Thoughts on Working with the Adult Learner

by Loretta Butehorn PhD, CCH

One of the most exciting aspects of teaching homeopathy is also its inherent challenge: we are teaching adult learners.  Some grew up in an age when education was designed around a lecture format.  Information was “told” to the student.  Others grew up within the technological age, grew up in a period when multisensory data could fly at us from myriad directions, simultaneously. Each environment created different experiences of learning.  Some of us look to experts, leaders in the field, other of us feel more familiar and comfortable with exploring the data ourselves.  Each of us has a predilection toward what we think of as learning.

When we develop our classroom approaches for homeopathic education, we often have students from both models of education.  A lecture format suits some and sedates others; the experiential format engages some and annoys yet another group. So what’s an instructor to do? 

Hahnemann himself understood the diverse ways of advancing in the mastery of a subject.  O’Reilly observes:

 “…Hahnemann uses various terms to refer to different modes of knowledge.  To be aware: wissen. To have intellectual awareness. Discursive cognition, such as that knowledge gained from books,lectures or scientific study.  Wissen has both a cognitive and perceptive component….To know kennen,…to have a deep personal knowledge, such as that based on life experience, specifically that part of life experience that cannot be conveyed to another through teaching or demonstration.  For example, the difference between wissen and erkennen, is the difference between knowing about water from reading about it and studying it scientifically versus knowing about it from diving into lakes, waded in streams and walked in rain.  Through direct experience, one receives an impression about something and has a response to it.”

Once again Hahnemann who is such an innovator in areas of hygiene, public health, research and medicine, proves to be an innovative thinker about education. So following his lead, perhaps it is useful to lay a common ground so both the educator and the students can be aware of how adults actually learn.  

600 Billion Pieces of Data Per Second

A first step, is for all to realize that adults have had years of both classroom and life learning.  This is both the good news and the bad news.  The good news is that we can build upon skills and content already mastered.  The “bad” news is that all previous learning creates “filters” which catch certain data, especially data we think we know about.  It’s the old experience of thinking the remedy is Lachesis and only hearing and seeing the Lachesis qualities, missing the “obvious” Lycopodium characteristics until Lachesis has failed to cure, and suddenly we say “oh, its Lycopodium!”

Current science tells us the brain is recipient of 600 BILLION bits of sensory data per second.  Our consciousness can “get” only 2000 bits per second, AND to truly comprehend something we need to slow the process down, by concentration, to a mere 60 bits per second.

So as adult learners, the more we can be aware of our expectations, prejudices, predilections, biases, the more we can “see” what it is we actually might miss.

What Are the Characteristics of the “What” We Are Learning

For nearly a century now, educators have debated and explored the terrain of the adult learner.  In the 1950’s, Benjamin Bloom PhD led a group of psychologists in examining the learning technology in universities.  What they hypothesized was that learning is a function of multiple strategies.  Each of us learns in a variety of ways, with each strategy of learning taking us deeper into the topic we are seeking to master.  Bloom described these strategies of learning in what he termed “Blooms Taxonomy.”   Bloom saw a topic as having a foundational level, and then developing steps taking the student higher and higher into the full experience of knowing the topic.  

Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall or recognition of facts, as the beginning level; through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest level which is classified as evaluation. 

Knowledge: basic data, being able to: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce, and state information.

Understanding: comprehension, being able to: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, and translate, 

Application: applying, being able to: choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, and write. 

Analysis: things apart, being able to: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, and test. 

Synthesis: putting similar things together, being able to: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, and write. 

Evaluation:  test data, being able to: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, and evaluate.  

This was a substantial step toward thinking about what an adult needs to learn about a topic, not just the data but the skill set necessary to utilize that data.

As we teach adult learners, if we give them a prototype, such as Blooms, of the types of information and skill they need to master, be that be homeopathy, electrical engineering or theology; their own ability to realize that there are multiple senses and cognitive functions they are being asked to sharpen and utilize becomes self evident.  This is an important step in creating the common ground between educator and the adult student.

Perceptual Lenses

Another aspect of the contract of common ground between the educator and the student is the realization that each of us takes in sensory data through multiple channels: visual, kinesthetic and auditory.  Donna Markova has done some wonderful works assisting educators and students in tracking what is their preferred “channel” She also differentiates which “channel” operates for the specific student when she/he is focusing, integrating or creating with the data. Almost looking at learning as creating an internal piece of art work.

 This speaks to the need for multi-sensory learning experiences.  Many educators are great at including auditory and visual experiences in the classroom, however it is frequently more difficult to include kinesthetic or hands on learning.  

It is very different thinking about what you might say to a potential client, than actually role playing the initial conversation. Learning is often enhanced simply by handling an object that is symbolic as we discuss a somewhat abstract concept.  A colleague of mine has students taste pieces of unfamiliar, and unidentified, fruit as the class explores the idea of noting qualities of symptoms for repertorization.  Several students have commented that they cannot ask patients their symptoms, getting modalities and truly understanding the symptom without recalling that experience of eating fruit!  Is it a distraction? No, they say, a reinforcement.

Using color, images, audio visuals, experiential learning exercises, handling objects related symbolically or actually to the topic being discussed are all ways of engaging the various sensory levels. Kurtz has an exceptional discussion of multisensory learning specific to homeopathy when he writes:

“…the art of homeopathy has something to do with allowing homeopathy to permeate one’s view of life….It is about sharpening one’ s perception to recognize the common foundation upon which health and disease, life and death, rest….  One way to start this process is to internalize and become intimately familiar with all important concepts of homeopathy. Not only on an intellectual level but also on an intuitive and emotional level….analogies are the main vehicle connecting different parts of knowledge; the emphasis is on insight rather than rote learning….”

