Functions, objects, and experiences in learning

12 September 2013

The other day I was reading somewhere that in the R stats language almost everything is either an object and/or a function (might be the Chambers book, but I am not sure). If you like to think in terms of semantics, this does make sense in that you can create meaning by making an object generate action through a function to create another object.

It's then tempting to establish an analogy with learning to say that when trying to teach a skill to somebody all you need is to show them how to gather the raw material to put the skill to practice (an object) and then to teach this person to put the skill in action (function), so that an endproduct (a resulting object) can be generated.

This all sounds perfect, except that when you bring the functions-objects duo to humans you end up mixing a third component: Experience or, like some people prefer to call it, the situations surrounding functions & objects. Situations will affect how humans use functions/actions to act upon objects/things.

So, for example: I might coach a novice biomedical researcher by telling her that working in interdisciplinary groups is a good thing. However, if she feels that a given person would not be a good professional match for her, then the decision should be to not establish a collaboration with that individual. Also, I might coach another novice research into always reaching out to peers for further advice. That being said, if that novice researcher does not reach out in a way that is socially acceptable to within that research group, then no help will be provided.

by Ricardo Pietrobon

About Me

My name is Ricardo Pietrobon and I am interested in big data and situated cognition applied to immersive distance education.