As I write this my eight year old daughter is deep in a conversation with friends and all I can hear is a very verbally punctuated question: How do you know that? The sounds of silence trailing from the question inspires reflection about how they learned and what do they know?
I know that I only have my perspective of personal experience to draw conclusions about the meaning of being human. I believe to be human is to have the means and forethought to act with intention in a decided direction and be capable of reflection and corrective action. I can see the holes in this premise/argument/conjuncture already as many other species on our planet show evidence of these criteria. So allow me to stack an additional conjecture onto this thinking. Being human also means to seek acknowledgment of existence which we can also call validation. In this way humans are different than a bird, or alligator, or leopard who can plan, act with intention, and adjust based on the level of success in attaining their goal. Humans seek recognition from three areas. One source of recognition is from an omniscient being thus birthing religion as validation. Another source is other humans and the third source is placement in nature’s cycle.
Being human also means being insecure which is one way many come to engage with learning. Dan Ariely, Emir Kamenica, and Drazen Prelec argue that humans find meaning in recognition and purpose in order to connect, engage, and persist (2008). When humans are not recognized by others or they do not understand how they connect to larger ideas, they become insecure. Thus insecurity cyclically influences learning as humans strive for constant validation. My conjuncture is that humans strive for security about their knowledge, relationships, connections, and place in the world. My first concern after reading my reasoning aloud is that the motivation for learning stems from a negative consequence and not a positive. I am reminded that the work of learning is a higher form of need based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1958). Using Maslov’s framework separates esteem needs (aka validation and acknowledgment) from basic and psychological needs. Learning is differentiated from existing only after satiation of basic needs for food, home, survival, and community.
Learning influences human behavior and therefore what it means to be human by requiring first that basic needs are secured, then that the humans have past experiences that provide perspective of failure, and finally that they have acknowledgement of self. In the article I reviewed for Journal 1, I critiqued the author’s defining values of what they call human agency which are self-regulation, self-direction, and self-efficacy. These are internally regulated values challenged by diverse external social and learning environments. Learning is difficult when our inner and outer environments are in discord. If we were to reach an accord from aligning ourselves both within and without we would reach the mythical self-actualization stage also called nirvana and we may possibly sublimate. Alas, as we are, we function with discord and call it learning.
Relating the meaning of being human with our work to design and teach instructional learning activities for diverse ages and learners, I think we should first validate a learner’s experience and evaluate their learning environment internally and externally. Instruction should then follow four steps:
Hands on tinkering first = normalizes insecurity
Reflection to bring forward established knowledge and boost security from past learning
Instruction to expand learning
Application and assessment for validation
I believe learning is predicated on searching for and securing validation. If I were to develop a praxis based on a personal learning theory, I would collect my own learning experiences and applications into the simplified version of the Holistic Approach to Technology Enhanced Learning (HoTEL) Map in Figure A.
References
Ariely, D., Kamenica, E., & Prelec, D. (2008). Man’s search for meaning: The case of Legos.
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 67(3–4), 671–677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2008.01.004
Maslow, A. H. (1958). A Dynamic Theory of Human Motivation. In Understanding human
motivation. (pp. 26–47). Howard Allen Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1037/11305-004
Millwood, R. (2014). Learning Theory Map. Holistic Approach to Technology Enhanced
Learning. Retrieved from https://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1LGVGJY66-CCD5CZ-12G3/Learning Theory.cmap
Popper, K. (1962). Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge.
New York. Basic Books. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/37670865/Conjectures_and_Refutations_Karl_R_Popper
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