Hi Leonard,
Regarding your closing paragraph, it made me wonder whether there were in fact some ways in which understanding non-human animals could enhance our understanding of ourselves. In particular, it made me think of Frans de Waal's work on moral behaviour in animals (his TED talk on this is very good). If a species of non-human animals behaves in ways that indicate that they have a concept of morality, then this is interesting (not least because it says something about how we may and may not behave towards them) and may allow us to learn something about our own understanding of morality.
As you suggest, 'learning' and 'teaching' are probably best thought of as family resemblance terms rather than terms denoting a single, specific activity. And presumably if they are family resemblance terms, then some of ways in which humans learn and teach will be shared by non-human animals, and some won't be. Maybe what is interesting here is to see if there are particular learning and teaching activities or games (for want of a better term) that are uniquely human. If a certain species plays a certain learning and teaching game, perhaps we can learn something from the way they play it. Maybe they play it better than us? Maybe they play learning and teaching games that we've never thought of?
Obviously I'm just wildly speculating here, it's just that I find it difficult to accept that idea that studying the behaviour of non-human animals can tell us nothing useful about ourselves, even when it comes to complex ideas about learning and teaching. I suppose that I never really thought that Wittgenstein got it right about lions, but then I'm not sure that I ever understood Wittgenstein (and even if I did, I might not have agreed with him).
Best wishes,
Rob
From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leonard Holmes
Sent: 17 July 2018 17:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Hoping folk think these questions of relevance/interest - can dogs be educated? can dogs be educators?
Dear all
I'm not clear what the point is in respect of the way the conversation has proceeded, given that this discussion list is about learning development in HE. As far as I am aware, there are no dogs, cats or other non-humans studying in HE, and no dogs, cats or other non-humans teaching in HE. The question posed in Gordon's opening sentence is very important and relevant, ie "what learning (and teaching) is - and who can learn - and how?"
Those questions are primarily philosophical. We need first to be clear about the concepts we are using, avoiding confused thinking from using terms inappropriately. Unfortunately, the term 'learning' (and other terms based on the stem 'learn-', has been used in highly problematic ways, leading to what Wittgenstein would have called 'bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language'. It has led to the idea that 'learning' refers to a singular phenomenon. It doesn't. Moreover, the term may be used when referring to an assumed empirical phenomenon (or perhaps used as explanatory of some empirically observable phenomenon ('behaviour') OR it may be used as an evaluative expression (as when making judgements in assessment, for example).
The relationship between the concepts of learning and education is also complex, and the reduction of the latter to the former in much discussions about HE (and education generally) in discussions over the past 3 decades or so is another example of our intelligence being bewitched. I've used the term 'learnerism', Biesta talks of 'learnification'.
So: education is a concept that is properly used only in the context of human society, and to use it about non-human animals is muddled thinking.
Yes, animals do learn and there are some ways in which they learn from other animals - but that has no relevance to education, especially to higher education. When we use the terms 'learn', 'learning' in relation to education, we are deploying a different conceptual repertoire.
Len
On 16/07/2018 18:08, Gordon Asher wrote:
Hi all - hoping folk think this is relevant/of interest (as I do) for the list - as to discussions about what learning (and teaching) is - and who can learn - and how?
Looking for folks thoughts, on the following questions:
Do you believe that dogs (and/or other animals/species) can be educated?
Further, do you believe they can be educators, not merely learners but teachers?
(relatedly - is there inevitably a teacher, if learning is happening?)
Interested not just in your takes, but how you think these issues are viewed by
- the critical education community
- the mainstream education community
All best
G
Work like you don't need money
Love like you've never been hurt
and dance like no-one's watching
"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)
"Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it, and by the same token save it from that ruin which except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and the young, would be inevitable." Hannah Arendt (The Crisis of Education)
"it is impossible to imagine a future unless we have located ourselves in the present and its history; however, the reverse is also true in that we cannot locate ourselves in the present and its history unless we imagine the future and commit to creating it" (Anna Stetsenko, 2015).
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