The Finding Of Fire
Next up, is psychologist Kurt Lewin who was known as a modern pioneer of social, organizational and applied psychology. He described our learning process as a circular model of experience and reflection. Experiential learning is a process in which the new situations we find ourselves in are the central pivot.
There are four dimensions:
- A willingness to be actively involved in the experience;
- The ability to reflect on the experience;
- Possess and use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience;
- Use decision making and problem solving skills in order to use the new ideas gained from the experience.
A Cycle Of Learning
Each of these four steps should be completed for the individual to truly understand the experience. Failure to do so will result in suboptimal and shallow learning. Completing the cycle, however, leaves the door open and prompts you to start discovering even more.
Letâs see how one of the early testers completed this cycle. In all fairness, the first person to discover the usefulness of fire was most likely a woman. Who else would find the courage to thwart the gods? Or find good where only destruction was before? It probably was a woman, curious enough to pick up a branch in flames and bring light to the darkness.
â1. A concrete experience
I do concur that the Homo erectusâ learning path to produce fire is something of speculation. Sheâd probably already seen and used it from what she could gather from forest fires or lightning. She knew its heat and all-consuming power.
In spite of that knowledge, she had the courage to explore. She approached a flaming forest instead of running from it, stole fire and shaped our future because of it.
2. Observation and reflection
Now consider this woman with her stolen fire. Her whole concept of fire is changing. No longer is it a destructive force of nature. She feels its warmth during the cold hours, sees its flickering light and hears its comforting crackling. Her journey to find new ways to improve her life has only just started.
3. Abstract concept & generalization
The woman still remembers how it burned her skin when it touched her and how the animals frantically ran from it. Her new observations alter and strengthen her existing models: fire is dangerous, it consumes and kills. But it can also keep you warm and the nights less dark.
4. Implications of concepts as new situations
She starts experimenting with the fire. She moves it, lets it die, grows it tall, throws in rocks and thick leaves.
This Homo erectus probably didnât know, but she possibly had the most interesting and important testing job in the history of mankind. The stealing of a small fire set in motion a long and fruitful cycle of learning.
The Cycle Anew
The next time she was bored and started throwing rocks around it probably surprised her to see a spark as she threw one rock against another. A small fire, born from two rocks. Can I make it into a fire as well?
Concrete experience.
And so the cycle begins anew.
It takes a sharp mind to shape this experience to its potential. Large numbers of people before her will have seen this spark and have discarded it as a freak of nature.
This woman was different. Her learning and her actions set in motion the human raceâs rise to the top of the food chain.
Purpose
Fire was only the very beginning. If anything can be said about mankind itâs that next to their ability to learn, their persistence and their hunger for power brought them to where they are today.
Were we a gentler species, we might not be in the trouble we got ourselves in today. Guns, nuclear power plants and bombs. Steam trains, glass, hot tubs and metal-crafting. It all started with the first spark that was the mastering of fire.
John Dewey, our third psychologist who specialised in learning processes, added âPurposeâ to that model. Because without purpose, we have no incentive to keep on learning. If we want to go deeper, broader, further in our experiences and knowledge we need purpose. âMore powerâ was mankindâs purpose and see where we are now.
Our journey in testing is much the same, even though our purpose is not necessarily more power within the project. Itâs about finding bugs and important risks. Incidentally, having a better understanding of the learning process helps us achieve that goal.
Four Flavours Of Learning
There we have it. Every part of the puzzle to start piecing this new information into a general theory. But that wonât be the end of it yet. For new theories have new implications and, as every tester should know, need to be verified, falsified, maximized, isolated and explained thoroughly. (and then some)
The final theory is the one drawn up by David A. Kolb. He outlined two continuums.
Continuum one:
Active to Reflection: Doing stuff vs. Thinking about stuff.
Continuum two:
Concrete to Abstract: Real stuff vs. Imagined stuff.
These two lines split the whole learning process in four. Four different flavours of learning.
We all have our preferred learning style. Whether we like to start in the green quadrant or the yellow, thatâs where each of us feels safe and at our best.
However, if we pursue deep and thorough knowledge of the subject, we need to move from quadrant to quadrant and complete the whole process. Would we stay in one activity forever, we would learn only shallowly and would easily forget these new things in the long run.
What can you still remember from cramming whole books in a few weeks time? I bet itâs just a fraction of the whole thing. The same goes for workshops that have you go through different role playing games, but fail at explaining the theory behind the exercises. You forget. Its impressions donât last.
A good teacher guides you through the process of experience, sense-making, conceptualizing and then experimenting with what youâve learned. A good learner knows how to complete that circle without the need for a teacher. As testers, itâs absolutely essential that we become good learners.
Your new assignment?
Learn about learning styles, understand the models and make sense of them, explain it to yourself as a new concept and then apply your newfound theories to your own advantage:
Within your testing.
Get to know the archetypes of each learning style.
The Archetypes
The Activist
Someone who has an Active â Concrete learning style values Real Experience as the powering force for all her learning. Spending time with a product, a person, a culture is her preferred way of gathering new knowledge. They learn by doing, playing, exploring and competing.
âGrab the bull by the hornsâ â Some cowboy
The Observer
The Reflection â Concrete learning style focuses on observing behaviour, listening to others and connecting the dots. Seeing patterns where there werenât any before. These people try to see new things as pieces to a puzzle. A puzzle they havenât completely made sense of yet.
âYou are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.â â Harlan Ellison
The Pragmatist
âWhatâs in it for meâ is what drives the Active â Abstract learner. He loves debating, playing the devilâs advocate and applying his own views and experiences to new situations.
Problems fuel his enthusiasm to solve them.
He loves to actively experiment with new theories, techniques and heuristics to come to his own conclusions.
âThe first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.â â Richard Feynman
The Theorist
A Reflection â Abstract learner is someone who needs to understand the logic behind the concepts. They have their own worldview, how everything works and fits together. New learnings, models and theories need to fit into that worldview.
They prefer to analyse, gather data, collect quotes and stories to draw conclusions.
âIn all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.â Â â Carl Jung
