Why I love learning.
Personal reflections from an #ActuallyAutistic perspective.
#ActuallyAutistic
#AllAutistics
#education
#edutwitter
#teaching
#studying
#autistic
#autism
1/

I realised I loved learning at nursery school. I pressed my painted palms onto sugar paper and slid smooth wooden beads on an abacus. I sat on a vintage tractor in the grounds and marvelled at its mechanics. To learn was to wonder.
#earlyyears
#education
#nursery
#autism
2/
I loved the fabric of the building. A small human sized door set in a large wooden gate. My coat peg with its sunflower motif. The canvas and metal camp beds we slept on after lunch. Collaborating with my cousin David, who helped do up my buttons, while I tied his shoe laces.
3/
My memories of primary school are even more vivid. Immersing objects in water, seeing what would float. Making kites out of sticks and paper. Translating shapes on paper into meaning and sound. Planting seeds then scraping back the earth to find red radish globes. Watching.
4/
One day we made a sorting machine out of index cards with holes in different places threaded onto knitting needles. It would answer questions for us. It was a rudimentary computer. I learned that I could answer questions myself by reading books, or sometimes just by thinking.
5/
Without any conscious effort on my part I became very good at reading and spelling. These were things I performed well in, naturally and effortlessly. For a child who struggled with handwriting, and never learned her times tables, this unexpected excellence was utterly joyful.
6/
I was on uncertain ground in many respects, but spelling and language were things I was confident about getting right. It’s only recently that I’ve been able to leave up tweets with typos in them. Precision was a form of self reassurance now I’ve learned to live with mistakes.
7/
Many aspects of school were challenging but I always loved learning. Not every lesson of course, double maths filled me with dread. The sheer unexpectedness of what might be discovered in biology, or chemistry or English filled me with excitement. Knowledge seemed limitless.
8/
One day Edward de Bono talked to us about lateral thinking. Thinking about the way we think was a new concept to me. I thought a lot about the human mind and behaviour through studying literature. What made people act in certain ways? What was right and wrong? How do we know?
9/
Learning can’t happen without making mistakes and that was incredibly hard for me. In art I would draw in pencil and keep rubbing it out until all I had was a hole in the paper. My lovely art teacher gave me an ink pen and explained how to incorporate ‘mistakes’ into artwork.
10/
I had no idea what I wanted to do after school except that I wanted to carry on learning. English and Art were my strongest subjects but the pull of literature was strongest. I still have some of my undergraduate essays and it’s interesting to see how I went from B- to A.
11/
My small friendship group wasn’t subject based so I was on my own when it came to lectures and seminars. I loved listening but simultaneous note taking was tricky. Luckily I got to know another student who helped me by lending me notes so I could revisit what had been said.
12/
My later essays have more original thought. I’m not sure to what extent this was due to me being autistic and seeing things differently, it was definitely influenced by reading outlier rather than mainstream commentators. It required confidence to adopt a different position.
13/
What I learned at university was how to state and justify my own unique perspective on things. And literature helped me to untangle mysterious aspects of human existence like love, betrayal, retribution and forgiveness, while I was living them. It was an immersive experience.
14/
Learning helped me to master and control aspects of my life. Theoretical concepts could be applied to practical things like cooking and driving a car. Immersion in research induced a trance-like state of flow. And learning gave me a common language to talk to other people.
15/
I might have gone on to research, but no one explained how to do it, and I was too shy to ask. Instead I took on a social care job. In many ways it was a terrible experience but I learned a lot about myself. I wouldn’t collude with abuse. I was more courageous than I thought.
16/
Having derailed my career by resigning, I spent a while taking stock. It occurred to me that I should focus on what I was good at, so I applied to do a PhD. I wanted to study the poetry of Bob Dylan, which got a disdainful response. I couldn’t be persuaded onto Paul Scott.
17/
Learning has always been a refuge for me. It’s my comfort zone. I eventually found my way back to academia in my 30s, when I had two young children. I was working for the Probation Service, and the Home Office sponsored me to do a Masters Degree and Diploma in Social Work.
18/
I had a lot of angst about what was involved. The commute was a 90 minute drive each way. At the enrolment session I got into a real muddle with some of the paperwork. But in spite of many trials and tribulations over the next two years my love of learning saved the day.
19/
It was a challenge switching to social sciences after studying literature. They were connected by human experience, but the way I wrote essays had to change. Just as with my first degree it took me a while to understand exactly what was required, but once I did I flourished.
20/
I flourished to such an extent that I enrolled for a PhD, alongside a social work practitioner role. I then got offered a part time lectureship, teaching on the programme I’d only just graduated from. It was an extraordinary time in my life. Enormous pressure and opportunity.
21/
As a lecturer I discovered the joy of teaching, helping students access new knowledge, shift perspectives, and realise their potential. I also realised how ill-equipped I was to deal with departmental politics, and a Lothario masquerading as my mentor. Eventually I escaped.
22/
Most of my career has been dedicated to learning and development. I discovered that what was looked down on in one institution was lauded by others. My use of visual imagery disturbed traditional academics, but in the emerging field of blended online learning it was revered.
23/
Love of learning may be my main special interest. Unsurprisingly one of my interests is autodidacticism. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover many autodidacts are autistic like me. I started researching this topic for an Un-PhD some time ago, perhaps I’ll return to it one day.
24/
Many challenges involved in learning were about people and places. When I learned in my own way, in an environment and at a pace that suited me, it was a wonderful experience. I became completely immersed in topics and stuck with them without getting bored.
#autistic
#autism
25/

More from Education

** Schools have been getting ready for this: a thread **

In many ways, I don't blame folks who tweet things like this. The media coverage of the schools situation in Covid-19 rarely talks about the quiet, day-in-day-out work that schools have been doing these past 9 months. 1/


Instead, the coverage focused on the dramatic, last minute policy announcements by the government, or of dramatic stories of school closures, often accompanied by photos of socially distanced classrooms that those of us in schools this past term know are from a fantasy land. 2/


If that's all you see & hear, it's no wonder that you may not know what has actually been happening in schools to meet the challenges. So, if you'd like a glimpse behind the curtain, then read on. For this is something of what teachers & schools leaders have been up to. 3/

It started last March with trying to meet the challenges of lockdown, being thrown into the deep end, with only a few days' notice, to try to learn to teach remotely during the first lockdown. 4/

https://t.co/S39EWuap3b


I wrote a policy document for our staff the weekend before our training as we anticipated what was to come, a document I shared freely & widely as the education community across the land started to reach out to one another for ideas and support. 5/
https://t.co/m1QsxlPaV4
Working on a newsletter edition about deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice is crucial if you want to reach expert level in any skill, but what is it, and how can it help you learn more precisely?

A thread based on @augustbradley's conversation with the late Anders Ericsson.

You can find my complete notes from the conversation in my public Roam graph:
https://t.co/Z5bXHsg3oc

The entire conversation is on

The 10,000-hour 'rule' was based on Ericsson's research, but simple practice is not enough for mastery.

We need teachers and coaches to give us feedback on how we're doing to adjust our actions effectively. Technology can help us by providing short feedback loops.

There's purposeful and deliberate practice.

In purposeful practice, you gain breakthroughs by trying out different techniques you find on your own.

In deliberate practice, an expert tells you what to improve on and how to do it, and then you do that (while getting feedback).

It's possible to come to powerful techniques through purposeful practice, but it's always a gamble.

Deliberate practice is possible with a map of the domain and a recommended way to move through it. This makes success more likely.

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1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized

Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.

After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.

In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized

Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.

After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.

In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.