As a cognitive psychologist, I think A LOT about learning. In many classes, I’ve talked about how curiosity generally opens us up to learning. Think of the desire to catch bugs or find evidence of black holes. It is almost impossible to sit across from a kid who is searching the night sky for popular constellations and stars and not get into it. Everyone can have fun recognizing the big and little dipper and doing so again and again; it is a magnetic experience!
Recently when teaching about problem-solving and decision-making to my cognitive psychology students, I framed the class discussion by considering variables that lead us toward either viable or less productive decisions.
For example, we talked about creativity in the form of divergent thinking; that is, thinking as a process to explore many possibilities can solve our problems. This idea generation is a lot like brainstorming. Generally speaking, being able to consider several solutions to a problem is one way creativity can be assessed. It can be pretty convenient too. Consider being next to a fountain and needing to collect a lot of water.
What do you do? You can use your hand, but you are probably better off fashioning some sort of cup or container. The more ideas you have, the more likely you are, through trial and error, to find the best way to get water. This process of thinking is productive and viable.
A not so productive feature of decision making is that we often use heuristics to decide. Psychology texts, centered on learning through the scientific method, discuss several of these (e.g., illusory correlation, availability heuristic, and categorization). Using categories to decide quickly can be useful when it comes to determining if the creature running toward you is a domestic or wild dog.
However, categorization, in the same time-saving manner, has led to the fast thinking of judging people with stereotypes and other forms of bias. Researchers have also confirmed flawed thinking about how we assess our abilities.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a well known cognitive bias in which we tend to overestimate our abilities, everything from driving to trivia. Thinking you are a great driver could be the confidence you need to survive a trek on a very wintery road, but this same ability assessment, when combined with other unproductive decision-making tools, could halt learning.
The way we decide and view the world seems to rest on hallowed ground. Never before has access to information been easier. Anyone can access anything that supports any view of the world at any time! Notice I said information but not necessarily factual or scientifically support knowledge. And in this deluge of content, research has found that students are particularly poor at evaluating the reliability of a source.
The Humility of Learning
In this information age, I’ve created a process I’m describing as Humility of Learning. It is a starting point towards a potential process for knowledge change. Without placing blame or inciting political instances of right and wrong, I believe it can be a thoughtful way to considering how we learn. The Humility of Learning takes a person through an on-going cycle of thinking and possible communication: Knowledge, Empathy, Common Ground, Listening, New Information.
KNOWLEDGE:
We all have our starting points. Whether it is a discussion about climate change around the holiday dinner table or our beliefs about the best fast-food burger, we all start somewhere. Cognitive psychologists call this general knowledge. Our comprehension and communication depend on it. It can change but requires time and additional experience to do so.
What should we do then to learn? Being open-minded and aware that our beliefs can be incorrect, make knowledge change possible (Spiegel, 2012) is a good starting point. Chances are, however, that we try to defend our knowledge. This consequentially makes us less open to new information. Stanovich and West (2013) describe this as myside bias. We assert our knowledge and opinions by paying the most attention to information that matches it. With several roadblocks to knowledge change in place, it may seem like people cannot change their perspective. The next step in the Humility of Learning model empathy is a good starting point.
EMPATHY:
The need to think about other’s emotions and imagine how they might be feeling are the key characteristics of empathy. There is a host of information on how to cultivate empathy if you want to, from taking empathy quizzes to participating in Empathy Day. But what if you can’t get started or you are having trouble understanding other’s perspectives? The third piece of Humility of Learning could get you there.
COMMON GROUND:
It can be difficult to empathize with people who think differently than you. Remember, your beliefs are built on your experience-based general knowledge, so why would you want to change them? Hearing another’s opinion can seem like you are opening yourself up for criticism or even worse, to find out you may be incorrect! Once you find something in common though (you are both students, you both have children, you both are from Illinois) some of the resistance to another’s thoughts may loosen up. Perhaps now you are ready to LISTEN?
LISTENING:
Can you remember a time when you didn’t anticipate what you are going to say next while someone else was talking? This is hard, and listening, which is bound by the limits of memory and attention, takes skill. With some commitment (hopefully incited by common ground building and empathy) and practice, you can become a better listener. Once you’ve TRULY HEARD an idea/fact/concept/opinion that challenges your prior knowledge, you have NEW INFORMATION.
NEW INFORMATION:
We are back to the circle of Humility of Learning. Going through the cycle, combined with an awareness of the decision-making variables described above, may change your knowledge.
If we could all adopt such a process of humility, we may not just become better learners but better humans.
Citations:
Spiegel, J. S. (2012). Open-mindedness and intellectual humility. Theory and Research in Education, 10(1), 27–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878512437472
Stanovich, K. E., West, R. F., & Toplak, M. E. (2013). Myside Bias, Rational Thinking, and Intelligence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(4), 259–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413480174
Very interesting. Great article. We should all practice the humility of learning.