Exercise Two: Deep Learning

Maine Greene from Landscapes of Learning:
“…each of us achieved contact with the world from a particular vantage point, in terms of a particular biography. All of this underscores our present perspective and affects the way we look at things and talk about things and structure our realities.”

(A Post on The Crucial Opening Weeks of a Course, Exercises)

Deep Learning Exercise (borrowed from Rita Pougiales at Evergreen State College)

a. How old were you when the experience took place? (The experience should be the most profound in recollection, so there are no age restrictions on when it occurred.)
b. Where were you? (The physical context: outside, at home, on a trip, alone at night, during a thunderstorm—any situational details that feel relevant.)
c. Who were you with? (Alone, with a close friend, performing for an audience, babysitting—the social context.)
d. What was your dominant emotion at the time? (Fear, elation, perplexity, desperation, serenity, panic—try to capture the dominant emotional quality of the experience from which the learning emerged.)
e. What did you learn? (Frame this in the way that best expresses its meaning for you, not simply in terms of skill or content acquired. For instance, you might have learned to swim, but the meaning of this accomplishment is best expressed in terms of the inner strength you discovered through overcoming your fear of water.)
f. How did you know you’d learned this? (This realization might have come much later and might still be unfolding.)