Page 24 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

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Ideas are defined as a relationship between two or more variables that are dependent on each other and where this idea is understood in one or two contexts.
If we want to do a hill start in a manual car, we must press gently on the accelerator as we take our foot off the footbrake, while at the same time releasing the handbrake. We initially practice this on a slight incline (a safe context). Once we have done this a few times we develop an idea for how hard we must press the accelerator (variable 1), the speed we release the handbrake (variable 2) and how quickly we take our foot off the foot brake (variable 3) for a specific incline (variable 4).
By applying further questioning and interrogation, we can apply our idea to a range of different contexts (such as different inclines, road surfaces and tyre types). With each new incline (different contexts) we experience, the quality of the idea improves. By continually practising hill starts on different inclines, surfaces or using different tyre types, our brain recognises a pattern between these variables and maps that pattern for ever. The pattern is automated immediately so that we no longer need to think consciously about hill starts ever again. This process results in the formation of a conceptual understanding of the relationship between each of the variables (slope, surface, brake, accelerator and handbrake), that underpin successful hill starts.
Once we understand the concept, we quite often experience a pleasurable feeling that we refer to as the ‘aha!’ moment. When we have an ‘aha!’ moment, the brain takes that newly-formed concept and maps it in our brain using a combination of neurons and the astrocytes that loiter around the synaptic gaps between the neurons. Once this takes place, the learned concept can be applied non- consciously and we never need to think consciously about that concept ever again.
“Concepts are patterns between two or more variables (processes) that depend on each other (cause and effect), where the relationship between the variables is understood in a range of contexts. Once the pattern is recognised the brain immediately maps that pattern and turns into a non-conscious process. We refer to this unique human ability to as automaticity”
Once we have a concept for hill starts, we can non-consciously predict the pressure required to be applied and released on each pedal, accompanied by the rate of release for the handbrake, for any combination of the incline of the hill or the nature of the road surface. As we apply these actions to ever more contexts, the accuracy of those predictions made by our brain becomes increasingly precise. Our brain then carries out this application to new contexts without us doing any new conscious thinking. The formation of concepts is an extraordinarily efficient learning system. The alternative would be rote learning (off-by-heart) each slope of every hill.
The high level of efficiency of this learning system is the result of us genetically refining this learning system over the last 30-50 thousand years. The brain will then use brainwaves to form permanent links between different combinations of knowledge, ideas and concepts to create concept frameworks20 such as the concepts of steering, braking, giving way, overtaking ... to the point where we no longer consciously think about driving at all. This capacity is amazing and explains why we can drive out to another town and not have any memory of the process at all, as we were totally focussed on the conversation with our passenger!
Driving is a concept framework as it includes knowledge, ideas and concepts that are all linked to each other as a learning package within our brain. Most of our thinking involves concept frameworks. In our brain sits an unfathomable number of the most extraordinary complex and re-usable knowledge, ideas, concepts and concept frameworks, that we combine in numerous different ways allowing us to predict and create new possibilities for additional contexts we may have never experienced before.
20. More detail on this will be provided later in the text.