Talking and Cooperating

The invention of classrooms with lines of desks and passive, obedient students is obscure in history but it created a practice of education with an antisocial curriculum . In an ideal learning environment, students are talkative, interactive ;and free to move about. Humans do best when they form alliances with collaborators who can help each other cooperating and tool making. Students should be fully engaged in these activities everyday.

Some educators believe that children learn mostly by reading books but talking and copying skilful actions are more important. Students copy the speech and behaviors that are available in their environment. They prefer the speech and behavior of mentors and peers and seek role models in their culture world. Although teachers may discourage plagiarism and praise originality, copying is the key process that students must use to pass exams after reading books. In their study, students copy phrases from books and teachers' notes and try to remember these phrases so that they can write them down or recognize them on a multiple choice exam. A substantial and experiential meaning of textbook descriptions is usually lacking so that the student has little option but to copy and repeat descriptions with little or no understanding of what it actually means. Many emerge from schools lacking practical skills and believing that words and simple descriptions are real and adequate representations of what is really going on out there. 

The copying of phrases and descriptions may have little ultimate value, but another kind of copying is critically important, the copying of procedures. If a teacher demonstrates how to throw a football properly and all the students copy his movements and repeat that procedure often, they will become good football passers and can retain this skill for the rest of their life. Not all of these students will become highly paid quarterbacks but one might continue to enjoy touch football on the White House lawn after he is elected President. If I want to learn how to dance the salsa, I could read a book. Instead, I could enlist the help of an attractive female dance instructor and learn by doing with greater efficiency and enjoyment. My salsa lessons might also lead to other mimetic activities that would increase the breadth and scope of my education.

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Print Books	More Information	Download
	Group Dynamics
	The Good Person
	Pieces of the Puzzle
	The Sound of Music
	Language and Thinking
	I and Thou
	Emotions and Feelings
	Neuroscience Notes
	Children and Family
	Intelligence and Learning
	Religion for 21st Century

Intelligence and Learning is part of the  Psychology & Philosophy series, developed by Persona Digital Books. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from the book published online and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Digital Books. The most recent date of publication is 2011.  The URL to the book description is http://www.personadigital.net/Persona/intelligence/