Replying to LO25412 --
Shalom dear Jan and fellow learners,
I'm going through difficult times these days (first my mother's condition
and now my country's). I'm learning painful lessons (private and tribal)
thus I can not allow myself the luxury to read the LO posts and I truly
miss them.
However, I read your preview, Jan, and would like to reflect on a remark
you made towards its end (Nothing you wouldn't have thought of ;-)):
>There remains some unfinished parts:
>The map, the theory is fairly general and rather accurate, so not simple. It
>takes time to reflect back, to think about it. We often do not allow this.
>
>Another one is that the map is partly hard wired in our brains - we cannot
>see, hear, feel without it and without "colouring" our perceptions. Also
>it was handy to "close" or "end" the map-making phase. So after a certain
>period it becomes harder to learn. This problem originates from a then
>necessary need to survive, so our ability to create theories - or maps, or
>learn - must end. Good was good enough.
>
>And lastly, a very tricky problem, is learning in groups and teams.
>Co-operating is good, to the benefit of us all. But groups are booby
>trapped with all kinds of parardoxes, double binds, transferences and
>countermovements. Also the benefits of group work have to be divided and
>there we have the problems of who will get what, who is entitled to what
>share. This is the problem of justice. It is further complicated by the
>fact that a co-operation is vulnerable for "free-riders".
I think that these "unfinished parts" will stay unfinished forever -
welcome to terra cognita (Incompleteness, Uncertainty, Double Binds and
inherent Paradoxes) !-).
The level of complexity can not be reduced by any number of finite steps
'cause it is infinite.
OK. But this shouldn't be reason not to reach for understanding, nor
reason to stop walking the path of discovering, nor to give up learning.
Actually it is not - the process of learning goes on - most of the time
unconsciously, and sometimes (very rarely - Andrew once calculated that it
happens to him 0.001 percent of the time - lucky guy, Andrew) consciously.
It is an ongoing loop of Integration, Differentiation, Integration,
Differentiation, and so on.
Moreover, The wish to learn keeps flourishing - own" (actually it obeys
the typical path of least resistance in a "tension - release" system) .
This wish produces the constant need for theories. New theories from new
experiences (becoming), new theories with new understandings ... New maps.
Your map is a fairly good one. IMHO mainly because it is generic - it
encompasses plenty of information and can be considered a good template
for many concrete models of group (or individual) behavior. It is a map of
latitudes and longitudes.
I would take these "unfinished parts" and consider them as "facts" (that's
what they are). These are not problems but actually solutions (didn't John
Lennon say so?). These facts could be used in the service of learning. I
would suggest to allow time for reflections (plenty of group moderating
tools available) and draw the map step by step by the group - allow them
to come up with a unique map of their own at a given time. A unique map
with a unique understanding during a unique session of co-learning.
Transference (the way it is interpreted and treated by intersubjectivist
analysts) can become a significant tool in the self-referential process of
learning, same with paradoxes and double binds (see Fritz, Bion, Smith and
Berg ... i'll stop here, this list can become very long). You write that
reflections of this kind are time consuming processes, right, but does it
make sense when wandering on the endless path of learning.
I believe that the "unfinished parts" you mentioned will always remain
unfinished. Accepting this may be very painful - but very practical as
well !-).
oh ... and, thank God ... Good can never be Goodenough. (it is evidently
shorter !-))
with much care,
Judy
>Was it not self-evident that a map doesn't contain the
>whole reality?
Figure and Ground - the map also contains, by definition, all what it
doesn't contain.
Dr. Judy R. Tal
LCL-Learning Cycles (1999)
+972 3 6997903
+972 54 666294
judyt@netvision.net.il
--Judy Tal <judyt@netvision.net.il>
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