Seven Laws of the Learner

Dwayne Harapnuik 2 Comments

In the Seven Laws of the Learner, Bruce Wilkinson (1992) offers the following learner maxims:

  1. Teachers are responsible for causing students to learn.
  2. Teachers will stand accountable for their influence.
  3. Teachers are responsible because they control subject, style, and speaker.
  4. Teachers should judge their success by the success of their students.
  5. Teachers impart more by their character and commitment than by their communication.
  6. Teachers exist to serve the students.
  7. Teachers who practice the Laws of the Learner and Teacher can become master teachers.

References
Wilkinson, B. (1992). The seven laws of the learner: How to teach almost anything to practically anyone. Colorado Spring, CO: Multnomah Books.

Feeling Machines that Think

Dwayne Harapnuik Leave a comment

We are not thinking machines. We are feeling machines that think

In his book Descartes Error the renowned neuroscientists Antonio Damasio makes the argument that humans do not make decisions by relying solely on the purely rational cognitive, or reason-oriented, parts of their brain. He points to research using MRI scans of real-time functioning that reveals there is an interplay of the emotional which is centered in the limbic system, primarily the amygdala and the more evolved area of contemplation and pre-frontal cortex.

Damasio is not alone in this claim that we are feeling machines that sometimes think. Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T in his book Predictably Irrational points out that we not only are more emotional than we are rational we hold on to the following three myths:

  • We know all the pertinent information about our decisions.
  • We can calculate the value of the different options we face.
  • We are, for important decisions, rational.

The following Ariely TED Talk is a wonderful summary of this book and these ideas
Are we in control of our decisions?

References
Damasio, A. R. (2006). Descartes’ error. New York, NY: Penguin Books.