A Three Person Problem

Ok I really liked this book. This was a lot better read compared the last one. I took a few notes so I decided to just past them here. Basically this is my capture of this book:

A Three Person Problem
The “Take 1 or 2 Game” of 20 coins is played by two people who on their turn can take one or two pennies. Whoever takes the last penny wins. The formula for winning is counting the total, dividing by three, and taking the remainder for the amount of pennies on your turn. P. 9

This game illustrates ‘the simplest case’.

The key attributes of learning are roles, experiences, and knowledge. P. 10

The three person problem starts with a teacher, he/she teaches a student, the student then goes on to teach someone else thus becoming a teacher him/herself. Thus by changing roles, they have experiences and then gain knowledge.

The best way to learn something is to teach it.

The fourfold framework of knowledge is a framework to organize and process information:
Purpose – Why? Values – So what?
Central Message – What? Validations/Applications – How?

The Purpose is the question that begs to be answered, the hypothesis that needs to be proved.

The Central Message is the thesis statement, the main idea. The Central Message gives the L/T the ability to store many pieces of information by connecting them.

The Validations and Applications are evidences through examples and experiments that prove how this knowledge can be applied to life.

Values are assumptions about what is true, important, good, or beautiful. P. 16-22

The four experiences transform a student into a Learner/Teacher.

Capture – between teacher and student: Capture is the experience of absorbing and organizing information for long-term growth.
“When you expect to teach, your mind is prepared to learn” – Stephen Covey

Expand – the student independently: the process of exploring, researching, integrating, and practicing for excellence. It also shifts the role from focusing on the teacher’s purposes, ideas, and values to focusing on the student’s own purposes, ideas, and values.

Teach – between the student and others: As students assume the teaching role, they take on new responsibility. The students thus need to rearrange and refocus the knowledge framework to be able to teach others whose needs are different.

Evaluate – a process that underlies the whole series: Evaluation is essential to growth. The L/T needs to give/receive evaluations that are correct, complete, connected, and concise. P. 23-29

“So and so doesn’t know what he wants until after he has had the experience. No one can choose freely before they understand.” P. 33

“We shall not cease from exploration….
And the end of all our exploring…
Will be to arrive where we started…
And know the place for the first time.”
-T.S. Eliot, poet P.38

“We need to demand more and less. We need to focus on the important and central ideas and really ask the students to do what it takes to learn them. And we need to cut out any busy work that doesn’t contribute to our focus.” P 42

Story of a teacher, a student, and a fish: The student tells the student to stare at the fish and learn all he can about it. After a while the teacher comes to get a report, the student tells him some basics of the fish. He has the student study the fish for a day, then two days. The teacher left the student there until the student had learned to see for himself, for if the student had been told what to see, he never would see enough. P. 51

“Failure is a great teacher. No memories are so long lasting as mistakes are.” P. 55

“Cramming to prepare for a test stops the learning. A student will just forget.” – Walter Gong.

“Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.” –Aldous Haxley

Learners find out how to have experience. Teachers learn how to create experiences for others. P. 64

How to Evaluate a Capture:

Concise: A captured framework requires the L/T to condense the information.
Complete: It accounts for everything in the frame.
Correct: The information captured has to be true.
Connected: A good framework all ties together. The central message answers the purpose; the validations/applications prove and support the central message; Etc. p. 77

“Each piece of information in a captured framework becomes a basis for a new framework.” –Oscar Firschein. Or in other words, it is always possible to expand our knowledge and understanding. P. 78

The L/T2
The L/T doesn’t’ just capture; he captures with humility. He doesn’t just expand; he expands with integrity. He teaches with love. He evaluates with praise and true concern. P. 89

The L/T2 is the integration of love and humility into the teaching process.