What is Learning?

Introduction:

Throughout the history of the world, battles have been fought between civilizations. These battles are fought and won by the societies fueled for learning new information through all aspects of culture and all forms of information. An important pattern in history viewed by many historians is the rise and fall of civilizations. Some civilizations have conquered and others have failed. Why does this happen? The answer is learning. All successful civilizations share the same trend of having high rates of retrieving and producing new ideas. The effective societies in history learned Bloom’s taxonomy quickly in a figurative sense. They learned how to grasp information and apply it deeper than just knowing and understanding the ideas. Civilizations that followed these characteristics lasted longer than past forgotten civilizations in history.

            If we were to create a civilization of our own, what kind of foundation of learning would it have? What past civilizations could we model to get the most efficient and successful civilization ever known? The answer to these questions will begin the development of a society where learning is the foundation and education is the most important. A civilization needs three aspects of learning to produce new ideas and stay thriving as a culture. First, it needs an educational system where knowledge is vibrant and society is learning as a whole. Second, it requires enlighten thinkers who think outside of the box and invent new technologies that forces a society to change. Third, it’s up to the people to make the most out of their civilization. A lazy population will never achieve anything that amounts to the Romans or the Greeks. A productive society will result in the creation of a social structure that will help develop the civilization to learn and grow their culture. In this paper I will analyze the three aspects of learning and use them to examine nine artifacts created in past civilizations after the 1500’s. The purpose of this paper is to develop a civilization using the nine artifacts as my guide to understand how civilizations learned and the output they created by studying their artifacts in detail.

Through the educational system, the definition of learning is the act of obtaining information and processing it through Bloom’s taxonomy of learning. During this life, learning can be much more than that. An active learner follows three characteristics to enhance their view of the world. First they repeat information to enhance their memory. Second, they effectively learn from experiences, stories and role models during their life. They do this by using a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. And third, they actively pursue their weaknesses because failure results in a drive to work harder towards strengthening flaws. Doing these actions leads to the overall development of intellect and ultimately learning.

Useful Artifacts:

Machiavelli: The Prince

Date: 1532                                                                                      Nationality: Florence, Italy

Author: Niccolo Machiavelli                                                             Medium: Paper and Ink

The oldest artifact that will be used for my new civilization is The Prince by Machiavelli. This piece of writing is very important to learning because it describes how leaders should act in order to maintain control of their people. Machiavelli argues that monarchy and control of people using fear instead of love is the ultimate way to control a nation. The writing of this document shows the learning of other civilizations to follow this same form of control. Under the construction of my new civilization, this document could be used as an example of control that should not be used (Later, I will address the “Two treatise of Government” and explain why this form of government is a much better solution than Machiavelli’s form of leadership.) This document would follow the first aspect of learning under educational increase of the society as a whole. An example of learning from the document would be the political philosophy view of leadership and how true character must always be present to lead a nation. This artifact would be a great source of learning for the new civilization because it would help the formation of leaders and teachers throughout the society.

95 Theses

Date: 1517                                                                           Nationality: Germany

Author: Martin Luther                                                           Medium: Paper and Ink

An artifact that changed the course of many civilizations in the 1600’s was the “95 Theses” wrote by Martin Luther. This document by Martin Luther expresses changes of a system. This piece of writing was a moment in history where religion took a different course in the minds of human beings. He made statements that were against the views of the Catholic Church. In this particular case, the “95 Theses” changed the views of many religious people. These words had power and influenced people’s minds. This document proves that people had independent thought to think for themselves. Independent thinking is a product of finding knowledge for the individual not for a leader or community. This thinking follows the second aspect of a successful civilization—enlightened thinkers who think for themselves. Martin Luther’s ideas came from his growth mindset which made him believe that there are better forms of religious truth. The “95 Theses” show many changes of religious and social components of a civilization. For example, Martin Luther talks about indulgences and how they are not required to reach heaven. This example shows a change in religious belief and makes claims to change how society functions with the act of giving money to the church.

