Making room for Learning

Is it interesting that learning occurs all around us, but if we’re not semi-conscious  of the opportunity to teach we can miss it.

I was thinking about this when I read the following article on 43 folders: http://www.43folders.com/2008/01/28/its-not-bug-its-kung-fu

In the article Grant talks about using his kids desire to help, turning their desire to be a tool for good to keep them from getting in the way- sort of martial arts style “I’ll use your strength and energy to defeat you.”  I’ve done this with my own kids at times but not nearly enough.

But think of this– each of these opportunities is an opportunity for learning, exploration and growth. If a child (or heck, even an adult) is willing to work, and we use what they bring to multiply and enrich what we’re already doing it seems like a no-brainer.  But it is also in that moment that we need to take what ever enthusiasm that they have, and turn the opportunity into a chance to learn.

Don’t misunderstand me– the learning must be authentic, it cannot be contrived or the whole momentum and using that enthusiasm to be involved can backfire quickly.  Just imagine if you are working with a colleague who asks to get involved in a project. You know it will be more work to get the individual up and running. Nothing would kill that motivation to get involved like some coming down hard on the lecture, and forcing the learning to occur (maybe through force feeding of information?) Yes more work stinks for everyone – but what about on the next project that has similar qualities- that individual be more ready to take it on, and hopefully allowing you room to work on other necessary activities.

Maybe I’m forcing the point and over simplifying- but I like this idea as a concept. Difficult to employ for corporate learning, or maybe even outside the home- but maybe we’ll be a bit surprised.

Reenforcing Learning

My son Elijah(6, 1st grade) is an awesome learner. He has a huge curiosity especially about science. He is a sponge sucking up information.

We’ve been reading aged appropriate encyclopedias about dinosaurs and the ocean. His class did an experiment with corn starch. Observing its properties while developing hypothesizes about what what will happen and what properties it would take on.

I’ve been thinking about the different aspects of learning in his life. He gets a lot at school, he gets a different set of learning at home. There is a lot of correlation going on with his learning.

I have started to think about this for my own learning, and for other learning situations, especially in professional development/workforce training. Is there enough of the learning triangle? Motivation, Curiosity, and learning outside of work!

Motivation: For Elijah, the motivation is natural (the education system hasn’t squelched it yet!). What about for you, or your learners? Is learning exciting, or is it the feeling of angst and dread — and just sound like too much work?

There are lots of motivation strategies to help people want to learn. I’m not a motivational expert, so my ability to speak on motivation may be limited. What I do know though is that as a learner, true motivation for me isn’t about tangibles (money is nice, but honestly it doesn’t improve my retention; and it really doesn’t make me passionate about a topic), its about finding that love of wanting to know and understand.

Elijah loves Dinosaurs because he finds them fascinating, he wants to understand where they came from, what they were like, why they were different. He loves dinosaurs because there is a mystery with answers to be discovered. I’m lucky, in my job, I have the opportunity to learn software which is exciting to me. I have an opportunity to explore and figure out new things [Aside: Instructional Designers in a lot of circumstances have this awesome opportunity to explore in their learning.]

I’m positive that there are a lot of topics that will be outright not motivational to some people (I’ve had a few bouts with topics that would rather not have dealt with). Honestly, some topics stink that we all need to muscle through- but if we can just capture the innocence that there is always something new, something empowering, something wondrous in just knowing.

Next post, I’ll talk more about the need for curiosity and learning outside of work.

If you’re reading– what do you think?