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Hey everyone, I hope
the weekend is treating you guys well!
Today I would like to
explore something that I noticed while working on my next book this past
week, but first I will have to quickly discuss the method of research that I
decided to use so that I may complete this year’s goals as an author/philosopher. After
discussing the method that I have used, I will explain the phenomenon that I
have noticed, as well as a few possible theories that I have that may help
explain this new phenomenon, mostly with the goal of further refining my
understanding of what is going on with my own understanding.
Firstly, in order to
write my next book, I took a trip to Europe in the summer of 2018 to visit the
graves of 24 different philosophers. These 24 philosophers have made some sort
of impact on how I think, and I wanted to see where their lives ended and what
kind of cultures could have surrounded them during the last few years of their
lives (assuming that they were buried close to the last place where they
lived). While traveling to 9 different countries, I kept a journal to keep
track of my journey and the insights that I had while working in Europe. Before
leaving for this trip, I also gathered philosophy articles that explored
pedagogy, which is the art and science of teaching, and each philosopher’s own
work, teaching style, and/or ideas around pedagogy. However, once I started reading these
articles, I noticed something that bothered me…
After reading a few
academic articles for my own research in philosophy and pedagogy, what bothered
me was that it was very apparent that I had almost no idea what each author was
talking about in their articles (or at least that’s what it felt like), even
after moving away from home to teach English, completing my formal training as
a teacher, and teaching again before leaving for my trip. I noticed that while
reading, I could not pull out central ideas from what I read, I could not
vulgarise the content that was presented, nor could I create my own analogies
and examples that could clarify the information that I was exploring. All that
I could do while reading was notice essential questions found within each
article.
I think that during
times where I became uncomfortable due to a feeling of lack of understanding
(whether it be in my studies of philosophy, education or investing), I become
more aware of the limitations of my own abilities, since a similar situation
has happened to me at least twice now; Once during my high school education and then
again during my studies in university. Furthermore, I only started to
understand the philosophy and education articles that I collected, AFTER
returning from my trip to Europe and after teaching another semester. I think
that this period of time where I could not understand the content in the
articles that I was using for research, gave me more insights on how students
can experience difficulty in understanding, but somehow later understand a
subject, even if they were not reading on this subject. This makes me ask the
following question: How is it possible to have trouble learning, leave the
learning aside, to then be able to understand later? It seems that learning can
benefit from a lack of conscious effort. Maybe this is what some educators mean
when they say to “let what you just learned simmer in your mind”, after their
students have just been presented with difficult content.
In conclusion, I know
that as a philosopher and educator, there is much that I do not know and much
more that I may never know. Now, I seem to have a lot less difficulty in
reading the articles that I will be using for my research, so hopefully I can
keep working towards making what I learn during his time in my life as accessible
to others as possible. Maybe it is through struggling with what I am trying to accomplish,
that I can offer value by guiding others so that they can avoid this feeling of
confusion? Or maybe the opposite is needed, that I guide others right through
the point of the most confusion?
Until next time!
Have a great day!
-PJH
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