Should reference books be in libraries? Or should they be lying around on desk tops and cabinets, within casual stretching distance of where people sit when they work?
I'm debating this exact point with the HR department of the company I work for. I teach a course of business writing. I want my students to leave my class with a set of reference books that they can dip into when wrestling with a complex story. My belief is that this is when the real learning will happen.
HR wants me to put these books in the corporate library. Of course, a student who is serious about writing well could go to the library and check the book out. But the likelihood that a student will do this when wrestling with a real problem is low. So even the serious student will check the book out, flip through it, and put it back in the library without really internalizing any learning.
There's a pretty deep point here. People are receptive to learning at those moments when they most need to the information. The task of the teacher is make that information accessible at those moments. And ideally, to create those precious high-pressure moments when the student is receptive to learning.
1 comment:
I am with you on this one. It does depend on the subject of course. Something that is best learnt didactically is well suited to a reference library model. But, something that you learn best by experience needs to be supported in the moment of the experience. Rephrasing your last sentence :-
"ideally, to ensure the student has the support to allow effective experiential learning during those precious high-pressure moments when they will really learn it".
To that end, for something like writing/charts, if the support is not available in the moment it simply won't be used. However, I'd be inclined to have less than 5 books that you assume people will refer to - maybe the 2 best?, but also to have a 'good practitioner' coaching network that folks can turn to for in-the-moment advise. The best learning I've ever had in that field has come from folks who said something like 'but have you thought about telling the story this way?' or 'this bit simply doesn't work'.
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