Part 07 - Understanding: It Comes in Levels

“Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach.” -Aristotle

WARNING TO THE READER: this is gonna be a long one...

But seriously, what does it mean to learn? What is going on in our brain when we’re consuming content? We should consider content to be senses, first. Our brains are consistently experiencing 11 million bits of information per second. We focus on, or acknowledge, approximately 50 of those.

Think about it… you have peripherals but you only observe them when you’re thinking about them or something pops up that requires attention. They are always technically there, you just aren’t thinking about them (and now maybe you are).

We perceive information so we can make sense of our surroundings; vision, hearing, touch, sound, and taste. When your brain experiences new information, it requires more effort and attention. The more you experience a sense, the less you have to focus on it.

Consider the smell of your home. Maybe you can’t even smell anything… but go to a friend’s house and it smells like something. Why? Because it’s new. Stay away from your home long enough, you’ll remember what it smells like when you come back.

How does this relate to learning? Senses are information that your brain is making sense of. What is going on in your brain?

Information Processing Theory

You register sensory inputs. Smells, sounds, information, etc. This requires attention to receive the input and perception to make sense of it. Input enters into your working memory, which is the immediate perception of information. The goal is to move essential input into your Long Term Memory (LTM). This is accomplished through encoding, or the process of putting incoming information and preparing it for storage (LTM).

Once the information is encoded, it should be elaborated. This is the process of expanding upon newly encoded information by adding to it or linking it to what you already know. This improves the likelihood of understanding and remembering something.

So how do we elaborate information?

Cognitive Constructivism

We put information into schemes, or categories. For instance, animals. Every animal we are introduced to is put into the scheme of animals. Within this scheme are other schemes, or sub-categories, such as dogs. When we were younger, our schemes were fewer.

You may have initially understood every four-legged creature with fur to be a dog, only to realize one might be a cat. Next time you saw a cat, you did not call it a dog. You learned and understood. You then knew that furry four-legged creatures could be a dog or a cat, possibly more. We are always, or at least should be, seeking what Piaget calls equilibrium. This is where life makes sense.

We understand the difference between a cat and a dog. We enter into disequilibrium when we are introduced with new information we are not sure of… let’s say a wolf. Is it a dog? Definitely not a cat. To gain equilibrium again, we either assimilate or accommodate.

To assimilate is to press this information into what we already know, or a preexisting scheme. We see a wolf and we call it a dog. Back to equilibrium, despite it not necessarily being true.

To accommodate is to create a new schema. This is organizing information so we know to separate dogs from wolves.

When we understand this scheme or concept, we can decipher between examples and non-examples. We know what is a dog and what is not a dog.

It feels good to be in equilibrium, therefore it is easier it is easier to assimilate. But, according to this whole Process that I have been blabbering on, assimilating isn’t good enough. We assimilate when it is true and we accommodate when it is true, for truth’s sake.

Objective curiosity.

This cat, dog, wolf example is basic. In fact, this level of understanding is probably the most basic. It’s like the toy with the circle, square, triangle holes we play with when we’re tiny humans. Can you identify what beauty is and what makes it so?

Understanding something comes in levels, and in order to understand what I’m saying, I need to go into teacher mode to teach you about Bloom’s Taxonomy by creating an analogy (you might see what I did here when this blog is over).

Bloom’s: It Comes in Levels

Level 1: Remembering

Level 2: Understanding

Level 3: Applying

Level 4: Analyzing

Level 5: Evaluating

Level 6: Creating

One of the goals of a teacher is to teach a student about a topic and move the student up the levels. There are strategies and theories that can be applied to increase the likelihood that the student will truly understand something (which we won’t get into right now).

Notice, though, that understanding is only the second of six levels. If you understand something, you can explain it. But true understanding is something deeper…

Here’s an analogy that may help this make sense: ramen (yes, the bowl of noodles).

Let’s pretend we’re in class:

1. I’ll show you a bowl of ramen. I’ll tell you it is ramen and give you a list of ingredients.

2. I’ll ask you to recite the ingredients of ramen (remembering) and then explain in a few sentences how ramen is different from cereal (understanding)

3. I’ll prepare an assortment of ingredients, some of which would be appropriate in ramen, some not. You decide which ingredients to use (applying)

4. I’ll give you another bowl of ramen and you break down the ingredients. For each ingredient, explain how it affects the flavor of the bowl (analyzing)

5. Yet ANOTHER bowl of ramen. You will taste it, break down the ingredients, and then judge the bowl on certain criteria. Flavor, creativity, visual, etc. (evaluating)

6. Go to the grocery store without a list of ingredients. Come back and make ramen. Justify your bowl to me (creating)

Let’s go back to step 3… you could either pick ingredients exactly as they were from the list I gave you, or you could add or remove things. This is creativity. This is curious exploration. Perhaps you want to go spicy for this bowl? Jalapenos? Red pepper flakes? Frank’s Red Hot?

You can’t do Step 6 without Step 2. You can’t justify your bowl of ramen without being able to evaluate. You can remember what is in a bowl of ramen or you can create a bowl from ingredients you have decided. Again, understanding comes in levels.

I’d also like to briefly point out that all of this requires money, which public schools are not in great supply of. So the teacher must get creative, which is part of the challenge!

So… I had a few topics (football, reggae, or fashion) but chose ramen... Challenge yourself and pick a topic, then try to figure out how to apply it via Bloom’s Taxonomy. If you think about it, I got to Level 6 when it comes to Bloom’s. I created an analogy that teaches it to another.

What do you understand? How well do you understand it? Are you simply consuming knowledge of this topic, or are you creating? How can you create when it comes to this topic?

Another thing to ask yourself: are you seeking equilibrium for simplicity’s sake? Whichever process is easier, assimilating or accommodating, to reach equilibrium is the one you take. You (figuratively) put cereal and ramen in the same scheme because, well, it’s easier.

If this is you… why?