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Volume theory
This is my effort to incorporate my thinking into a set of precepts
which in fact I have been using for some time to guide my class lessons.
It is a theory in want of a better name, as what I am after really is
not so much the pure amount of anything, but the fact that the
mind, in this case the mind of the learner, is always measuring,
considering its options, and choosing for itself when to reorganize,
make things easier, and learn what will help it do that.
Here are the starting points for what I have been calling volume theory.
I have been using it in the writing sphere: trying to develop students'
writing primarily by having them do as much as possible, and backing off
on the demands a little in order to make that possible. In the writing
sphere, the theory is as follows:
1. Teachers' time is precious, and so is students' time; therefore,
having students write more will necessarily cause some adjustment in
everyone's calendar and expectations. The first rule is simple: if
you want students to write more, and write as much as will be necessary
for them to truly be successful in becoming more fluent in writing, more
comfortable with the process, and more successful in incorporating good
writing habits into their systems, you will have to make that time
available to both them and you, in whatever venue you can.
2. If their writing inevitably leads to a finished product that is
formatted, spelled right, punctuated, and in general made to look
comprehensible and presentable, whether it be in a paper-and-ink format
or online, they will, by themselves, take shortcuts and start producing
better formatted, properly spelled, punctuated work right from the
start; life will be easier for them that way. The point at which
they start doing this on their own is your, the teacher's,
target. You can not force them to make their writing systematically
cleaner, more fluent, etc.; they will do it only when they are ready,
and only when they can clearly see that it will be useful to them from
now on. There is no way from here to there, except over large
quantities of work.
3. Developing fluency in any sphere will inevitably be similar to
developing fluency in writing. If, for example, they are relatively
fluent reader/writers, but absolutely terrified of speaking in front of
even small groups, then they should be directed to speak in front of
groups, with support, and often enough that eventually it is not such a
source of fear and anxiety. It may be that only the volume, or
the sheer amount of time that they spend in meaningful practice, will
get them to that point. And if that is the case, your time should be
directed toward making that practice possible, as opposed to talking
about what fluency is like, or studying examples of someone else's
fluent production.
Volume theory has a number of corollaries. Some of these could change
or be added to; this will surely be restated. It is probably clear to
the reader that I use this general philosophy in other realms; for
example, in teaching vocabulary. In vocabulary learning, volume theory
works like this:
To really learn a word, and incorporate access to its meaning into
his/her active memory, a learner has to encounter it enough, in
meaningful situations, to convince himself/herself that learning it and
incorporating access to it in his/her active system would be desirable
and efficient. It is probably the sheer number of actual
meaningful encounters that will convince him/her of the need to do
this.
Here are some more observations about teaching language in general.
These can be considered corollaries of volume theory, though they may be
somewhat unrelated.
All teaching must be directed at the student's system; that is, what
the student chooses to incorporate into his/her working system of
production and learning. The student alone will choose how to
organize his/her own brain, as well as his/her own learning, and may not
do as you ask, even if, on the surface, he/she appears to be quite
willing. In some cases, the student will be genuinely willing, having
spent a fortune of family money and effort, to do as an expert tells
them, but the brain will only organize itself as it sees fit, and
may have to be convinced, thoroughly and continuously, that certain
learning processes and/or behaviors are necessary, efficient, or
desirable. In other words, often the compliant student will be trying
to memorize words from a list, but his/her brain, having limited
patience with lists of things with no purpose, is not actively or
successfully learning them that way. Why not? Because it is not
convinced that it is useful information. Only by seeing the
benefits of knowledge at work, will it be convinced. And we're lucky, if
we think about it, that we are organized in that way.
Applying this theory to the weblog business, we can see its application
to a number of skills. For example, many students have forgotten their
passwords- why? They were told to remember them, and, at the time,
probably agreed to do it. It wasn't insolence or rebellion. They simply
weren't using the information. Similarly, they forget how to edit, how
to publish, how to get out of one dashboard and onto another, etc. None
of these are rocket science, though in some cases knowing the skills is
dependent on knowing key words used by Blogger, such as "Publish," "Sign
out" or"Edit." On macs, two tough nuts are learning double-space on
Microsoft Word (document, paragraph), and learning link code in making
blog posts. WIth the link code, even the best students have to ask
several times, until they at least figure out where they can find
the information, even if it is on a handout, directly in front of them.
It brings to mind a story about Einstein (Gordon, 2005) which I heard
once and frequently mention in my classes. Einstein was being teased
about not knowing his own phone number, and claimed to systematically
not bother memorizing anything he could look up more easily.
However, as we know from learning to ride a bicycle, making a weblog or
learning to swim:
Most people can do these things. And, after they have a skill, they
tend to keep it, or at least, have access to it much later, so that,
though they may have to relearn a few details, it is safe to say that
once you've learned to ride a bicycle, for example, you can always do it
thereafter. What the volume theory contributes is this: There was a
point, somewhere in the process of learning, where the mind simply
incorporated and bundled its instructions, and said to itself, learn
this, it's useful. And it did. That's the point we're trying to
find. If we do something just a little bit, we may never reach that
point; if we do it enough, we will.
 Page maintained
by
Thomas
Leverett, CESL, SIUC
Photo above (Spider Web) by Jim Leverett.
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