What’s the problem with social learning?
Well, there are many – one thing is that it actually works, which can send a shudder of fear up the spine of some mainstream educators. Like it or not, some education systems are built around the teacher’s needs and a lot less around the needs of learners and a lot of teachers meticulously plan (for) lessons, but not necessarily for learners. That said, I am sure that there are a lot of teachers that resist and are actually very creative and in tune with their learner’s needs and do deliver on this, but is this really the case for the majority?
Other reasons are that people are generally not perceived to be formatted for social learning, even though they do it without knowing it.
Then there is the old chestnut of confusion of terms.
I mean, ‘Social’ for a start – that means time off, sitting around a table with friends or a pint in the pub, and enjoying oneself, doesn’t it?
And ‘Learning’ is often confused with teaching, or at least in the guise that many of us have encountered it in school, and often far beyond.
Social learning must incorporate notions of autonomy, by its very nature.
Autonomy, doesn’t that mean independence, freedom and getting on and doing things alone?
Autonomy does indeed include freedom and, to some extent independence – but this is a freedom of choice in learning Where, when, and how we like, and very often with whom we like – but it is not anarchic in any way.
In social learning, from my understanding, we don’t talk about freedom as ‘independence’ but more as ‘inter-dependence’ – working / learning and communicating with, and from, others.
If people are to learn anything they need to be taught by a teacher, don’t they?
I don’t know, what do you think?
Sometimes, at least at school, working in collaboration with others – well that’s just plain copying and we won’t stand for any of that around here…
That said, many schools are embracing project work, where learners work together on common goals, but this is not the case for every subject, nor indeed, in every school.
Social learning, I believe, can, and does just happen, but the most effective way for it to occur is when it is facilitated in some way – I am carefully avoiding the term ‘taught’.
Facilitation? – how can that ever work – you need someone with a firm body of knowledge – learning is just a transfer of knowledge from one to another, or one to many, isn’t it ?
Firstly, let’s come back to the title – you’re reading this either because you agree with the statement or that you disagree wholeheartedly, or maybe you are just curious to see what I have to say on this – either way, I’ve got your attention.
Now let’s look at the way education has been set up and run over the last few centuries – an insight into one of the few things in life that has remained pretty much stationary over the last two or three hundred years.
In the pre-industrial Revolution, most learning, except for the privileged classes, was a one-to-one phenomena, called « sitting by Nelly », where trades were learnt from an experienced worker, showing and checking the performance of an apprentice until they were ready to do the job alone.
During and after the Industrial Revolution, education then evolved into the model that is traditionally used to this day – the teacher and the class – One-to-many.
The power dynamic being in the hands of the one with the knowledge, who would then sprinkle it on anyone willing to take it up.
This, in my opinion, is nearing its sell-by-date as external pressures, in terms of rapid technological change, exert their influence on the validity and pertinence of this model.
The teacher is dead, long live the teacher – but how are kids and adults going to learn?
Enter Social Learning – we have actually been doing this for centuries, although we may not have known it – or rather not really thought about putting a label on it.
Social, refers to the system in which humans thrive – a society – not always linked to spare-time, leisure or enjoyment, although, spare-time and enjoyment are some of the key aspects of social learning – well, learning in short.
The main concept behind social learning is that ‘no man [sic] is an island’, that we learn best when we are interacting and collaborating with others – this works well in the workplace (usually) but is often penalised in school, branded as copying or worse.
Of course there are teachers who are aware of the shortcomings of the traditional educational model, who are actively putting into place activities that are dragging the classroom into the 21st century, leveraging social media and technology to facilitate this.
However, the dynamics of social learning are not used in any formal testing system – there are no marking criteria that I am aware of that take into account group collaboration dynamics or serendipitous learning.
Arguments that I have heard are that they are just too complex to evaluate … so let’s just stay with evaluating what we know how to evaluate – right and wrong answers on a formal test / evaluation / examination.
Now, we can all recognise that it will take a virtual [sic] revolution in education to implement any form of evaluation system to encompass the variables of social learning – but it is not impossible to achieve.
