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Education can be likened to constructing a brick wall (Birkenholz,
1999), or "a
wall of knowledge." Educators are involved in helping learners
develop
their wall – usually one brick at a time. Over time, persistence
and
consistency help to establish a wall that is strong and
well-constructed.
Likewise, adults have more bricks or experience as compared to youth,
and this
needs to be factored into educational design. Most times, we need to
take
advantage of this wealth of experience to learn from one another and to
enhance
the learning experience. At other times, we will find that not all
bricks are
sound. There may be bricks in the wall from past misinformation or bad
experiences.
Educators need to be aware of this and use tactful and respectful ways
of
replacing or moving these blocks. Usually, the most effective way to
carry this
out is one block at a time – replacing "bad" blocks with
"good" ones. Doing so will allow the new knowledge to be inserted in
the proper context for the learner to apply to relevant issues and
problems.
The animated PowerPoint presentation below provides a visual
representation of
this concept (Birkenholz, 1999).
Destination 2: 9 of 11
