Wherein our fearless host issued the following plea:
[Host's note: Perhaps someone on the list could give a basic outline. I
think Daniel Aronson did so a year ago, but this must have been before
the learning-org archive which began Sept. 94. I believe the important
reference is Gregory Bateson's _Steps to an Ecology of Mind_ which may be
out of print.]
I don't know whether Bateson's book is out of print, but I will offer
some notes from it.
In a chapter titled "The Logical Categories of Learning and
Communication", Bateson offers this introduction --
"All species of behavioral scientists are concerned with 'learning' in
one sense or another of that world. . . . Insofar as behavioral
scientists still ignore the problems of Principia Mathematica, they
can
claim approximately sixty years of obsolescence."
Then he develops his ideas of levels of learning, rather parallel to
Russell's Theory of Logical Types (no class can be a member of itself).
Eventually, he offers this recap --
"Zero Learning is characterized by specificity of response, which --
right or wrong -- is not subject to correction.
Learning One is change in specificity of response by correction of
errors of choice within a set of alternatives.
Learning Two is change in the process of Learning One, e.g., a
corrective change in the set of alternatives from which choice is
made, or it is a change in how the sequence of experience is
punctuated.
Learning Three is change in the process of Learning Two, e.g., a
corrective change in the system of sets of alternatives from which
choice is made.
Learning Four would be change in Learning Three, but probably does not
occur in any adult living organism on this earth."
Incidentally, _Steps to An Ecology of Mind_ was copyrighted in 1972, and
this particular chapter comes from a presentation Bateson made in 1969.
My brother (whose interest in 'learning' and 'systems' is intimately
connected with his profession as a family counselor) gave me a copy
(cover price of $1.95!) which is now yellow with age, and which I did not
understand much at all when I first plowed through it maybe fifteen years
ago.
And I do think that Argyris's double-loop learning and Bateson's Learning
Level Two are quite closely aligned.
Michael A
-- Michael Ayers mbayers@mmm.com (612) 733-5690 FAX (612) 737-7718 IT Education Svcs/3M Center 224-2NE-02/PO Box 33224/St Paul MN 55133-3224 - Ideas in this note only represent the author's attempt at thinking and - certainly do not represent the positions of anyone else in the galaxy.