htm; URL http://agelesslearner.com/intros/experiential.html, URL http://reviewing.co.uk/research/experien...arning.htm; URL: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/learnbydoing/weblinks.html; URL: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/08...periences/

Retrieved May 2008

URL: http://www.csaeurope.com/index.php?id=experiential
URL: http://saulnier.typepad.com/learning_tec...al-le.html
URL: http://www.coe.cornell.edu/tb/goto.jsp?page=philosophy
URL: http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-explrn.htm

Be well,
Rob

Very interesting url retrieved today. URL: http://wilderdom.com/experiential/Experi...hatIs.html

Be well,
Rob aka segarama:yes: