Category Archives: 3.1 Teaching & Learning

Words are our master.

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The importance of language to our world is undoubtedly massive. In a lecture I attended on language the lecturer brought up the idea that society would struggle without words, it was quickly pondered but then we moved on. However in my head I could not move on, this thought stuck with me. How different would be all be, how different would our world be, without words?

As I thought I began to imagine a world without words… and I could not. the idea is so unfathomable so impossible that even my imagination could not support it. Our society would simply not cope.

Even basic communication would be a struggle. Sure, some may argue we could ‘umm’ and ‘ahh’ to form some paths of communication however there are only so many different sounds that we can make. And moreover if this was practiced by all it would be the same as using ‘words’ and so, still, we cannot see a way for our society to cope without the use of words.

I cannot fathom living in a society where there are no words to describe where you are, who you are, what you are feeling? No words to make sense of the things around you. There would be no recognition of our own surroundings without having some way to communicate and discuss what it is we were seeing.

Without words we would not be able to merely have thoughts. If you think, think about anything, I can guarantee that you will have thought of even just one word. Without words we could not be the people that we are, we would not be as advanced or as brilliant a species.

Could you even begin to imagine a mute world? Can you imagine the chaos?

This is why words are so vital to us. We simply cannot live in a world without them. This is why as teachers and equally for parents, it is so important to build up communication with children, to talk to them, to help them understand the world that they live in. To enable them to communicate, to enable them to have thoughts and opinions ,to develop their knowledge and one day allow them to become fantastic individuals.

Without words I cannot see a world where all of this is possible.

Remembering, Forgetting and Getting Confused.

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Based upon lecture by John Baldacchino.

Greek philosophy on learning focuses on the soul and the body. The body in ‘contingent’ and the soul is ‘necessary’. The soul is said to be omniscient and knows the grand knowledge of the world. When we are born our soul holds this information. However the soul then comes limited by the body. So it can be said that the soul without the body would be an all-powerful entity. Socrates talks of this in Plato, Meno. Throughout our lives we are continually trying to remember what the soul already knows and unlock this information. Therefore making it unlimited. It is aid that if you move more towards bodily things then the soul becomes damaged but if you maintain spirituality and focus on spiritual ideas then the soul is revived. In order to not make the body forgetful we must employ ‘aporia’ which is simply letting people make mistakes so that they can learn from them.

In terms of education I think ancient Greek philosophy is telling us that we should never give up on children who are struggling to learn because they have the knowledge within them we just have to find the right way of unlocking it.

It is also encouraging us to allow children to make mistakes so that they learn from their experiences and therefore develop a better knowledge. This relates to the guest lecture from Brendan Knight on Plato’s Cave. If the world outside the cave had been bad and cruel they would have learned this through making the mistake of going outside and therefore would know not to do the same again. The same can be applied to a mathematics sum, if they did it wrong the first time they will not tackle it in the same way again.

Sometimes as teachers we may be wise to deliberately confuse children in order that they see even more clearly in the end. They would then have to look back through the steps in great detail to understand where they went wrong and then figure out how to do it right. They would then have more advanced knowledge of the specific steps involved in comparison to if they did it right the first time and never had to look at the steps again.

Plato’s Cave

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I thoroughly enjoyed the guest lecture by Brendan Knight on Plato’s Cave. The story of Plato’s cave is that there are men bound to the cave facing the back wall. The light coming in from the entrance causes shadows to be displayed on the wall. These shadows are caused by things in the outside world – ‘reality’. These shadows are all that the men have experienced and therefore they believe it to be reality and are entirely unaware of the real world. The point is that you can only know of things you have experienced. Then one day one of the men breaks free and goes outside the cave. He is then faced with the real world and becomes aware of many different things he did not know before, for example – form, texture, colour and size. He was only able to know of these things through experience. He then tried to get the others to break free and embrace what he had saw but they did not want to go and were afraid to leave what they thought was their reality.

I think this relates to education as a metaphor for learning in the sense that those who are sceptical about learning certain topics can’t fully engage with them unless they step outside of their comfort zone (out of the cave). They can’t fully understand what they are learning (the reality) until they are taught and are become engaged and involved in the topic (experiencing the world outside the cave).

This can be applied not just to topics but social learning also.

Children who don’t engage socially or take part in the classroom are unaware of the benefits of it. If children are encouraged by teachers and brought out of their shells they will see the classroom and education in an entirely different light. This could change their outlook on education but also develop their social skills within the classroom and allow their behaviour to improve as a result.

The idea of Plato’s cave allows teachers to realise they have to allow children to experience and engage with things before they will fully understand both the benefits and the downfalls. And that the best was of learning is to experience.

This relates to be earlier post on ‘why teaching’ – that learning must be fun and exciting and involve physical activity in order to consolidate the learning. They must experience what they are learning in order to fully understand it.

You don’t teach the rules of netball and then expect children to know how to play the game. You must allow them to play and experience the rules in action so that they will fully understand it.