Carlos Figueroa

March 10, 2015

Learning Episode Paper
The Power of Learning and How Learning Comes About
Learning is essential to the nature of the human. Learning is the most powerful
characteristic attributed to mankind. Our ability to share, acquire, and build on previous
knowledge is why our species has skyrocketed to the very top of the animal kingdom and
allowed us to become the ultimate apex predator. The social networks of humanity over
countless generations has amounted an extremely vast collection of knowledge of which
we have the ability to access, utilize, and etch our own discoveries into mankinds stone
tablet of eternal knowledge. Understanding how humans learn is critical to the
advancement of humanity. By understanding how people learn differently, we are able to
diversify methods of learning and increase the efficiency of how we learn, thus,
accumulating more knowledge, in a quicker and more in-depth fashion. Learning is the
adaptive process by which knowledge is acquired and skills are developed in order to
increase the chances of survival socially, financially, and physically. Often times learning
is a collaborative experience involving several individuals who gather ideas, share
information, and collectively solve a problem. By sharing knowledge, a group of
individuals has a wider variety of knowledge and a diversity of perspectives to assist
them in solving a problem or understanding a concept. Learning is produced through the
guided exploration of a participant assisted by resources including expertise, for example,
an instructor. Through guided exploration, a participant is allowed to experience failure,

analyze the causes for his/hers failure and learn to adjust mistakes and also, the
participant is allowed to make the connection of the learned concepts to aspects of reality.
The process of learning can be perceived as a sort of preparation for the existing
conditions of the real world through the development of skill sets and the acquisition of
critical knowledge to the individuals success and survival in all aspects of his/her life.
For instance, during my observations while sitting in on a Senior Electronics/Automation
major class at Benson Polytechnic High School students wired the circuits along their
house frameworks in accordance with the National Electrical Code. This aspect of the
curriculum assists in the students accommodation in learning how to produce quality
work that is sufficient to withstand the scrutiny of real industrial safety protocols and
codes. The students are being accustomed to following safety codes which helps in
preparing them for work in all kinds of industries where neat work is a requirement. Also,
students had their own personal tool belts containing a Phillips and flathead screwdrivers,
and measuring tapes which they were responsible for keeping and maintaining. This
aspect reflects upon the conditions observed in real workshops, where employees are
responsible for their own tools. A skill that upon acquisition is very useful in a real world
work environment. Another example of learning as being a process that develops skills
and qualities that are essential to the survival or success in the real world is learning to
accept the power imbalance as pointed out by Jacksons the Daily Grind. Jackson (1990)
writes Teachers are indeed more powerful than students, in the sense of having greater
responsibility for giving shape to classroom events, and this sharp difference in authority
is another feature of school life with which students must learn how to deal (p. 10)

describing that one quality of school life is the imbalanced power scale between
instructor and pupils, the learning of abiding to the power of authorities teaches students
how to in essence follow the rules or be under the command of an authority figure. In
most occupations (unless you are the boss) most people are expected to respect the
authority of someone of superior hierarchal ranking within the workplace, so teaching
students this same idea is pivotal in preparing students for these types of work
environments. The notion that learning is preparatory for societys existing conditions
also relates to Anyons concept of the hidden curriculum behind schooling. For example,
in an analysis of the Five School study included in Anyons From Social Class and the
Hidden Curriculum of Work Anyon (1980) states Differing curricular, pedagogical, and
pupil evaluation practices emphasize different cognitive and behavioral skills in each
social setting and thus contribute to the development in the children of certain potential
relationships to physical and symbolic capital, to authority, and to the process of work.
(p. 209) in other words, describing how in different cases, learning, is utilized to develop
different types of knowledge and skills to prepare students for certain roles in society or
affect the quality of the types of capital a student may potentially have access to in the
future. In all instances, no matter what substance is learned, the process of learning serves
the purpose of attaining useful knowledge and skills that will contribute to the survival
and success of the learner in future occasions.
Another essential part of learning is the collaborative space of working with
groups. The idea of working with groups is that by sharing knowledge, the group forms
one combined diversified body of knowledge and skills better fit for problem solving

than the individual. In my observations, students worked in groups of three or four or