We all can see that, but there will surely come a time, when the head will need to be removed from the sand, if only to adapt to technological change, which in turn is driving social change.
Social learning is what we all do best, and is what we have always done best, so why is it often seen as something new and almost as something to be avoided?
Language is What Makes Humans Unique
Language is what separates humans from animals and is one of the most important aspects of being human – it is what makes us unique.
Although, anyone who has attempted to learn a foreign language will tell you – there is a gulf of difference between knowing a language and being able to communicate or use it.
There many variables which go into making up a language (although we will look at just a few here) including:
Semanticity – where words have specific meanings.
Displacement – using tenses to talk about past and future events or abstract concepts and hypothetical situations.
Structural Dependence – How words are placed in a sentence or clause which can alter the meaning.
Grammar and Syntax – how words are constructed to give meaning
Have you ever wondered why apes and monkeys are unable to talk?
Evolutionary psychologists suggest that language developed through adaptation, which happened around 5 million years ago when humans separated on the evolutionary path, from higher primates.
Physical differences between humans and animals lie in the throat anatomy, which enables a large range of sound production. The brain area responsible for language production – the Planium Temporale is larger in humans in the left cerebral hemisphere than in any other animal on the planet.
Wernicke’s studies discovered that damage to this area resulted in the inability to understand language and produce fluent speech – “Fluent Asphasia,” whilst Broca found a more anterior region of the brain that is used for language production. When this area is damaged, the results are discontinued speech production – “Non-Fluent Asphasia.”
Sperber’s studies focused on “Metarepresentation,” which is a reflection on our own and other’s mental processes, and results in the interpretation of what others would to do or think in a certain situation or context. People can imagine what they think others are thinking – which is a huge evolutionary advantage which allows us to lie to others – an ability that children under 2 years of age are unable to do – which involves qualities of semanticity, displacement and structural dependence – which animals are not able to carry out.
Cognitive psychologists focus on the properties of sound and ‘process recovery’ in communication – how a person forms a sentence and relies on the listener to recover their ‘thoughts’, designed to convey meaning.
Ever been in a situation where you have considered that you have communicated a clear and simple message that was understood differently or produced effects that were unexpected?
Mayer and Schanveldt researched “Semantic Priming”, the ability to recognise words related in meaning and “Associative Priming” – words that occur close together, such as Work-horse, summer – holiday etc. Semantic priming and associative helps us understand and recognise meaning, in fact sometimes so rapidly that we only listen to half of what was said.
There are, of course many theories and variables which form the difference between animals and humans as far as language is concerned, but we will not look too deeply at this at this point.
Researchers argue that sentences we form are already well formed structures, unless we are using relatively new forms and structures, as we would if we were learning a foreign language – representation has to formed and not retrieved in this case. As words in a sentence are sequential, there remains the question of when we build the representation – do we wait until the sentence is completed or do we start building as words are perceived?
Sentences contain two types of information:
1. The meaning of the individual words.
2. The syntactical structure.
Take the sentence – “Hello.” it is grammatically correct and conveys meaning.
Chomsky sought to prove (or disprove this) through his grammatically correct, but meaningless sentence, “Coulourless green ideas sleep furiously.”
A cognitive view would argue that, communication relies on the listener’s metarepresentation and a speakers representation in order for (successful) communication to occur, whereas, a social psychologist’s view would argue that communication does not only rely on interpreting the thoughts of others. Meaning precedes language and is transmitted by language, which differs from the Social Constructivist view, which argues that language creates meaning.
In some parts of Europe, during the middle ages, Latin was the written language, despite the fact that nobody spoke it any more – apart from the clergy and other minority levels of society – this is called Diglossia, and still occurs throughout the world today in certain contexts.
Social psychologists view language as a social, process, and who would argue with that one? Language is used between two or more people as a social interaction, where meanings are formed, contested, constructed and construed, dynamically through prior knowledge and cultural knowledge of situations – communication is for a function, to get things done. This also applies to solitary thinking, reading and reasoning, where the use of language is carried out by way of a dialogue with the self – the internal voice.
