Lucy: How to Go from Learning Situations to Learning Experiences

Abstract

The responses of the students who participated in Research Study 1—Levels, described in Chap. 3, were categorized as absent general knowledge of the learning process when they were blank, irrelevant, and incoherent. Of the total amount of responses provided by these students, 19 % were categorized as responses indicating absent general knowledge of the learning process. Nine percent of all responses were blank. This raises the question of why students would leave a question open. First, if one does not know how to react to a question, then one is likely to leave it open because one cannot come up with a reaction. This seems particularly true regarding open-ended questions, where someone needs to express his or her thoughts in his or her own words and which is considered to be more difficult than ticking off a box or recognizing a specific response. Another possibility is that one has skipped over a tough question at first, to have some extra time to think it over later on, and then forget all about it. Finally, open-ended questions can be left open when one over-thinks the question resulting in doubting oneself. That is, when a question is considered to be tough and accordingly someone thinks it over too much, it may become impossible to contrive a response.

“A mistake is an event that has not yet been fully turned to your advantage.”

Edwin Land