The development of semiotic tools (mental tools for making sense of signs and contexts) is relevant to driving, as the relationship between specific skills and understandings (eg about driving) and general ones (skills and understandings about risk for example). The relationship is all very complex.
Below is an extract from a paper which discusses some of these things (sorry it WAS written for an academic readership)
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Learning and Culture
It is a far from new view that the development of an individual’s skills, both subject specific and general, is intrinsically linked to the culture of the particular society and the learning activities which are shared within that context. The word “culture” here applies as much to the culture of a specific discipline, for example Engineering, as to that of higher education and society at large. It is argued that learning activities need to be “authentic”; that they should be normal activities within the culture in question, whose conceptual tools and artefacts cannot be used effectively without the learner adopting the culture and thus developing understanding of how a practitioner addresses problems and sees the world. Even the rules of discourse are specific to a particular culture. It is by encountering concepts, methods and artefacts in the context of authentic activity that learners develop the ability to see how they might be applied elsewhere.
Cognitive Apprenticeship
That concept that learning is therefore “situated” in the contexts of culture and learning environment, supports a view of learning based on the way that apprentices learn from experienced skilled workers. The relationship between any expert practitioner and learner should be similar, in that learners are involved in realistic activities which involve collaboration with peers and experts and which enable them to acquire the language of the culture and the tools to discuss, reflect on and evaluate their practice.
Of particular relevance here is Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD which focuses on learning as taking place between those activities which a learner can undertake on their own and those which can be successfully addressed with the aid of an expert practitioner or more advanced peers.
Semiotics
Linked to work on cognitive apprenticeship is the concept that collaborating and discussing realistic activities will enable learners to develop an understanding of the way the tools and practices of a given culture can be reapplied to give meaning to new activities, and by recognising their significance, increase the degree to which the learner can be said to have adopted or absorbed the culture. In particular, the development of the use of meaning-making, or semiotic, tools is a particularly important aspect of communication between learner and expert.
Collaboration - Individual or Social Learning?
The above imply that collaboration and group working are fundamental to successful learning. Working in groups on realistic activities is considered to lead to improved problem solving approaches, enable better reflection on the roles involved in a specific activity, assist in identifying misconceptions and, of course, develop collaborative work skills. It is also considered to help the learner to make appropriate choices in applying expertise developed to different and new activities. However, the individual and social aspects need careful consideration. Although students operate in a cultural and social context, an individual might be learning on their own and very much for their own benefit, or working cooperatively and collaboratively in a group where the benefits are shared.
A recent paper identified two continua:
• From the individual learning on their own to the participative learning situation with active assistance and support.
• From the individual learning "for themselves", through an individual learning in support of a group activity, to groups learning for the collective benefit and sharing the results of learning.
Its authors argue that the individual and social aspects of each can work to strengthen one another in a "reciprocal spiral". This is exemplified later.
Tacit and Codified Knowledge
Tacit (or strategic) knowledge and skills have a complex but necessary interrelationship with those which are specialised and subject specific (or codified). Through the acquisition of subject or domain specific knowledge a learner can view general skills in context, but the acquisition and application of general strategies are vital to the achievement of those outcomes associated with "deep learning".
<citation> noted that whilst the inappropriate use of general strategies can impede learning, so can incomplete or wrongly perceived specific knowledge and, although general strategies assist in the use and acquisition of specialised knowledge, as the amount of that knowledge acquired increases, the way that general strategies are used changes. Also, significantly, although the relative importance of tacit and codified knowledge may vary across disciplines or tasks, it is likely that one hallmark of the expert practitioner is perceiving their relatedness.
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_________________ I won't slave for beggar's pay,
likewise gold and jewels,
but I would slave to learn the way
to sink your ship of fools
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