David by Michelangelo

Date: 1504                                                                                        Nationality: Italian

Sculptor: Michelangelo                                                                      Medium: Marble

Another important artifact to include in my new civilization is “The David” by Michelangelo. This sculpture portrays the Renaissance man and how it delivers the message of rebirth. My civilization could learn many important aspects of the Renaissance man and know that education in all areas of life are important. “during the Renaissance, artist wanted the viewer to see the emotions of the subject…” (Strong and Davis). “The David” would follow the first aspect of learning for a civilization under increase of education by seeing the emotion of the sculptor. This sculpture describes the emotions of David versus Goliath in the Bible. Michelangelo effectively engages the viewer to analyze the story of David and what he went through during his battle against Goliath. This studying requires a new civilization to develop a growth mindset to understand why David would go up against a big strong person.

Shakespeare: Hamlet

Date: Roughly 1600’s                                                           Nationality: British

Author: William Shakespeare                                                Medium: Paper and Ink

The play, Hamlet by Shakespeare is a great artifact from the past British civilizations because it shows a development of writing that was very new to the people at that time. The use of this artifact for my civilization would be helpful by providing stories shown through a play with live action and drama. According to this quote by Strong and Davis, Shakespeare used creativity to make Hamlet remarkable, “Shakespeare took this unremarkable story and turned it into a psychological master piece is where his creativity is revealed.” (141). The use of literature provides learning that would enhance the civilizations’ ability to obtain new knowledge to increase technology and creativity. An example where Shakespeare’s literature has made an impact on learning is the creation of many new words in the English language that will teach the people a deeper understanding of the language. This literary work would push my society to be productive and find love in literature.

Isaac Newton

Date: 1642- 1727                                                                    Nationality: English

Person: Isaac Newton                                                              Medium: Human Male

Many new scientific discoveries came about during the time of Isaac Newton. Newton is important to past civilizations and modern civilizations because he created the foundation of physics as we know it today. One of the greats in the science community, Strong and Davis make this point clearly: “His mind was undoubtedly very sharp, but another trait may have been just as important to his success as the world’s greatest scientist.” (769). This attribute of being a great thinker would influence my society in beneficial ways. His new discoveries affect components of civilizations that help create products we use today. For example, the landing on the moon required knowledge about gravity and how it works. Because of Newton’s discoveries, we were able to safely land on the moon. My civilization would benefit greatly from Isaac Newton’s studies by the first aspect of learning. The education in physics would help create buildings, design machinery, and conduct further scientific research throughout my society.

Two Treatises of Government

Date: 1689                                                                            Nationality: English

Author: John Locke                                                               Medium: Paper and Ink

During the Enlightenment period, an enlightened figure named John Locke wrote the “Two Treatises of Government” to address the issues of authority and how the individual has a divine right to freedom. A few key concepts he states are:  political power is the right to make laws and regulate property, men are bound to the laws of nature, and others have a right to punish people who go against God’s will. This document would be beneficial to my civilization because Locke uses concepts to effectively teach others to establish a well organized system of society. John Locke believes that there are natural laws in society that create order which allows freedom. During this Enlightenment period, many intellectually thinkers thought of brilliant ideas that challenged reasoning and lead to many discoveries. An example is Adam Smith. Smith developed an economic system known as capitalism. Today, we still use this form of economics and it’s still very influential in our lives. This piece of writing encouraged many Enlightenment thinkers to change their ideas of how society viewed the individual. Under Bloom’s taxonomy, this document would give my civilization a standard of learning under “creating” value because of the magnitude of what John Locke said about changing rights to the individual. Looking at the big picture, the “Two Treatise of Government” emerged during a time of great discovery and reason. This is why Locke’s document would be very influential to my new civilization.

