I have been thinking about the presence of a knowledge deficit disposition or approach to learning for many years now. I often talk about the experience I had on a project a few years back supporting some heritage sites in their design of learning. During some immersion into the experience of learning we stepped into a guided tour around the castle we were in. The painful experience I had was more to do with the learning process than any ancient torture device or prison chamber.
There had a been a specific blindness to any knowledge that was present within the group to begin with. There was an assumption that we had none and that we were there to laud over the expertise shared by our guide. So transfixed by the woven tales of scripted knowledge we would drift along enlightened by every stopping point. Hopefully our brains would not spill this knowledge into the moat as we crossed the drawbridge on the way home. To ensure this expert knowledge was secured for the younglings there might be some paper rubbings with some crayons or charcoal.
We got a puppy before Christmas and have just started to go to some dog training classes. The instructor soon lapsed into the same type of disposition, assuming we knew nothing. Sure we have less experience, but knowledge is freely accessible nowadays and the time of the expert is shrinking. Endless research and reading has put us in a stronger position as we have knowledge, well at least access to it. In fact when it comes to looking after a dog there is all sorts of conflicting knowledge. Being able to use that knowledge expertly is a different matter.
Deeply understanding how the knowledge set is connected requires something very different, a level of expertise in the knowledge that doesn’t work to a script or to a guided tour.
Back at the castle. If students, visitors, families and the general public coming to experience those ancient stones were seen as bringing different ideas and relevant knowledge it becomes a completely different starting point. A start that might lead in lots of learning directions.
Thanks Tom – actually, I was musing on it more after my rather blunt querying, and whilst I guess tour guides etc still need to be prepared for someone coming through the door who knows absolutely nothing about the area in question, it doesn’t mean that this needs necessarily to be their default position. I think you’re right that something more responsive, and possibly creative should be possible now.
Thanks again,
Chris
Cheers for the question Chris. It is actually both points you raised. Assuming everyone knows nothing is the lowest expectation. As you say access to knowledge is different nowadays and so these types of cultural organisations should raise their expectations, offer greater differentiation and rethinking the pedagogy that is relevant for them.
Hello Tom – apologies if this comes up twice – I posted my comment, but then it disappeared!
I’m a bit confused about this… Are you saying that, because we (mostly) all have a huge amount of facts available at arm’s reach these days, that tour guides et al should assume that we have therefore accessed these facts before we turn up to a place, or that we can go away and find these out afterwards if we wish? Or are you saying that they should do some kind of screening process when a group turns up and find out what they already know so that they can differentiate their service?
Surely the fact that many people can access a lot of knowledge whenever they like now means that they actually have less stuff going around their heads?
Thanks, Chris