Tools for Dialogue and Deliberation on Wicked Problems

Sensemaking 'vs' Learning

As part of thinking through our SocialLearn platform for socially-based, informal and formal learning, I am pondering the overlaps and differences between sensemaking and learning, in theory and practice. In my view, SL as a platform designed to connect learners with each other via common learning goals, interoperable with many Web 2.0 tools, could be a potential GSm platform for analysts and subject matter experts working on a wicked problem.

I'd like to do some kind of mapping between e-learning pedagogy models, and sensemaking models. Meantime, if anyone has good resources to point to that bridge these two worlds, then let me know.

Comment by George E. Mobus on July 15, 2008 at 23:59: Good piece in your other blog. I'm one of those slow learners! A long time ago I realized that my subconscious brain was taking care of a lot of the real work and I would often have the feeling that if I didn't understand something, if I just let it cook below the surface some clarity would emerge. It has actually seemed to work pretty well. I've noted a correlation between that cooking time and when I am in a somewhat withdrawn mood. Guess the gray cells are taking up all the cycles.

I decided my conscious self's job was to point my subconscious mind in the direction that made sense to go. I actively choose sources of information and absorb what I can, leaving it to simmer. Almost invariably at some later time I just seem to understand whatever it was.

Personally I think this leads to more integrated learning. That is, if I'm investigating a particular subject domain I often find later my understanding includes not only the subject, but how it relates to other domains, and they to it.

For me this is a much more relaxed way to engage with the world. I've even found it works, to some extent, with mathematical topics. Instead of pounding my head trying to remember all the relations and variables as I work through it, I just read it like ordinary text and let it mull. After a time I find I can actually grasp the math better. Quite a contrast to my student days when I would agonize over how slow I was conquering some proof.

Anyway that is by way of explaining why it takes me time to respond to some of these comments/blogs/etc. ;^)

Comment by Jack Park on July 16, 2008 at 0:08: David Gelernter's book The Muse in the Machine says something similar about the subconscious "cooking" ideas. He speaks to that foggy moment between being sound asleep and wide awake as the time when ideas pop through, just before the sensors of conscious thinking and logic can kill them.

Comment by Andy Streich on July 16, 2008 at 2:29: For a bit of related humor check this out.

Comment by Robert Hausmann on July 16, 2008 at 3:44: I am new here, and very curious about how the GSm site came to be!

To your question, I would suggest David Schwandt's (2005) comparison of sensemaking characteristics with adult learning orientations in "When Managers Become Philosophers: Integrating Learning With Sensemaking", Academy of Management Learning and Education.

Glad to join the conversation.

Comment by Jack Park on August 23, 2008 at 19:53: There is a paper at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00014356/ that talks about the differences between knowledge games and sensemaking games.