even just in pairs. Tim Hryciw (the instructor) encouraged the use of peers as resources.
Quite often, puzzled students would ask for assistance from peers working on completely
different projects and students would help each other understand problems they ran into
or understanding concepts before the instructors assistance was ever required. In teams,
the students often brainstormed different methods of running wire around their house
frameworks and critically analyzed the efficiency of each method. Students would
present diagrams, demonstrations, or mathematical calculations to the group and each
individuals ideas were considered. Collaboratively, if a project failed, students would reexamine each piece of the circuit and discuss their findings about why the circuit failed
and how to fix it. Another testament to the group dynamics learning process observed in
human nature is described in a short video preview titled the Common Man (H2) where
according to the Big History Project (2014) We are the first species in the history of this
planet where information is accumulated so were the first species in four billion years
to be capable of sharing information so efficiently, that we have a history, we have
technological change, were collectively creative in other words, humans learn
extremely well in groups because of our advanced efficient forms of communicating our
ideas to not only other humans but all of nature. We as a species are socially complex and
inclined to work with each other naturally and share ideas to acquire certain goals as a
collective.
My final conjecture about the learning process is the method I describe as guided
exploration. Guided exploration is the participation of a learner in activities which allow

the learner to physically explore the concepts drawn from lectures, textbook work,
conversation, or storytelling making connections to reality, allowing for failure and the
re-evaluation of the learners applications of the concepts in order to gain a better
understanding of the subject at hand. Similar to guided participation, learning is guided
by an instructor who may demonstrate, model, or even employ a free reign style of
assigning work and also dictates the knowledge to be explored. For example, during my
observations in the Benson Polytechnic High School Electronics class, Mr. Hryciw
assigned projects with a very direct goal, the details of the project itself depended entirely
on the student or groups creativity. The workshop and house frames were filled and lit
up with different timers, alarms, lights, motion sensors, at the disposal of all the students
use as long as they completed the main goal of the project. Students often created circuits
where they went above and beyond the expectations of the original project, adding more
switches, or lights to their projects then required. But, when students circuits failed, the
teacher would drop hints, re-explain concepts in different wording, or refer to the
textbook sparking re-examination by the student of his own project, paying close
attention to detail to each part of the circuit. Another example of this style of learning and
teaching is observed in a piece by Mark Twain. Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
(1883) describes an instance where he is allowed to almost fail while steering the
steamboat (complete failure in this case could be fatal). Twain was left to steer the
steamboat seemingly unsupervised while trying to navigate areas of the waters he was
quite unsure about, as the boat approached a bluff reef, Twain tried to steer away and
began to panic when Bixby stepped in to call about the correction of the steamboats

navigation. The bluff reef turned out to not be a bluff reef as Bixby directed Twain to
steer right over it. In this instance, we observe how the learner (Twain) applies his
knowledge of the river while experiencing actually piloting the steamboat, upon near
failure, Twain then learns a new characteristic of the waters, a faux bluff reef (p. 46-47).
The process of applying knowledge under the guidance of expertise and learn through in
essence trial and error, is a demonstration of how we learn through experience and
bridging the connection between knowing and being capable of applying knowing.
In conclusion, learning is inevitable to human nature and our understanding of
learning may drastically improve the efficiency of which we accumulate knowledge. Our
progression as a species is dependent on our ability to learn. Learning is the gathering of
skill sets and knowledge primarily motivated by the need for survival and success in
society. We learn through forming social relationships in which we share knowledge and
expand our perspectives of reality when uniting as a group or team. We learn through the
guided exploration of concepts often led by experts and encouraged by including critical
thinking skills and learning from failure. Learning is the progressive process by which
humanity continues to dominate the planet we live on.

References
Jackson, P. (1968). The Daily Grind. In Life in classrooms (p. 10). New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston.
Anyon, J. (1980). Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. Journal of
Education, 162(1), 209-209.
Big History Project. (2014). The common Man: Big History Project. Retrieved from
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VGvzvv2PnqE&index=3&list=FL1qqc6yKONfjq0d2cEnXLZw
Twain, M. (1917). Life on the Mississippi, (pp. 46-47). New York: Harper & Brothers