Educating Learners
Introduction
The Midrash says that when Moshe went up to receive the Torah, he was confronted by the ministering angels asking what he was doing there and incensed by his presence in their domain.
Hashem answered; he has come to receive the Torah, to which the angels responded; how can You give this creature of flesh and blood Your treasure that You created before the world, and they were ready to destroy Moshe.
Hashem said answer them; Moshe said: what is written in this book? do not murder, do you have the inclination to murder, do not steal, do you have a desire to steal, keep the Shabbos, do you need a day of rest, and so on. Eventually the angels capitulated and gave him gifts of secrets of the universe.
Questions
In answering two questions on this Midrash, we will reveal an essential element in education?
The angels surely knew what was written in the Torah, so what did Moshe reveal to them?
What was so convincing about Moshe’s argument that caused the angels to retract?
Analogy
A digital designer receives an invitation from the CEO of Adobe Systems to receive a complementary version of the Creative Suite. He arrives and is ushered into the conference room, the CEO sitting at the head and the engineers around the table looking at him in dismay.
After regaining their composure they say to the CEO what is this doing amongst us MIT graduates? He answers, he’s come to receive the latest Creative Suite. In an incredulous tone they attack the CEO; what, you’re going to give this Jewel of software engineering to an Art School graduate who doesn’t know the first line of code?
The CEO tells him to answer them. He asks; what does this package contain? Illustrator – do you guys do digital illustration? Photoshop – do you do image manipulation? InDesign – do you do page layout? This is what I do all the time.
This program is created for me, the end user. You guys are just working for me. They catch themselves, capitulate and as a sign of reverence reveal keyboard shortcuts as gifts.
Analysis
What were the engineers thinking in the first instance and what changed their view?
At first, they were relating to the package from an engineering perspective. As such they were quite correct, this is an engineering marvel and does not belong in the realm of visual art. The designer came along and revealed to them the ultimate purpose of the package, the end use, digital design.
This not only gave them a different perspective of the software, but also the realisation that the greatness of their work goes beyond the genius of coding, to affect a universe of visual aesthetics.
So it was with the angels. They were looking at the spiritual content of Torah and as such it belongs in the higher realms having little to do with the physical world. But, when Moshe revealed that the ultimate purpose is the application of the law in the physical world, they saw a different dimension.
Application
Herein lies the key to spanning the divide between expert knowledge and learner. The expert, quite correctly, from the perspective of his or her expertise, is looking at the learner with something of an intellectual disdain.
Their understanding is at a level that only peers comprehend and is indeed a language unto itself. The learner is not particularly interested or able to comprehend this language only the translation of it in his or her world.
The educator is awarded the task of creating a program that will extract and distil from the expert, the material necessary for the learning task. In order to do this, the educator must understand the world of the expert, how it relates to the world of the learner and how to create the communication channel for transmitting the content.
Conclusion
By populating the mind-space of the expert and the learner, the educator must convert the expertise to lay language for the purpose of the program and thus bridge the expert/ learner divide.