Principles of Learning

In conducting my observational studies of learning I felt that objective observation alone provided insufficient sensory and experiential data to truly understand what was happening in the learning process. For this reason I revised my approach and adopted a duality of perspective. Rather than simply observe students involved in the learning process I subjected myself to the very same process, thereby experiencing a richer influx of data, simultaneously interpreting the events that unfolded before me with the perspectives of both a bystander and a participant.

An example of changing the beliefs of one person regarding another.... The wife frequently says to her husband, "You never help out around the house." The husband knows this isn't true. He often helps with the dishes, homework, and chores. To change his wife's belief about him, he engages in a concetrated effort to do the dishes every single night, to sweep and mop the floors, and clean the bathrooms. After 3 months of doing this, his wife begins to say things like, "You're super husband." At the end of the 3 months, the husband tapers off his efforts returning to doing the dishes and chores on occasion. Although the wife occasionally says, "you used to do the dishes every night" she no longer says or believes that he never helps out.