Learning&Conversing LO9589

Ben Compton (BCOMPTON@novell.com)
Thu, 29 Aug 1996 09:01:24 -0600

Replying to LO9553 --

John wrote:

> But in order to improve performance beyond 'what comes naturally' and
> in order to unlearn bad habits, athletes and singers re-learn to
> breathe in a more deliberate and conscious way. Unlearning and the
> learning of specific learning skills also applies to communicating.

This thread, and the new thread on unlearning, baffle me. It seems to me from the
definitions used in these messages "unlearning" is really nothing more than "learning"
how to do something differently, or perhaps learning how to think differently about
issues.

So why use the word "unlearning" at all?

I learn all the time, how I behave and what I believe is in a constant state of change.
I've never thought that I was "unlearning" one thing and then "learning" a new one.

It seems to me that the definitions used for "unlearning" are more congruent with
"adaptive learning," which I define as learning that allows us to adapt to a changing
environment or to new conditions.

The word "learning" seems to imply "generative learning" where we learn to think in
entirely new ways, which allows us to create entirely new outputs.

The word "unlearning" just muddies the water for me.

-- 

Benjamin B. Compton ("Ben") | email: bcompton@novell.com Novell, GroupWare Support Quality Manager | fax: (801) 222-6991

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>