That is what BAPP Arts asks you in different ways isn't it? What did you love about different areas that you studied? How do you think about the process of thinking? How does this impact on what you do?
The love of learning is lifelong as well as spontaneous. For me, the meaning of learning has changed and it is this newer concept of learning that is built into the programme.
Here is a quote from Jarvis, Holford and Griffin about why we talk about learning instead of education.
If education seems less appropriate in conditions of postmodernity, why is the focus increasingly on learning?…
There are, first of all, the consequences for our conceptions of knowledge itself. Postmodernists say the 'grand' or 'meta' narratives of knowledge and belief (in sciences, ideology or religion) are being replaced by a much more fragmentary and relativistic idea of truth. The educational curriculum was based on 'disciplines', or discrete bodies of knowledge, such as history, geography, mathematics and so on. The teacher's role was to be expert in a discipline, explaining it to the student. But now the disciplines are being replaced by more reflexive, pragmatic and experiential approaches, which place the individual learning much more at the heart of the learning process. In postmodern conditions the teacher, intellectual or 'expert' , instead of being the 'source' of knowledge, has merely the role of communicator or facilitator (Bauman, 1987). Educators are less and less in a position to determine the curriculum of education. They are cast much more in the role of helping people to learning effectively - in short, they are becoming technicians, rather than authorities.
Second, the content of learning - the 'curriculum' - which used to be determined by the universal structures of knowledge and the authority of the teacher, is being transformed. it has become a mere commodity in a society based on market principles of consumer sovereignty. Postmodern thinkers stress how far society nowadays reflects the supremacy of consumption over production (Baudrillard, 1998; Featherstone, 1990), and of style and symbolism over content and form. One of the distinguishing characteristics of postmodern analysis is its tendency to 'de-differentiation'. This means noticing the erosion between the distinct categories of modernism, such as disjoins between high and popular culture. All such distinctions, once crucial to the discipline structure of education, become arbitrary and subjective. They reflect only individual tastes and styles. In other words individual learners rather that 'authorities' and 'experts' - or teachers - are the arbiters of taste and significance.
Jarvis, Holford and Griffin (1998) The Theory and Practice of Learning, London: Kogan Page, p. 18-19)
Two ideas or concepts that need to be explored as a way of developing your own strategies to engage with the programme…
So for a bit of fun - let's see where the ideas of love and learning take us in an exercise in loving learning - or learning to love - the first campus session of the Spring study period conundrum (cue music for Countdown)!!!
learning = noun or learning = verb
love = verb or love = noun
What is learning?
What is love?
Okay how to do about this - how do you think (theorise) about ideas?
We have 2 examples to use for the session… so let's make a start...
Huge! both ideas absolutely huge! Too large to think about… but what if you had to?
Let's do some brainstorming/free association to show how to begin to unpack the topic.
Let's take love first - it must be easier - maybe?
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| Photo Creative Commons by Tristan Schmurr |
Valentine's Day (does this mean chocolates?)
love for what?
love for yourself?
what does it have to do with work?
Is love about passion? are you passionate about what you do?
is it love of an event or about people, places or things?
is it love of an art form? of what you do? Can you show love as a non-verbal gesture or mime or movement ? or is there a sound or music that signifies love?
Are there stories that tell about love?
Does it fade?
How do we know the stories?
how can you visualise love?
does the idea of love change - depending on age? culture? society?
has this concept been defined before?
If you had to develop or unpack the idea of love - really quickly - I mean really really quickly because it is a huge topic!!!
1. What are some ways to link this idea to what your know? or want to know about?
2. Could you actually develop some of the ideas about love into an area of thinking (for a blog, for planning an inquiry, for drilling into some of the ideas that you need to analyse)?
think PRACTICE > THEORY
So onto the next one...
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| MDX website |
learning as an idea?
wow! huge
what type of learning?
self-reflection?
Learning a skill? a technique? a way of thinking about a particular discipline?
is it education?
how can you visualise learning?
Are there stories that tell about learning?
is learning work? is learning play? is learning experience?
does the concept of learning change - with each generation? over time?
has this concept been defined before?
If you had to develop or unpack the idea of learning - really quickly - I mean really really quickly because it is a huge topic!!!
1. What are some ways to link this idea to what your know? or want to know about?
2. Could you actually develop some of the ideas about love into an area of thinking (for a blog, for planning an inquiry, for drilling into some of the ideas that you need to analyse)?
think PRACTICE & THEORY
to be continued…
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