Pedagogies: Learning to Action

The route from Learning to Understanding is one we test carefully at Five Rings Training to ensure what is to be learnt is absorbed into the system: not simply facts to remember, but actual knowledge which becomes thinking tools and heightened awareness.

Knowledge > Tools + Awareness

It is not a process which goes from one stage of learning to another: it is an embodied comprehensive approach with intention which is identified at the outset of the learning process to predetermine the scope of the outcomes.

Learning to Understanding to Action

Learning to Understanding is vital for subject matter to be applicable. Learning to Action, which goes further, demands the individual can grasp the learning in such a way that we can guarantee outcomes. By outcomes we mean the ability to build, develop, take the process forward, apply the principles, utilise beyond the subject matter.

To give one simple example: some of the students who train with us state they have applied the principles learnt at our dojo training to their academic work and relationships in order to better them. So here the students have understood the learning beyond the subject, derived principles, and have applied those principles to another area / context, to create positive outcomes.

Understood > derived principles > applied principles > new outcomes

Embodied Knowledge

When we have to navigate ourselves through difficult situations whether they be academic analytical problems, high risk situations or delicate emotional balancing, we best function when the tools which equip our navigation are part of us.

Like driving, we don't separate the theory from the physical: one has to be able to do it all at once, change gears, hit pedals, read signs, look out for other cars, look out for bikes, avoid people...and so on. We become so quickly able to do this amalgamation of tasks prevalent in every day life and yet in so many subjects the academic is separated from the physical application and we become dysfunctional in the very things we are trying to carry out.

The sportsperson at great speed adapts his/her skills to their opportunities, the martial artist does this whilst protecting themself and listening to their coach. Even in a packed arena, what has been learnt, if learnt correctly, drones out the emotional and sensory context of the situation to carry out the task. The soldier or operative's learning becomes his/her functioning, the learning is 'embodied' by their system and every response mechanism synchronises to carry out the task. The trained individual detecting threat suddenly switches to a different 'functioning' to protect and respond: it's not that one walks down the street and suddenly thinks differently and remembers learned facts they were told to carry out and therefore does them - the whole system responds. This is what effective learning does: it creates a synchronised functioning of the system.

Effective Learning = a synchronised functioning system

Think of a pianist embodying the motion / act of playing the piano. Not simply with hands, or with mind: there is a total engagement of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. These 4 elements come together as one and create something else entirely.


The Route to Learning

So how do we get there? First we have facts which when studied or taught create knowledge.

1. Learning facts = knowledge
2. That knowledge set within context creates relevance.
3. Contextual knowledge = relevance

When we have relevance we more easily reach understanding because we can more readily relate to the facts, and if possible even apply the knowledge to our experiences.

The best form of relevance in learning is via experiential learning. This is why learning on the job, or by carrying out the experiment yourself rather than read about it in texts box is so much more effective for retaining information and formulating useful informed approaches for future work.

With knowledge, understanding and careful analysis of the facts applied to conditions, past or present, we can derive principles.

Knowledge > understanding > analytical understanding = principles

With principles we further travel through the stages of understanding to application.

Principles > application

Application involves grasping the concept of a system of thinking (or being) and being able to apply the principles of it out of that initial context to a different subject, set of conditions or field of study.


Systems & Applications

This deriving of principles which can be applied to another set of conditions, subject, context is the creation of a System. This is what we ultimately aim to do with all our studies; we’re going deep into their specific subject to derive principles in order to learn patterns and laws and ways which we can apply to other fields. This is what we encourage our students to do with whatever learning they are undertaking, so the learning itself is a vehicle for something greater to emerge.

Systems allow you to expand your work into wider subject fields, create and innovate. You can utilise known systems to do this, or build and author your own. The key is you must have passed successfully through the learning stages so that at understanding you have a real embedded knowledge, a clear view of the principles at play. This is not a fast route and requires dedication and study.


Finding Way

A System goes beyond facts, past knowledge, through to an upper level of understanding which I describe as a way. A way is the key to applying the derived principles for application in the current instance, the future or hypothetical instance, through to some other context altogether which has not, during the learning process, been exposed to the learner.

The learning process in effect becomes a vehicle. The skills and knowledge picked up along the way, initially sought in itself and utilised as development mechanisms on route, later become attributes.

Skills + Knowledge = Attributes

The end game is not gaining attributes, (simply mastering the skills set or memorising the knowledge) but to develop past that point to where concepts are grasped, principles are embedded and perspective and awareness is increased.

Goal = attributes + embedded principles + perspective + awareness

At this point we want to look at the possibility of the individual's understanding becoming so clear and embodied in their thinking and functioning that they are able to go past the detail, to connect to the creative and apply what they have learnt to new ideas outwith the subject context.

Understanding + creative = Innovation

This is where we see innovation: the application of principles from one area of study to solve problems in another.

Innovation = the application of principles from one area of study to solve problems in another

This is where we get breakthroughs in thinking and the ability to go beyond personal gain in order to make fundamental changes beneficial for both ourselves and others.


For Training, One to One and online Coaching contact www.fiveringstraining.com