Cognitive Lenses

It is not only the sensory preferences that shape an adult learner’s organization of information, but also the qualities of their cognitive “personality.”  During World War II, a mother and daughter psychologist team, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, looked at Carl Jung’s ideas about personality and thought about how they could craft a tool to help women enter the work place and find work that “matched” their personality preferences. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.  

It is a self administered format, which asks people to give a numerical score to a set of paired questions, some 36 in all.  The inventory measures preferred ways of thinking and acting with 16 possible resulting patterns, from 4 paired sets: Introvert/Extrovert, Thinking/Feeling, Intuitive/Sensing and Judging/Perceiving.

According to the Myers-Briggs typology model, each person uses one of these four functions more dominantly and proficiently than the other three; however, all four functions are used at different times depending on the circumstances.

Introvert and extrovert  are used in a unique manner when discussing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator rather than the popular metaphor of “wall flower versus bell of the ball.” People who prefer extroversion draw energy from action: they tend to act, then reflect, then act further. If they are inactive, their level of energy and motivation tends to decline. Conversely, those who prefer introversion become less energized as they act: they prefer to reflect, then act, then reflect again. People who prefer introversion need time out to reflect in order to rebuild energy. The extrovert's flow is directed outward toward people and objects, and the introvert's is directed inward toward his or her own musings and thoughts. There are several contrasting characteristics between extroverts and introverts: extroverts are action-oriented and desire breadth, while introverts are thought-oriented and seek depth. 

Sensing and intuition are the information-gathering (perceiving) functions. They describe how new information is understood and interpreted. Individuals who prefer sensing are more likely to trust information that is in the present, tangible and concrete: that is, information that can be understood by the five senses. They tend to distrust hunches that seem to come out of nowhere. They prefer to look for details and facts. For them, the meaning is in the data. On the other hand, those who prefer intuition tend to trust information that is more abstract or theoretical, that can be associated with other information (either remembered or discovered by seeking a wider context or pattern). They may be more interested in future possibilities. They tend to trust those flashes of insight that seem to bubble up from the unconscious mind. The meaning is in how the data relates to the pattern or theory.

Thinking and feeling are the decision-making (judging) functions. The thinking and feeling functions are both used to make rational decisions, based on the data received from their information-gathering functions (sensing or intuition). Those who prefer thinking tend to decide things from a more detached standpoint, measuring the decision by what seems reasonable, logical, causal, consistent and matching a given set of rules. Those who prefer feeling tend to come to decisions by associating or empathizing with the situation, looking at it 'from the inside' and weighing the situation to achieve, on balance, the greatest harmony, consensus and fit, considering the needs of the people involved.

Judging and perceiving are characteristics that influence the quantity of data needed to draw a conclusion.  Judgers can make decisions based on small amounts of data, sometimes “snap” judgments.  Perceivers like to know the full range of options for a given situation.  Many people incorrectly assume that a “judger” is judgmental.  Not so, rather the judger uses smaller bits of data to draw a conclusion.

There are many variants of the Myers Briggs that are available for use.  It is helpful to remind people that this is neither a mental health diagnostic tool nor a tool to uncover personality problems.  Rather it is a self administered inventory which allows the user to get a sense of the ways in which they filter information: what information is most useful to them; the channels (internal or external) they most rely on; and the way they think about the world most easily (detail or big picture.)

Implications for the Profession

As we consider the four sets of cognitive lenses the Myers Briggs offers us, as well as the other factors which help create what we learn or even experience, we are reminded of the ways in which this information facilitates the homeopath’s work. Interviewing, discussing cases with colleagues, different approaches to case taking and practice, not to mention working collegially are all influenced by this perceptual lenses.

Woody Allen is quoted as saying “reality is a shared delusion.”  He could have done further and said “it is a delusion that we share a reality!”  So much of what we individually experience is our own unique view of what “just happened.”  To get another’s viewpoint even slightly is an amazing event and when we do, or another does this for us, we can feel heard, connected with, understood.  It is both part  of what individualizes the remedy for the client, and makes homeopathy unique. We are each “strange, rare and peculiar” in our own way, not only in make up, or constitution, but also in perception, experience and learning.

Students as Self Directed Learners

Over the years, what I have found in both university, undergraduate and graduate, and homeopathic education is that the more the student know How they best learn, the varied structure of What they are leaning, and the different ways the human animal can experience the world and learn from it, the more responsibility they can take for themselves; seek what they need in the classroom while valuing varied educational approaches; and be better able to organize their studying in class, out of class, and throughout their careers as homeopaths. 

This perspective can serve students well not only in the classroom, but throughout their lives as homeopaths.  A colleague of mine speaks often of the “arc of homeopathic learning.”  The portion of the arc covered in the classroom is quite small compared to the lifetime arc of learning that is the homeopathic vocation.  Mastering the tools of learning how we learn, as early in our career as possible, only enhances the joy of the journey.

Loretta Butehorn PhD CCH is a psychologist and homeopath; Co-Director of THE SIDEWALK SCHOOL in Boston offering homeopathic education integrating classical and innovative approaches to homeopathy; and is a directing senior faculty of Teleosis School of Homeopathy in Cambridge.  She is on the faculty of  Boston College and the American College of Homeopathy.  Contact:   lbutehorn@earthlink.net  , or www.lorettabutehornphd.com , or www.thesidewalkschool.com .