apcampbell :

apcampbell :

“Curriculum is for kids, discovery is for adults.” Jay Cross

T’aint necessarily so. This is opposite of what Alfred North Whitehead said that there are three modes: romance, precision, and generalization. Kids need discovery more than curriculum. Without the romance of exploration there will be no power to drive them through to precision and synthesis. Learning is emotional before it is rational. You have to have a feeling toward learning before you have a reason to learn.

For example, informal learning in a master/apprentice situation is knitted with the emotion of respect, (perhaps mixed with fear, but not too much). Informal learning of peers--the emotion of shared experience--is why games like World of Warcraft succeed. The shared learning goal is folded in with respect, desire to win, comradery. You buy into an idea emotionally before you learn into it.

Therefore, let us change Jay’s remark (which to give him credit might have been off the cuff) and paraphrase E.M. Forster by saying, “No matter your age, do what it takes to always connect.” That means formally (curriculum) and informally (discovery).

Here is a nice graphical representation of Whitehead's ideas.