L. Now I am going to take you through my ideas on 'learning'...

L.

What is learning and how does a teacher evaluate if a student has learnt something or not? What does a student need to do to 'prove' learning has taken place? How does a teacher measure the extent of the learning that has taken place?

One of my favourite movies is 'Cast Away' with Tom Hanks. The issue that I have with this movie is that I actually get frustrated watching it as Hanks, from my perspective, is a complete dunce and basically totally inexperienced at being lost alone in a deserted island. But this is the whole point of the movie. Not that I have looked at the intentions of the storyline or the nature of the book, I am sure it is supposed to frustrate the viewer into thinking they know better and perhaps makes them think what they would do if it was them in that situation. There are so many scenes in the story where the viewer is asked to think about better ways of doing something to survive. Here is the trailer to what I am talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE6OlKeooc8

Directed by none other than Robert Zemeckis and written by William Broyles Jr. the movie is basically a monologue involving Tom struggling to survive alone in the middle of the Pacific. We see him learning from his bad experiences as he tries to hold on to life, where the only thing that keeps him going is a photograph of his wife. 

The underlying message in the story is the idea of hope, similar to the whole essence of Star Wars and the feeling of hope and belief through faith (boy, oh boy... ...I am getting religious now). Religious or not, isn't that what Hanks applies to drive him to say to 'Wilson':

"I would rather take my chance out there in the ocean than to stay here and die". 

I am of the belief that 'hope' is what keeps all humans going. A powerful message for the viewer to contemplate and ponder, imagining what one would do if they were in a similar situation as we all have hope of living just one more day. The essence of this story, therefore, is about learning and understanding that life experiences and knowledge of survival are what drives people to keep on going, keep on doing the things we do and keep of learning what it takes to form better outcomes in any situation. Every day, we hope for something better than the last. 

From a psychological point of view, it's important to make a link to learning theories and make a connection on how behaviourism, cognitivism and social learning are connected:


More to come on this subject of learning as it is turning out to get really heavy...


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