I consider my intelligence as an acquired skill. I have always enjoyed learning because of the influence of former teachers. I do not consider myself gifted when it comes to my intellect. I just work harder at learning than most other people. Thankfully, I enjoy reading which provides me an advantage in gaining new knowledge. I have improved my ability to understand and learn new concepts quickly.
I do enjoy gaining new insights and perspectives, but without a practical application for the information, I will file it away mentally or discard it. This is one of my struggles in my doctoral studies with theory versus applied knowledge. When I see or hear of new concepts or insights I will consider them in the context of my current interests. Presently, my current interest is in the area developing an innovative approach to transfer knowledge for organizational development. I have become fixated on the subject of transference of knowledge from theory to application. Many books are written about the theory or concepts, but often lack identifying the steps that are required to perform the concepts. For the last three years, I have been exploring using technology to advance this concept of transferring theory to applied knowledge.
It is important to me to know the “truth” about a subject matter because I will often rework the information to make it easier for the learner to understand. To accomplish this, I need to fully understand the information (the truth) and its meaning to apply it in the context that I am trying to teach. A well-chosen sentence, phrase, or word can bring clarity to someone who needs to understand a vague concept. This often means I will take bits of information out of order or sequence because the learner only wants to understand the bits and pieces that they are ready to accept. I often hear project managers ask, “What is the one thing I need to know about project management?” My reply is, “Project management is the ability to get things done.” Hopefully, that one statement will provoke a curiosity which will lead to other questions. I will process a large amount of knowledge (truths) to form well-chosen statements.
Steve
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