What is a Learning Space – 2 metaphors?
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The elephant
I think it is a fun image for a learning space – we all take away something different from our learning experiences.
(This image has many layers. It is originally linked to the parable of the blind men and the elephant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant; which could be construed as a warning that we make judgements based on our subjective experiences. John Hick, the philosopher also used it as a metaphor for God; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hick).
2. Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’.
I keep coming back to the cliched image of a garden and a gardener, and the Romantics’ notion of the power of nature. Wordsworth’s poem contains all the pre-requisites for learning. Imagination, inspiration, creativity. The metaphor of the individual and humanity. What do the daffodils represent? togetherness? humanity? opportunity? nature? For learning we need to be enabled to experience, to glean knowledge, to interact, to imagine, to be with others, to be alone.
Reading my fellow students’ posts on the forum, I am struck by everyone’s acknowledgement of the need for interaction with others (a playing field or abstract box full of bouncing balls). The need for choice and how the unexpected can provoke a response from which we learn (the dining table). Exploration in a cave. Creativity and possibilities in a toybox.
Learning spaces are myriad.
Ha! The elephant metaphor and the acknowledgement of partial and subjective experiences is a good one. Wordsworth daffodils is an interesting choice and works well in terms of its playfulness and line on ‘dancing with …’ Also, there’s a certain unboundedness in the poem that may reflect the possibilities of learning but does it work for education?
Hi Pete,
What do you mean? I’m interested that you say the poem may reflect the possibilities of LEARNING but you question whether it works for EDUCATION. I’m interested in the differentiation you are making there between the two concepts. I chose the poem as a metaphor for a learning space as it seemed to encapsulate various concepts that I think are part of learning:
imagination – ‘the inward eye’, daffodils representing objects (could be subject matter) that inspire learning, daffodils representing other people versus the individual poet, thereby conveying the concept of socialisation within learning. It also conveys the idea that you reflect back on your learning.