mastery

Tyranny of Credentials

by Brian on 07-08-2010

in creativity,education

This month’s Utne Reader has an article featuring yours truly; the subtitle includes a term that I used, somewhat spontaneously during an interview: “radical self-educators challenge the ‘tyranny of credentials.’” I’ll explain what I meant by “tyranny of credentials.” (Regular readers may remember the original article which appeared in full at Rabble.ca and TheTyee.ca, written [...]

Spirit of Learning

by Brian on 05-25-2010

in creativity,education

Ken Robinson’s 2010 TED talk is up  titled, “Bring on the learning revolution!“ (via @hjarche) Of course it is full of moving sentiments and wonderful ideas, presented with great wit, and I’ll recommend it to everyone (not that I have to, as it recommends itself)… but I think it falls short on substance: Criticizing schools is [...]

Selection is a natural; so is categorizing; so is ranking; so is list-making. We owe a lot of great things to the human tendency to rank & classify. We wouldn’t have science (and therefore we wouldn’t have a whole bunch of other things)… Think of biology and chemistry. Unfortunately, it also means discriminating. A list isn’t so much about [...]

Cultivating Mastery

by Brian on 05-03-2009

in education

As part of my initiative to keep posts here under 800 words, I posted a longer piece over at openconceptual.com — an idea I had for nine stages of learning.  I also wanted to try publishing something through Scribd. I’ve been thinking of publishing my longer posts this way for over a year now. Thing [...]

Stages of Learning

by OpenConceptual on 05-03-2009

in education

When we talk about learning we tend to focus on the middle three stages: comprehension, articulation, and utilization — aka, rudiments & fundamentals, theory, and practice (usually all at once). That kind of education is fine if you’re just looking for a mediocre, good-enough degree of mastery. People who truly excel at something start learning well before their formal lessons, and continue long afterwards.

Semi-Accidental Success

by Brian on 09-16-2008

in general

Some of the most creative thinkers allow themselves moments of disorderly discovery, allowing new influences and sources to, in a sense, ‘find them.’ That’s from my early post about “disorderly discovery” (a poor attempt to invent a catchy term), or the importance of randomness in the creative process. It might be one of the most [...]