Negative Learning
It's not often I post a blog that relates to my career, but every now and then something really affects me or causes me to pause and think, and with that type of analysis usually comes a blog entry.
I recently read an article titled The Value of Negative Learning, by Alfie Kohn of Education Week. This article talked about how positive learning can actually come from our own negative learning experiences. Let me see if I can break this down a bit more, if I were to ask anyone to tell me about some of the pitfalls in their own educational history, usually several experiences come to mind. Yet, if I were to dig a little bit deeper, I might be able to uncover that these experiences were pivotal to their future development. Think about it. If we are all having a vast amount of negative learning experiences, how do we continue to grow and develop... often producing some of the brightest minds in history? Are we products of our environment? Possibly. Or even deeper... products of negative learning. Assuredly.
But right there you define the character of a man. There are several ways to react to negative learning experiences, two of them being that you could be a victim or an agent for change. So this brings up one of the most important questions, how effective is negative learning experiences in positive learning and development... and how does this unrehearsed law of opposition work in not only education but life in general.
I would venture to say that the ever present "law of opposition" plays a role in nearly everything we do. I've been fascinated by the law of opposition for quite some time. For instance, how something simple like walking forward requires us to push backward. This friction is a necessity in our lives and if such is a universal and even divine principle, then how do we plan for an idealistic education without it? Or can we plan for it? Does premeditation take the intended effect away?
Educators spend endless hours trying to improve education, and I'm not necessarily advocating for an abandonment in this practice, rather I would like to instigate a moment's pause in the reality of what would happen if we conquered what we term to be the demon of education... negative experiences/learning. Would we really achieve our goal?
I think the mistake we make in education is that the more we study and provide practical solutions and theories, we seem to overlook the simple benefits that the friction that the law of opposition instigates. With the margin of error that comes in individual teaching application, often one of the most unexpected positive consequences of the learning process is learned... what NOT to do.
I recently read an article titled The Value of Negative Learning, by Alfie Kohn of Education Week. This article talked about how positive learning can actually come from our own negative learning experiences. Let me see if I can break this down a bit more, if I were to ask anyone to tell me about some of the pitfalls in their own educational history, usually several experiences come to mind. Yet, if I were to dig a little bit deeper, I might be able to uncover that these experiences were pivotal to their future development. Think about it. If we are all having a vast amount of negative learning experiences, how do we continue to grow and develop... often producing some of the brightest minds in history? Are we products of our environment? Possibly. Or even deeper... products of negative learning. Assuredly.
But right there you define the character of a man. There are several ways to react to negative learning experiences, two of them being that you could be a victim or an agent for change. So this brings up one of the most important questions, how effective is negative learning experiences in positive learning and development... and how does this unrehearsed law of opposition work in not only education but life in general.
I would venture to say that the ever present "law of opposition" plays a role in nearly everything we do. I've been fascinated by the law of opposition for quite some time. For instance, how something simple like walking forward requires us to push backward. This friction is a necessity in our lives and if such is a universal and even divine principle, then how do we plan for an idealistic education without it? Or can we plan for it? Does premeditation take the intended effect away?
Educators spend endless hours trying to improve education, and I'm not necessarily advocating for an abandonment in this practice, rather I would like to instigate a moment's pause in the reality of what would happen if we conquered what we term to be the demon of education... negative experiences/learning. Would we really achieve our goal?
I think the mistake we make in education is that the more we study and provide practical solutions and theories, we seem to overlook the simple benefits that the friction that the law of opposition instigates. With the margin of error that comes in individual teaching application, often one of the most unexpected positive consequences of the learning process is learned... what NOT to do.
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