Skill Learning and The Reflective Practitioner

Yesterday I attended an LDS design conference in SLC at the Triad Center. It was incredible. On the way up I read about 100 pages in Donald Schon's book "The Reflective Practitioner". It is changing the way I see teaching. The premise of the book is that we know more than we can say. There is tacit information that is available for use to us in approaching previously unencountered instructional problems. Schon goes through case studies examining different professionals engaging in what he calls "reflection-in-action". Basically, individuals reflect on their previous experience in trying to frame a problem so as to make it more manageable. We reflect either on our own or with someone else. In either case, reflection-in-action is a dialogical process by which we make sense of a situation and then bring our past experience to bear on the problem in order to generate solutions. This is exactly what good teachers are doing. Although I believe that many good teachers are not aware of why they do what they do. Schon has a second book entitled "Educating the Reflective Practitioner". I have it to read next. This second book provides an education program for training people to become reflective practitioners. It appears to require a 'more-knowledgeable other' to facilitate the feedback. His ideas correlate very strongly with the concepts of the 3-person model.

On another note, Dr. Gibbons gave a masterful lecture at the conference yesterday entitled "The Skills of a Saint". It was exceptionally timely. He has essentially redefined what we might consider skill. He has given us examples that serve to highlight the skills involved in cognitive tasks, in spiritual development, in the development of character, etc. I had never thought of these things as skills before. This paradigm is a powerful one because so much more is known about skill instruction that about cognition and learning. If learning can be achieved more fluently through the instruction and adoption of learning skills by the learner (which I believe is the case in any learning situation) then we need to turn our focus to experience  design and skill instruction instead of content dissemination (which is a majority of the instruction being developed these days as I see it). I am excited to pursue this new course.

Dr. Gibbons and President Osguthorpe (who also spoke to us) both cited the need for revelation in creating designs that are in line with the will of the Lord. I believe that the Holy Ghost does lead men and women today and especially when those men and women are engaged in the work of bringing souls to Christ. I want to be more guided. I will clear a space in my life each day for revelation from the Lord. This, I believe, will lead to the improvement of my craft more profitably than any other decision.