It wasn’t until I was first asked to define “learning” in my SOSC 250: Thinking Differently course that I ever really considered the possibility that the word might possess different meanings for different individuals—I had subconsciously just assumed we were all operating under a universal definition when speaking of learning, rather than the term being indicative of the unique personal experiences of those who speak it.
First jotting down my notes on what learning means to me, I wrote that to learn entails expanding perspectives, broadening horizons, shedding preconceived notions, combining academic knowledge with social understanding, and becoming able to thoughtfully and articulately disagree with opposing perspectives. Essentially, in recognition of the fact that the act of learning in and of itself implies some baseline knowledge, I defined the process as very much tailored to each individual’s starting point, with the information learned serving to either augment or amend one’s existing intellectual framework. In a later session of the course, I added that learning includes the ability to admit when you are mistaken, as well as the knowledge to identify the source(s) of your errors, and correct accordingly. With this, my conception of learning became much more about acknowledging that we all possess certain biases and subscribe to certain “truths” lacking in any factual substantiation, which we should work to rid ourselves of as we acquire more knowledge.
Thinking Differently taught me that learning can and does take many different forms, from machine learning (as discussed by Professor Devika Subramanian) to movement-based learning (demonstrated by Roberta Paixão Cortes of Group Acorde). Each of the various incarnations of learning we explored in class brought us that much closer to answering the larger question of what it really means to learn. Our session on statistical machine learning reinforced the enduring necessity of humans in capturing emotional nuance and contextualizing data, while the presentation on mind-body interactions underscored the importance of the performing arts in promoting innovation, creativity, and problem-solving. The diversity of the speakers we heard from opened my eyes to the fact that learning is far more pervasive and dynamic than I initially thought, with the classroom representing just one of the many venues in which we might learn. So as we embark on a new semester here at Rice, let’s fully embrace the multifaceted nature of learning, and remind ourselves that, though undoubtedly important, grades alone don’t tell the whole story.