A thread in response to something in the keynote Q&A @audreywatters gave today at #digped. She pointed out that behaviorists might draw the line in training rat->baby->student. As if it's just a matter of mechanics and degree. As if we're all really only as intelligent as rats.

Here's the link http://hackeducation.com/2020/07/29/pigeon-pedagogy

A contrast. (To be clear, I'm not disagreeing. I'm realizing I've learned a different lesson from a similar sequence of learners)

I have cats. If you've ever watched a cat solve a problem, you have to be patient.

Set a puzzle in front of a cat, and they'll sniff at it, paw at it, and then walk away. If you wait a bit, you'll see your cat watching the puzzle. They'll probably lick their paw. Then they'll come back and try again.

They'll repeat this sort of behavior, cycling between apparently ignoring and actively interacting, until they solve the riddle or they get actually bored and leave.

But they're not ignoring the problem. They're processing. Cats take their time about things they're unsure of.

Cat->toddler

I have a 2 year old. She wants to be able to do everything, right now. She can't do many of the things she wants to do. But I treat her like a cat, because I had cats for a decade before I had a kid, and it's ingrained in me.

So when my kid wants to do a thing and can't, I like to leave the thing out. I let her be. I watch her get frustrated. I watch her leave the problem and do something else. I might say a word of encouragement, or remind her it's there.

If she's really struggling, I might pointedly interact with the problem to give a clue. But I love to find problems where I can teach her like I teach a cat. She finds a problem she's capable of solving, give her space to do it, let her be. Her smile when she gets it is the best

Cat->toddler->student

We talk about all of those things in teaching terms. Zone of proximal development. Scaffolding. That's what I'm doing. But what I learned from cats, and what my kid has really ingrained in me, is to be patient.

A student learning a thing might need to ignore it for a while. And they might need you to ignore them while they're ignoring it. Learning somethings looks like facing away licking your paw. Learning sometimes looks like throwing all your toys on the floor in a fit.