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Why Are There Different Approaches To Our Learning Process?
Why Are There Different Approaches To Our Learning Process?
Learning Dialogue™ Doc No. 2 Part 2
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What do we know about the different possible approaches to an experience based learning process? When we need to learn something from or with someone else, we often find each person has different ideas about the best way to proceed. At this level of orientation, of trying to get a sense of direction as a learner, it sometimes seems as though you could be coming from the opposite direction from the direction the other person is coming from. They are on an x axis and you are on a y axis, and you are at cross purposes. However, you have met at a certain point and you need to start to learn together from there.
There are only two different basic ways we can approach the learning process. In this document we will take a look at those two approaches and the four different basic ways we can use them to actually learn. We will concentrate on how we do this when we engage in learning together with other people. We will then be able to go on to explore how it is possible to do this effectively and fluently by using special forms of dialogue.
To start to learn something new always means focusing on the place where you are. It means thinking about the place where you are as being the first step in your learning process. Your preference may be to find what seems to be the most logical step forward through analyzing the step you are starting from. There are two different ways you might do this, however.
You might try to find the best way to take a step forward that you will then be able to directly replicate, in order to go straight forward.
Using a different method, with an alternative style, you might look at all the options, the steps you might take laterally or linearly, but still logically from analyzing the step you are starting with. This method will involve a different form of analysis of the starting point. You will not be looking so much for how you can replicate one step from another as how you can take the next smartest step in relation to the challenge you are facing at each step you take.
Even though these methods or styles have the same orientation they are establishing that orientation for two different purposes. The first style does not want to explore alternatives and options but rather find the most logical and efficient straight line forward. The second style wants to explore. It is equally sequential in orientation but its process has a wide open global view of possible directions to go in.
Another possibility for how you might approach determining how you will go forward from the step you are at is to move away from that step to get perspective on it. You do not want to inspect or analyze its elements but analyze it in its context from an outside vantage point. Here again, however, there are also two ways that you might do this.
One way is to try to understand and learn from observing the starting place from a good vantage point where you can see the whole picture what is the best and most efficient straight line forward.
Another way to use perspective as your approach or orientation is to look for the best way forward by perceiving the lay of the land, seeing what all the alternative directions you might take look like from a distance, so that you can explore them better close up.
Again, these styles have the same orientation but use it for the opposite reasons. The first style makes use of the widest possible perspective in order to get the clearest possible narrow focus. The second style also uses a wide or global perspective but for the purpose of getting a clear look at as many relevant areas of focus in the context of the starting point as possible and in order to explore and examine the relationships between all the pertinent elements in the whole picture.
Whether a person is coming from a place where they want to focus in reductively on the step from which they are starting, and whether this is to determine a straight line forward or whether it is to discover all the logical alternatives for a second step, or whether a person is coming from a place where they want to look at the big picture before even starting, because it is the best way for them to see the most efficient and straightest path forward, or because it is the best way for them to anticipate all possible changes in direction that might be called for ahead, each person will learn in their own way, the way they are best at under the given circumstances.
It will not help them to learn or help communication, understanding or collaboration to try to pressure them into learning with your preferred style instead of theirs. In fact, we cannot really manage another person's learning process. We all share the ability to learn in all four styles but not equally well. If we want people to really listen and learn and work together well, as productively and creatively as possible, we will seek to support them in learning in the way they learn best, in the way they prefer. Each style has a lot to offer in nearly every situation.
That is why ultimately the best and most complete learning is really a social event. Instead of trying to force things to be otherwise, to get everyone to listen and learn the way we most naturally listen and learn, it is ultimately to our advantage to embrace our learning differences, to learn how to effectively engage in learning dialogues that enable us to fluently negotiate our learning process with others.
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