It is clear that some researchers have successfully ‘taught’ forms of language to primates – although to date none have been able to reproduce spoken language – it stays on the level of understanding, apart from some experiments where sign language and ‘token’ language has been produced more of a reaction than any real form of interaction, and this does not prove that they would have developed a language among their own species.
The question remains as to whether the attempts at human type communication is authentic or just clouded by exaggerated empathy that sees things that were not really there. Whatever, the result, there is no evidence of ‘turn-taking’ a feature of human conversations and little spontaneity – one such experiment resulted in 96% of the responses being made up of requests, which were then rewarded in some way – a parallel which is closer to Pavlov’s dogs than true communication.
There is the argument put forward by evolutionary psychologists that chimps could have maintained some form of ancestral language ability, as they are the closest animal relatives of humans.
The fact remains that humans are hard-wired to learn languages – it is a natural instinct, but in order for it to be successful, it must occur in a social setting, which necessitates interaction with others. Studies with feral children has revealed that their ability to learn languages and to become fluent in the language is limited by the late age that they learn – indeed the consensus among linguists regarding bilingualism is that the ceiling for becoming bilingual in a language ends at around 14 years of age – this does not mean that people cannot reach a high level of competence, just that there is a difference in fluency and bilingualism.
Animals can undoubtedly communicate within their own species using sounds and gestures, although this is a long way from any language as we know it – and this is what makes humans thoroughly unique, the ability to communicate with, and learn languages, naturally and instinctively.
In summary, language is What Makes Humans Unique.
Brexit or Bremain? Everything you need to know about The EU referendum – we have often heard the term, ‘Brexit’, meaning Britain Exit or Britain leaving the European Union, but how often have you heard the term ‘Bremain’ or Britain staying in the EU?
25 Tips to Motivate People in Your Organisation
Organisations which suffer from a lack of initiative coming from their people can often find the solution to their problem internally, in the systemic roots of their corporate culture.
Those organisations which experience a high level of initiative from their people have understood a great deal about what motivates people in the workplace.
Some corporate cultures act in a way that effectively blocks creativity, initiative and finally motivation of its people by initiating rigid control from management that stifles and kills it.
A highly motivated workforce can make the difference between an organisation that produces great results and capitalises, fully on the potential of their people, in a highly competitive world and one which just survives.
Understanding the forces which motivate people is a learnt skill, which not only influences the motivation, but which also facilitates organisational learning, whilst reducing negative conflict in the workplace.
Many organisations favour reward, usually financial, in an attempt to increase motivation, or sometimes to assuage negative conflict, which is not only a flawed concept, but also a short-term pacifier, compared to the long-term effects of self-motivation.
In order to foster self-motivation, organisations need to discover what exactly motivates their people, and there are many ways to do this, as long as they keep in mind the many different needs that people have and which, ultimately, motivate them.
Here are 25 tips to help managers motivate their people :
The carrot and stick notion of motivation is clearly old hat – it does not work any more, if it ever did…
Cheer up, today is Blue Monday, and according to experts, it could be most depressing ever because of celebrity deaths, Brexit, and fears about a Donald Trump presidency in the US, and the weather.
In 2005 Dr Cliff Arnall, formerly of Cardiff University, came up with a light-hearted formula for predicting the gloomiest day of the year based on factors including weather, debts, time since Christmas and motivation.
The equation, created by Dr Arnall suggests that today, 16 January 2017, is the most depressing day of the year for the following reasons:
The weather is grey and cold
The Christmas period is over
People are broke
People are two weeks away from pay day.
The Blue Monday formula, where W is weather, D is debt, d is monthly salary, T is the time passed since Christmas, Q is the time since the failure of an attempt to give something up, M is low motivational level and Na is the need to take action.
Not really. One glaring issue with the above ‘formula’ is that Arnall never specified what the units of measurement were – so we have no idea how the equation would work in practice.
Another warning sign should be that it was first put together in conjunction with the Sky Travel channel (which no longer exists), to make people feel like their mood was low and that, perhaps, booking a holiday might solve this.
It looks clever, but makes no mathematical sense and is a good example of fake science.
With that in mind … Keep Calm and make Monday as good as you can!
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