Have you ever thought about how we perceive our world? Our surroundings? Our friends, family, co-workers, and people we encounter daily. These interactions are much more complex than we might believe, and it is something as educators in #learninganddevelopment, we must be aware exists. What is it I am speak about?
Let me start with a short exercise. The directions are simple. Read the item listed below and if there is some type of empty space, let your brain fill in the blank with the first thing that comes to you. Simple enough?
1. Wood
2. Wo_ld
3. The boy ____ down the street.
Do you have your answers? Ok. I am not going to answer this immediately, but before I go on, just know that the answers you came up with are what your mind perceives them to be. There are no right or wrong answers here. It is a simple thought experiment. And why this short series of questions?
It is because our minds will always “fill in the blanks” missing information. We do this on instinct as our brains do this simply by looking, listening, reading, touching, tasting, or feeling anything, we might encounter. It is our brain trying to formulate what it is we are encountering. We do this when we see our surroundings due to our eyes are creating an image of what we are viewing to tell the brain what we are seeing. If we use one of our other senses in conjunctions with seeing it, we are reinforcing the evidence our eyes are providing.
For example, I know I am looking at a computer right now because I see it with my eyes. I am typing, so I can feel the keyboard itself. This is reinforcing our understanding that I am working on a computer.
So, what does this do with education? It tells us why engaging an audience with multiple methods is important. By talking, seeing, feeling, and if possible, getting them to do something, it reinforces their understanding of a subject.
Finally, what I think the above exercise is based on my thoughts, but what you might have thought as well.
1. Wood – A piece of wood
2. Wo_ld – Would, as the word above would match it, but you might also have thought of world
3. The boy ____ down the street. – The boy walked down the street. Also could be other words like is, ran, sauntered, skipped, etc.
Based on this simple exercise, it shows our own perceived biases in our answers, so we need to spend time thinking about the #learningstrategy for potential outcomes during the analysis and design processes for course creation to ensure our audience will get the message we are trying to share.
In the future, I will speak more about #instructionaldesign, #trainingdevelopment, but I want to follow up on this topic with the importance of slowing down as educators to help our learners.
If you enjoyed this, feel free to use our share these concepts with others.
Craig
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