           

 The Origin of Species

Date: 1859                                                                           Nationality: British

Author: Charles Darwin                                                        Medium: Paper bound

The writing of Charles Darwin about the means of natural selection came about through his studies on the Galapagos Islands. Darwin was a biologist who loved the study of organisms and how the environment affects the biological creatures within. In the “Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin states new information regarding how biological creatures can change through interactions with their environment.  One of Darwin's examples is describing the evolution of finches. For finches to obtain food they must crack shells in order to get the seed. On the island, there were many different types of shells finches had to crack open to receive food. Some finches with smaller beaks could open the smaller shells while finches with bigger beaks could not open smaller shelled seeds. This discovery led to the small beak finch population to survive and reproduce while the big beak population died off. Charles Darwin used this and many more examples of studies he found on the island to convey the message of natural selection. Darwin used analyzing and evaluating to create the idea that organisms actually evolve from how the environment interacts with the organisms instead of organisms spontaneously changing over time. This idea from Charles would arouse thought into my new civilization about science by introducing a new idea through first hand research and evidence. Overall, “The Origin of Species” would be helpful to the civilization by manifesting learning through the creating level of Bloom's taxonomy. Also, Charles Darwin’s ideas regarding evolution and natural selection would show my civilization that science could answer many of life’s important questions.

U.S Constitution

Date: 1789                                                                            Nationality: American

Author: James Madison                                                         Medium: Parchment and Ink

An important document to include in the new civilization is the U.S Constitution. This artifact would be more desirable than other government structured documents because it includes the complied ideas of the Founding Fathers into an agreed structure. The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution using knowledge they gained from past civilizations that succeeded for a long period and from civilizations that failed. Ultimately, the ideas within the U.S. Constitution are proven to be successful from the practice of past civilizations. This document would be especially important to my civilization to be able to structure an effective functioning government. An example why the Constitution would be useful for a government start-up is the idea of checks and balances. This idea establishes a fair use of government power without one division of government overrunning the other. In order for my civilization to grow and expand quickly, it must implement the ideas of the U.S. Constitution. Also under the learning aspects for a civilization, the U.S. Constitution provides education about how government should be structured and how it should function. It also pushes individuals to work because of the way the government is structured. Overall, this artifact would be beneficial the civilization to give order and structure.

Florence Dome

Date: 1436                                                                           Nationality: Italian

Architect: Filippo Brunelleschi                                              Medium: Wood and Bricks

The architecture of the Florence Dome by Brunelleschi is another great work of art done through creativity and strong willed determination. Figuratively, this structure stands tall above all other architecture achievements in history because of the story behind Filippo Brunelleschi by using creativity and determination. This is described in Strong and Davis, “[Brunelleschi] revealed his tremendous preparation for this project and the creative methods he would use rather than the traditional construction methods which he asserted would not work in the Florence cathedral.” (16).  Filippo Brunelleschi’s creativity of his structure teaches us how hard work can pay off even if the task at hand is almost impossible. The component of learning here is developing creativity and working hard to achieve something great. The Florence Dome would be a great artifact to include into my civilization because of the learning aspect of how the dome was built through creative processes. A civilization needs creative minds to advance in technology; therefore, the Florence Dome will be included in my new civilization.  

During this semester, I have realized that there is much more to learning then just remembering and understanding. I've learned that taking the subject material a step further too really analyze the information helped me create a new thought or idea from it. An example in my life where I have used Bloom’s taxonomy to create value is when I designed and implemented my own business. I wrote the business plan and took all necessary action to make a profit and exceed in the world of business.  The best situations I learn are with my role models. Every day I spend time with them and I learn a new way to perform a task or complete an assignment. In these situations, I learn best by applying myself and actually doing the task. For example, when my dad was teaching me how to shoot a basketball, not only did I listen but I also took action to what he told me by doing exactly what he said. This allowed me to perform the task of shooting a basketball well and made it stick in my head so I can later perform the same task in the future. The best way I can apply this concept to school work is by doing “hands-on” studying for the class material. I think by analyzing and interpreting ideas from class, I can better understand it and be able to remember it better just like I do with hands-on tasks with my role models. I feel there is always a better way to learn different things and I will continue to learn how to find the most efficient ways to learn at BYU. As I develop this way of learning, how would it impact modern day civilizations? The civilizations in this new technology era are much more advanced then civilizations of old. My definition of learning can still apply now because deep learning requires a growth mindset. As individuals and communities continue to search deep for knowledge and look past the understanding of the product by finding ways to create the element. If we as a human society continue to pursue these actions of growth mindset then we will continue to grow as a whole.