Several months into my Diploma of Counselling, one key point keeps poking me. It’s a pokey point from my language coaching days in Japan and one which, to me, reveals a vital element in our psychology.
I’ve researched widely: occult practices, religion, socio-political ideology, education, and psychology. One key insight of sociology is that civilisations depend upon education, on learning.
I reckon this is key to understanding ourselves and our species. First step, then, is to define ‘learning’.
Using Ockham’s Razor – identifying the most succinct explanation – in language teaching, learning is a 4-step process:
1. I do not know that I do not know
2. I know that I do not know
3. I know that I know
4. I do not know that I know
In other words, we are ignorant, then we realise that we don’t have the info which we need, then we learn that info and apply it. The final step is post-Yoda: ‘You must unlearn what you have learned’. Most TESOL practitioners refer to this step as mastery.
In psychology, a different 4-point reference is the Johari Window (please note the social component here – ‘no man is an island’):
1. What I know and what others know
2. What I know but others do not know
3. What I do not know but others do
4. What neither I nor others know
We have a public image, the ‘known knowns’, and a private life we share only within intimate connections. Point 3 is our blind spot which therapists focus on so as to raise awareness. Otherwise, there is the Great Unknown into which we may plunge, from time to time.
One more element really important to psychological learning is the Bayesian Hierarchy. Sounds awfully official but it’s easy to observe it in practice:
1. Observable data: incoming info, the outside world, others
2. Filters: attitudes, self-talk, physiology, emotions, beliefs
3. Children: data prompts child to create predictions about external reality; over time we give certain predictions more weight
4. Higher-Level Filters: expectations, learnings, complying with the group, family vs social norms, belief systems
5. Adults: prediction weightings determine what data is ignored; certain predictions are reinforced over time preventing relevant new data from having weight i.e. reality is ignored
6. Adult learning is the trick of connecting new data to current knowledge networks (my passion)
Indoctrination is where children learn what to expect of reality. Content we internalise as children has life-long consequences due to the weightings we give them.
There is one more point…
According to sociology studies, an impartial, secular education positioned firmly within meritocracy promotes democracy, transparency, and institutional health. Equality and moral integrity, too. If we want a prosperous society, this is how we do it.
Becoming aware of what we do not know, what others know, applying critical thinking, and how we have weighted our beliefs: these are the key steps of learning which we can all explore.
Spiritual insight: we are here to learn to be objective and impartial if we want to thrive.
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