Below are some selected passages from chapter three of my Memories, Beliefs, and Learning. For the whole chapter send a request tosteve.wyre@gmail.com
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Learning is either passive or participatory. I am convinced that most of learning occurs passively, without conscious awareness that one is learning. This passive learning occurs anytime sensory information is archived in the brain through the normal processes of brain function. However, just because this learning is passive, that does not mean it cannot be manipulated. In fact, it is very often controlled in children by parents, teachers, and other adults who shape the environment in which the children live. It is also manipulated in children through interactions with other children, each of whom is already building and vocalizing a personal paradigm. In adults, it really is no different, particularly if that adult is in school. It can be harder in adults to build a fact-based store of knowledge, though, because the personal paradigms could be high and thick, built through continued exposure to one given environment over another.
Participatory learning is so labeled because the individual is either consciously aware of or participates in the learning of new information. The learner participates in making connections between new information and what is already known. I am not saying the individual is consciously aware of growing brain cells or consciously manipulating them. I am saying the learner is engaged in some way so as to facilitate such brain development. However, this participation could be little more than sitting in a classroom, reading a text, or working out problems while operating under the belief that it is necessary this information be learned.
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Thoughts on the application of my theory begin after this chapter. Here, though, after the theory is set down, I will cover each part of the equation in turn. It is important that each component is understood as a component of a larger system. There will be some redundancy with what has been stated earlier, but those prior statements were made to set the stage for the formulae.
Learning is the change in the neuronal configuration of the brain between one time and a later time. The substance of that change can take myriad directions, but still counts as learning. Passive learning can be expressed in an equation as Lps = ∆t2-t1 (({M1, M2, M3…Mn} +( Si) / C)) * P). Translated: passive learning occurs when there is a change in brain states between one time and a later time, where the change is produced by the current set of memories plus some new Sensory Information (Si), divided by the degree of coherence of the new Si with the existing set of memories, all multiplied by the level of plasticity possible in a person’s brain. By level in the last line, it must be understood that plasticity occurs in a couple of ways, but the primary use here Learning is the change in the neuronal configuration of the brain between one time and a later time. The substance of that change can take myriad directions, but still counts as learning.
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Again, the sensory information is divided by the degree of coherence with one’s current belief system. In that plasticity is discussed at length in other parts of this book, I will press on without much reiteration here. Ultimately, the brain can only do so much. The ability to learn passively depends on one’s mix of gray and white matter, one’s levels of functionality in the limbic system, and the ability of a person’s brain to actually form new webs or reconstruct the webs currently in place. Something as seemingly innocuous as too much caffeine or too little sleep can impact a person’s ability to learn.
Participatory learning can be expressed as the same equation as passive learning, but with an additional component: Lpr =∆ t2-t1 (({M1, M2, M3…Mn} +( Si) / C)) * P) * (A V R). Essentially, participatory learning is affected the same way as passive learning, but there is some conscious involvement in the activity. This conscious involvement can be either Active or Reflective (the V in the equation is the symbol for or). It must be stated that conscious involvement does not necessarily mean the activity was intended, just that one is aware of the learning.