This-essay is a7911151.htm which is available at the web-site www.essayz.com. See more notes at the bottom. Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay By-Months By-Years By-Words Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One ========================================================== %THEORY AND EXPERIENCE 791115 Theory which is not related to experience is without meaning. The meaning of a theory is rooted in the experience to which it relates. It is meaningless to say that the half life of a gantung is proportional to the square of its lanken divided by the cube of its boontok. To give that statement meaning we must know what a gantung is and what the lanken and boontok of a gantung are. It is not enough to relate this one abstract statement to other like abstract statements in a self-consistent logical structure. Meaning flows from sensory experiences. A theory which can not be related to sensory experiences can not have human meaning. Students who are taught the theory of a profession without grounding in some experience relevant to that theory --- can not meaningfully learn the theory. They may parrot the theory, but without understanding its meaning, or being able to use the theory in a meaningful way in a real life situation. It is not necessarily meaningful to be able to solve text-book problems by manipulating theoretical constructs which are not rooted in personal sensory experiences. Of what use will the theory be outside of the classroom if the student has not related it to personal sensory experience? What meaning can the definitions of terms have if they do not relate to the students' personal experiences and real life perceptions? Part of meaningful learning is the process of relating theory to persons, objects and relationships in personal experience. To fail to relate theory to personal experience is to fail to understand theory. Without relevant experiences the definitions of theoretical terms may not be understood. If definitions are not understood, of what meaning can statements of relationships involving those definitions be? If theory is not grounded in personal experience, the students are bound to become victims of authoritarian teachers who ask them to parrot authoritarian definitions, statements of relationships, and solutions to irrelevant "problems". How are students to decide for themselves whether or not what the teacher says is valid, if what the teacher says is in no way related to the students' personal experiences? (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in www.essayz.com Search for Integrity and Honesty (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================
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