Lessons Learned – Knowledge Earned
Learning is the intentional or incidental process of acquiring new insights, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes and preferences, says Wikipedia. Humans, animals, but also plants, fungi, bacteria, viruses and certain machines or their software are capable of such attainments. From the cradle to the grave and perhaps beyond, we learn in many different ways. Science distinguishes between non-associative learning, such as schooling by habit, or sensitization: a (hopefully only slightly) burned child won’t touch a hot stove again. Active learning asks for a conscious effort; associative learning, operant and classical conditioning are a form of learning by way of positive or negative stimuli; observational learning involves what we glean from others; imprinting is a behavioristic concept often applied to animals, and one-shot-learning is an evolutionary mechanism not only applied to the computer world. Young dolphins are taught not to aggress humans by their mother’s fin in one fell swoop. Playful learning, often referred to as learning by doing, is something we all know. Practice makes perfect, many skills accumulate through repeated experience, a prime example being sex. Another important example of a kind of training we all experience is enculturation, whereby we are habituated to our particular culture by our environment. Episodic learning refers to avoidance behavior such as disliking dogs because of a bad experience; multimedia learning may be used in acquiring a new language by depending on both visual and auditory experiences, as well on interpersonal exchange. The list goes on, but all learning patterns share one particularity, a learning curve telling us how well we learn. It often looks like a bell: our learning gains momentum, reaches a plateau and decreases again. Just as often, we benefit most in the beginning, like when taking medication, where our body initially responds well but later reacts but slowly. We’ve all had the opportunity to learn some new behaviors recently. They didn’t exactly inspire enthusiasm, but we keep at it, because we hope to get rewarded further down the line, and that lies at the core of all learning.
Cordially Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler
Walkers with the Dawn
Being walkers with the dawn and morning,
Walkers with the sun and morning,
We are not afraid of night,
Nor days of gloom,
Nor darkness–
Being walkers with the sun and morning.
Langston Hughes