Study Guide
How we learn is far from understood. Still there is a lot of rules to teaching of which many has their roots from authoritarian systems. However, the far most important condition in all learning is joy. Joy in learning. Learning must be pleasant to be effective. You will never learn anything by force. The traditional school is too often an example of the opposite, at least from my experience, both as student and teacher. Thus I will give you some hints or rather short statements to improve your learning as well as teaching.
For instants, children have by nature a were efficient filter in their learning process. There is only two cases when a child hear what an adult says. When you answer a direct question and when adults talk to each other. This was a technique by which the American Indians made the children learn the most important things to learn. When the children was "sleeping", i.e. when the children thought that the adults believed they where sleeping then the adults talked with each other. What the children heard they would never forget, this is what the adults knew.
As you already realize this study guide will not advice you which pages to read, what will be on the test, etc. Instead it will rather provide you with a suitable attitude as you approach the learning process. Some of these originate from the application of quality management in industry and other organizations. Let me just brief some of them:
Actually, in reality it is rather 95 to 5 percent , and do replace worker with student.
If you try to improve the performance of a system of people, machines and procedures by setting numerical goals for the improvement of individual parts of the system the system will defeat you and you will pay a price where you least expected to.
Thus, the grading practiced by the educational system may be seriously questioned.
This is what I hope we will be able to realize in this course. Thus, if anything comes to your mind that relates to this, please let me know.
Plan your work before you start. Make a plan, a "contract", a checklist or just an outline or a sketch of what you are supposed to do, when and how. This document will be your guiding rule in your work. Be not surprised if things do not work out as you thought. This is part of the learning process, i.e. to learn to learn and how to improve this. Do remember this! The plan should also be a source of inspiration. If your plan does not inspire you to take on the project, then forget the project. You will never learn anything by force. This is also a good lesson.
Do this will probably keep you busy for a while, but make sure you refer to your plan. Do not become to much involved or captured in the "doing" so that you forget what you were supposed to do and why. Just doing is not the same as making progress.
Check is just as important as doing. Please, do not postpone this to your retirement. Then you may find out what life is all about and that it is to late. Do the checking as soon as there is something to check. Once too often is better than doing wrong. Rewriting and rethinking is mostly more important than writing and thinking itself. Ask a poet or researcher, they know. This might also include the other steps, i.e. a complete loop of the cycle.
Act is not the same as do. Act involves a reevaluation of the whole process, i.e. P-D-C. What have you learned so far? Is the Plan still relevant or should it be redesigned or perhaps be erased and replaced? To find out that something does not work is also to learn, i.e. to gain knowledge. Success does not necessarily mean to reach the moon, but also to realize it.
Make sure you are able to carry out as many PDCA loops as possible in what ever project you carry out. Then you will improve your ability to learn and be a learner for life.
Some practical rules has been stated by Dr. Edwards Deming
(1900-93) that are recommender for future use, see W. Edwards Deming,
Out of the Crisis, Cambridge Univ. Press (1982), the Deming's 14
points:
1. Create consistency and continuity of purpose.
2. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
3. Eliminate the need for and dependence upon mass inspection.
4. Reduce the number of suppliers. Buy on statistical evidence, not on price.
5. Search continually for problems in the system and seek ways to improve it.
6. Institute modern methods of training, using statistics.
7. Focus supervision on helping people to do a better job. Provide the tools and techniques for people to have pride of workmanship.
8. Eliminate fear. Encourage two-way communication.
9. Break down barriers between departments. Encourage problem solving through teamwork.
10. Eliminate the use of numerical goals, slogans, posters for the workforce.
11. Use statistical methods for continuing improvement of quality and productivity and eliminate all standards prescribing numerical quotas.
12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and training to keep people abreast of new developments in materials, methods, and technologies.
14. Clearly define management's permanent commitment to quality and productivity.
The Transformation of American Education to a System for Continuously Improved Learning
Quality in Education According to the Teachings of Deming and Feuerstein