Learners look for connections: When we approach a subject for the first time, we immediately try to perceive the relevance of the new concept to our lived experience. When a new piece of information simply doesn’t fit in any of our existing knowledge structures (or “schemas”), it is often rejected. This means that the more encouragement a learner has to become invested in material on a personal level, the easier it will be to assimilate the unfamiliar.
•Long-lived attachments come with practice: Concepts need to be “aired” repeatedly and regularly, defended against attack, deployed in new contexts, and associated with new settings, activities, and people. Otherwise, the attachment is broken and the information lost.15
•New contexts need to be explored: The concepts being learned are always part of a much larger “learning event” and are directly linked in the learner’s mind with social circumstances—the setting, the activities, the people.16
Along with this emerging learner profile, cognitive scientists are studying the mind-set of the educator or subject matter expert, with some illuminating results.