Advanced Learning and Teaching to Achievement.

There are many literary devices that can be used to aid learning. Often used in pre and low literacy societies were stories often allegorical with many literary devices used within the stories. The stories were not just entertainment, that was the catch to help remember and learn. The stories held obvious and hidden messages. One suggestion is Little Red Riding Hood was a story for girls about the danger of boys. In oriental philosophies that overlap with religions, this same approach is used, in Chinese descriptions they use terse language which can have many meanings. The point is many fold one is to hide knowledge in plain sight when only special instruction or much practice can reveal. Sometimes the many possible meanings may all be part of the answer. Any one who has studied something oriental will have come across the paradoxes where you ask your teacher an either/or question and the answer is yes (to both). We sometimes forget that language is not enough for more advanced topics, where sometimes it's yes and sometimes it's no. This part of the world and life is impossible to explain to anybody who has no or insufficient experience, but words are not enough in the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach. A common expression is a picture paints a thousand words. So for learning advanced elements and advanced teaching; KISS bureaucracy will not work. Don't be tempted to draw pictures on official forms though, they will not understand.

Expertise always has this problem of passing on the knowledge. Modern education uses restrictive language to measure expertise and then not allow leeway. If the answer is sometimes (welcome to life!) the system breaks down or the paperwork gets complicated. So how does an experienced teacher tell an inspector, manager or politician who does not understand that they know best. When of course bureaucracy can be used as a stick to beat the expert to the ideas (or purpose) of their bosses (usually guess based). Traditionally the teaching of complicated and advanced areas was long term. Industrialisation has reduced the need for many high level craft workers with automation. They usually replaced the lower performing workers cheaply. They produce very cheaply and force the high quality workers into niches eventually encroaching into these areas and then undermining the viability of any workers. Change also leads to outdated skills and knowledge. No system can keep up.

I would put forward that mastery or at least expertise beyond most people helps a person have a place in society but also the knowledge that they can do something better than most is beneficial. To excel or become and expert requires time. The 10,000 hours rule claims that no expert has achieved top level performance in anything without 10,000 hours practice. They also have a goal in mind and focus on that goal. There is sacrifice and less compromise to and for their goal. There is trail and error as part of constant improvement (at irregular paces) and grit, the determination to get through. Succeeding with or in spite of those around them.

So advanced learning requires different approaches to a box ticking approach. A simple phrase may state a principle or concept that can be expanded exponentially creating infinite levels of detail. Other elements may be learning the feel of the balance of forces or optimising a changing situation. It is an amazing aspect of life where some very clever people can talk for hours about concepts that an uneducated practitioner just does in seconds with no high faluting explanations or even a simple one. You cannot and should not try to explain everything to the uninitiated. Practicing higher level descriptions for other experts has value. But communication cannot always be explicit. It has to be for the other to understand on the basis of their knowledge and understanding or for them to investigate and reflect to the greater meaning they do not yet have. These are all you can use for advanced elements. As artificial intelligence (AI) attempts to write code for complex (or relatively simple) problems they run out of both computer space and time to type. They have learned to imitate rather than do or explain everything. Whether it is decision making or simulating insect flight not everything is taken into account by the brain but it does the things that most often lead to success (the insect does not die out).

The Zen Koans are the classic example of terse language. One sentence from the master is given to the student and they go away and keep reflecting, questioning until a level of enlightenment (realisation of a meaning) is reached. Then the master says something like 'that could be' or 'what else?' The process goes on forever in this context leading to more and more enlightenment.

Advanced teaching can also use the method. How can you encourage learning (it happens in the student). What pictures, language or other (?) leads to learning. The teacher may try to speed up learning or give a base for lifelong learning, or tackle difficult areas. Just saying the words even if they are read off a power-point slide are not advanced!

This post is bitty but the ideas of advanced teaching and the teaching of advanced levels just don’t fit simple language and are difficult to explain. It is like the difference between a model and reality or a map and the real ground. A perfect model or map would be useless as it would be at least as big as the real world. Massively complicated models and maps of scale 1:1 are not that usable. Writing it down with completeness for the convenience of some inspectors is not worth the effort. Using metaphors or statements like Koans and student reflection and trail and error, need to be encouraged with guidance but forget the documentation as it’s for people who cannot understand.