Rick Karash said:
>I've been enjoying Michael Polanyi, _Personal Knowledge_, in which he
>reports a finding that as we get skilled at using a tool, the tool becomes
>part of "self" and we forget the explicit "know how." That is, as we
>increase our ability to *do*, we tend to lose the ability to explain
>*how*. I take from this a reminder that it may be a real project to create
>(or re-create) the explicit "how to" info, that the experts may not be
>able to just lay it out directly.
Recent research seems to indicate that learning creates differences in the
brain, such that learning to *do* in the sense in which Rick speaks of it
here actually creates a being more *able* to do. There was a report on
NPR just the other day about some of this research, in which skilled
string instrument players fired more and different neurons, including
neurons only they possessed, when their fingertips were stimulated than
non-musicians. All subjects were right-handed; this occurred at the
fingers of the left hand, but NOT THE THUMB.
What needs further investigation is: Does biology support the widespread
notion (mental model?) that those who are truly skilled *do* while those
less-skilled *teach*?
-- Jack Hirschfeld With the clear undertanding that jack@his.com this kind of thing can happen, shall we dance?