Tamera is taking a pottery class to fulfill an art requirement in school. While she isn’t excited about the clay itself, her teacher prompts the class to imagine: if you had all the skill in the world, and could make any object, what might it be? Tamera remembers a beautiful pink, blue and yellow bowl of her mother’s that she accidentally broke. According to Papert, if Tamera begins to play with the clay with this project in mind— one that is rooted in emotion, and something important to Tamera (her relationship to her mother)— she is much more likely to become not only more connected and committed to learning about clay, but also more driven to understand it.
According to Papert, learning by doing allows us to tap into creative resources that we may not have known were there. When we learn by creating someting that is resonant with our interests and passions, we actually learn much better.
In learning by doing then, we could argue that it is passion, which prompts the imagination and solidifies learning.
The “Learning By…” series explores Seymour Papert’s 8 Big Ideas (1999).