The true art of Living and Learning is to creatively integrate sensory information and learn skills through an integrated spectrum of accurate sensory information and conceptual communication.
During the early years the child subconsciously selects how s/he responds to environmental stimulation. By the age of three a child would normally have established self-directed play whereby the conscious will can organise how s/he responds to environmental stimulus.
However, does knowing how to do something mean that the person knows how it is done?!
Does imitated learning give the same foundations for further learning as discovery learning or self-directed learning?
The quote below is from The Man Who Listens to Horses by page 133
‘The most influential teacher in my educational career was a nun by the name of Sister Agnes Patricia. The thing I will always remember about her is that she taught me about teaching itself. It was her belief that no teacher could ever teach anyone anything. She felt her task as a teacher was to create an environment in which the student can learn.
Her opinion was that knowledge needs to be pulled into the brain by the student, not pushed into it by the teacher. Knowledge was not to be forced on the student. The brain has to be receptive, malleable and most importantly desirous of that knowledge………
To use the word ‘teach’ implies an injection of knowledge, but it is my opinion – garnered from Sister Agnes – that there is no such thing as teaching, only learning.’
Detailed and accurate sensory information is essential for learning through discovery and imitation. When sensory information also illustrates detailed and associated structural information within a conceptual context, the learner can gain a broader and more detailed understanding.
The Montessori didactic (intending to teach) apparatus promotes sensory-motor activities which develop skills of differentiation related to colour, 2D and 3D shape, sound and smell. Montessori methods place a particular emphasis upon the importance of training the child to isolate, refine, improve, and make sense of different areas of sensory perception and discrimination.
Steiner presented that before the change of teeth the young child is ‘essentially an ensouled sense organ entirely given over in a bodily religious way to what comes towards it from the surrounding world’ and that sensory experience ‘permeates the child’s entire organism.’ He suggests that whatever is happening in the child’s environment is wholly and subconsciously received by his senses and thereby also affects his soul and spiritual development. (Steiner,1988,40,75)
Steiner presented that we have 12 senses incorporated within our inner sense of ‘life’ :-
| The sense of ‘I’ The sense of balance The sense of movement The sense of thought The sense of temperature The sense of touch |
The sense of hearing The sense of speech The sense of seeing The sense of colour The sense of taste The sense of smell |
These twelve senses are experienced within our capacity to integrate the three states of
The nature of everything that constitutes a human being is partly cognitive (thinking), partly feeling and partly willing. These three things ‘work together and are interwoven into a unity…..What is Cognitive is mainly Cognitive, but also has aspects of Feeling and Willing’ and this is the same with Feeling and Willing. (Steiner 1996:137-140)
Steiner described the twelve senses in three groups of four:-
The four lower physical senses of life, touch, movement and balance give us a sense of our physical being through the BODY. These senses are exercised through the will and subsequent movement of the limbs.
The four middle senses of smell, taste, warmth and sight (colour, shape, form and movement). These senses are associated with our perception of the surrounding environment. These senses establish an organic sense of organisation and rhythm which relates to our inner feelings and emanates from the original nature of the soul.
The four higher senses of hearing, language, thought and Ego are experienced through our relationship and interactions with others; these are our cognitive and conceptual senses that emanate from the spiritual qualities of our being.
Multi-sensory learning ideally requires environmental scaffolding that inspires:-
- broad spectrums of creativity and aesthetic appreciation,
- development and mastery of skills,
- self-correction,
- co-operative interaction and
- internal self-discipline.
Sensory information is paramount to all learning but the depth of human potential goes far beyond just the physical sensory system. Through our senses we recognise elements of our world that support inner assessment and judgement. Human potential embraces feelings, imaginative thoughts and multi-levels of consciousness. This gives our learning the added potential to go beyond that of imitation or obedience.
‘….thus you can now comprehend judging as a living bodily process that arises because your senses present you with a world analysed into parts…..Here the act of judgement becomes an expression of your entire human being.’ (Steiner 1996:144-145)
The boundaries required for mastery of desired and required skills are uniquely individual due to our creative variations in sensory perception. The deeper the understanding within foundation skills, the more opportunity the learner has to transfer the learning appropriately into other situations. Divergent thinking and open ended learning are fundamental to human intelligence and key to our ability to reorganise sensory information within a new learning experience.
When consciously looking at our reactions and interactions we can consider all aspects of our life as part of our way forward to higher levels of consciousness. Thereby, we can acknowledge a sense of greater responsibility for what and how we experience what we bring towards ourselves, and what interaction we chose to follow.
This diagram looks at how learning is related to association because within every experience we have the potential to direct the area of learning.
