Surface or Deep? Let's take a dive!

 Today has been an interesting day in which "things are starting to click into place."

After watching the TED Talk suggested on Helen's blog, it got me thinking about a journaling moment of realisation I'd had with a student and her lack of interaction or connection with my sharing of an experience which in turn I believe also knowledge. After the incident I felt that I'd overshared because I felt vulnerable and it didn't have the desired affect on each and every student in the class that I longed for.

However, after the talk by Brene Brown, I realised this is completely a process that we go through to form those very connections that we are looking to make. We have to be vulnerable and open to enable the connections to become real and the work to be created in a trusted environment. Our students will only push past their comfort zones and self made barriers of creativity when we show them the way.

I also took the below quote from Jennifer Moon's research (Moon 2004, p. 19)

"A highly motivated learner on a short course that is interesting to her, where she trusts the teacher and knows that the new material of learning can improve the way she operates in the workplace, is likely to allow considerable accommodation in her cognitive structure. Another learner, who may not really want to be on the course or may have little confidence in the instructor, at the same time may not allow her cognitive structure to accommodate. She may not pay attention, or she may use other areas of cognitive structure to justify the rejection of the course material by developing arguments against its content."

This also led me on to a point that we discuss often in the staff room - The role of learner's personal responsibility in a students journey and the sentence "rejection of the course material" spoke volumes to me. I feel I will delve into this point further at a later date.

However, for today learning about the different stages of learning, especially the deep and surface learners along with the absolutist, transitional, independent knowing and contextual learners has been an absolute eye opener and given me an idea for a lesson on looking at the perceived learning objective from a different angle.

The sky is blue - prove it, disprove it, prove it again, disprove it again. 

Knowledge isn't always a yes or no, a black or white (or in this case blue, orange and pink!) It's the pursuit for knowing the next piece of the puzzle than enables us to see past the blue of the sky and delve into the colours of the rainbow.

I feel looking at this research has definitely allowed me to feel more confident in my creative imagination and the crazy routes and questions it asks of me sometimes. 

Here's to the always evolving pursuit of knowledge, experience and learning.

We only know what we allow ourselves to believe.

(Moon 2004, p. 19) Moon, Jennifer A.. A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning : Theory and Practice, Taylor & Francis Group, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/mdx/detail.action?docID=181972.