The birds, the bees and the joy of learning

We have regularly mentioned the fact that humans are programmed to make meaning. It is this genetically hard wired need that has led to our position in the world today.

What is the evidence for this?

Imagine the scene: It is several million years in the past. Early humans have scrambled ( or more likely fallen) down from the trees. They stand for the first time. Do they say:

Wow, this standing up business is all very new.  And this walking around on the ground is all a bit tricky. I think I need to go on a course. Someone get me a walking coach.

Of course they didn’t.

They tried stuff out.

They experimented.

For some, the experiment didn’t go too well and they got eaten. For others the experiment went really well and they ate.

Those that didn’t get eaten got to mate with other successful experimenters (hence the birds and the bees in the title ) and so the strongest survived and the weakest didn’t.

Learning this way is built into us but our education system does try to stifle it somewhat. Learning for the fun of it as babies and toddlers is replaced by learning to pass the test as students. For some people the joy of learning is retained but for others the experience of having to learn stuff to get the right grade is enough to put us off for life.

As training professionals we have a fantastic opportunity to help people get back their joy of learning which is why Ally and I support the thought that adult learning should be “child like” but never “childish”.

Child like learning means being able to solve problems, being allowed to make mistakes, and to be given time to figure out what all this means.

Back in the day this meant finding out that if you eat this mushroom, you get very sick, if you eat that mushroom your vision goes all blurry and everyone seems to be your friend but if you eat these mushrooms you get stronger.

Conclusion: avoid all mushrooms that aren’t these.

This is brilliant learning that will be retained for life. (No-one wants to forget which mushrooms to eat!!)

By making our learning environments multi-sensory and by getting our learners to seek answers rather than absorb data we give them a child like learning experience that they will remember. Their natural need to experiment and draw conclusions is honored and we will have gone some way towards guiding them back to a life long joy of learning.

jumping for joy image by Scott Ableman

Paul and Ally are working on an exciting 6-part (online) course to help your learners fully engage with your training - sign up for the 'early bird' list for advanced notification and more info

If you liked this, you may also like these:

1. Learning by falling off. There is a new game show in the UK on ITV 1 on Saturday nights called...
2. Top 10 activities for participant centered learning Following on from my “top 10” (ways to split a group) post a couple of weeks...
3. Another lesson in learning from children Learning is a funny thing. We have formalised a sytem of classrooms, evaluation, experts and students...
4. Dale’s Cone of Learning figures debunked Edgar Dale was a US educationist and professor of educations at Ohio State University. In 1946 he...
5. Great Learning State = Focus + Physiology The state of our learners is crucial to the quality of their learning and their state can...