“Help, I’m stuck in a nutshell!” -Me in a nutshell (thanks Austin Powers)

HI! My name is Brett Cauchi and I am a 22 almost 23 year old 5th year Senior here at Chico State. I am a bit of a journeyman, not by choice. Out of high school I had to make the decision to go to a UC school or play basketball at a JC… I chose the latter. I don’t regret it at all, and am so glad I pursued my passion for the game of basketball. Junior College academics was interesting to say the least, but what I learned most was who I was, and how to interact with people of all walks of life, which if you think about it is way more important than algebra (I can get away with that comment in this class). Anyway, I played two years of JC ball, then transferred to a small Liberal Arts college in McMinnville, Oregon called Linfield College to continue playing basketball. I had a good time there, but not great. Ultimately I fractured my foot midway through the season, and amidst all of the rain, I decided that I did not wan to return there for another two years of college.

So I hopped on the phone and talked to the head coach of the Chico State Women’s Basketball team, a very close family friend of mine, and asked him for advice. He told me to come coach with him at Chico State and to finish my academics here. I said YES.

So here I am, a year and a half later, on my way to finish my bachelor’s degree this Spring in English Studies. I still am coaching with the Women’s basketball team (so come check us out!).

As far as the future, I wish to obtain my teaching credential and masters (most likely from Chico State) and become a high school teacher and basketball coach.

I enjoy basketball (shocker), classic rock and new pop (T-Swift is my #WCE), golf, and reading good books (more specifically life-changing books, self-help types).

Now for the juicy stuff:

In the Wenger intro piece I found these passages compelling enough to pique my interest:

“1) For individuals, it means that learning is an issue of engaging in and

contributing to the practices of their communities.

2) For communities, it means that learning is an issue of refining their

practice and ensuring new generations of members.

3) For organizations, it means that learning is an issue of sustaining the

interconnected communities of practice through which an organization

knows what it knows and thus becomes effective and valuable

as an organization.”

These three ideas make me think that there are three types of learning environments: individual, community, and organizations. I agree with this concept and that each environment has its own way of learning. Each one is linked to one another — you must be able to learn as an individual in order to express ideas to a community or organization, but also, you must be a part of a community or organization to actually benefit from learning as an individual.

“There are also times when society explicitly places us in situations where the issue of learning becomes problematic and requires our focus: we attend classes, memorize, take exam, and receive a diploma. And there are times when learning· gels: an infant utters a first word, we have a sudden insight when someone’s remark provides a missing link, we are finally recognized as a full member of a community.”

I liked this passage because it gives substance to the way of “learning by doing” rather than “learning because I have to.” I believe that learning in an engaging environment leads to the best learning. Take sports for example.

Why do people play sports? They’re fun and challenging. You still have to work really hard, but the incentive is there- it is fun and there is an intrinsic reward to it. School can be the same way, unfortunately, its perception is of we have to do it, rather than we want to.

My fav= learning as participation

“Even though the topic of this book covers mostly things that everybody knows in some ways, having a systematic vocabulary to talk about it does make a difference.”

This I cannot agree more with. In EVERY facet of life, a certain vocabulary pertains to the actions. It may be the exact same action, but for a different environment, different words link to it. This book shows is telling us that all the information is out there, it is common sense, but that this book puts vocabulary words to those actions so that we can understand it.

All in all what I take from this reading is that learning happens by doing, and that for anyone to learn in any aspect of life — school, work, athletics — they must do rather than be talked at.

The second reading from The Forward to Situated Learning was a bit harder to decipher for me. That being said, this passage really stuck out to me:

“The individual learner is not gaining a discrete body of abstract knowledge which (s)he will then transport and reapply in later contexts. Instead, (s)he acquires the skill to perform by actually engaging in the process, under the attenuated conditions of legitimate peripheral participation. This central concept denotes the particular mode of engagement of a learner who participates in the actual practice of an expert, but only to a limited degree and with limited responsibility for the ultimate product as a whole.”

This correlates well with the other reading, “learning by doing.” The term given to it in this context is legitimate peripheral participation. The way that term works in my tiny brian is being immersed with the learning around you by doing and observing (please tell me you caught my little jab at myself with the misspelling of brain). I believe that immersing the “learner” in fire is the best way to learn. This comes from learning from an expert. This is why apprenticeships make great employees, workers, leaders, CEO’s, etc. A perfect example is billionaire-entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. He went to Indiana University, got a degree, but made his billions by immersing himself in the computer industry selling computers and reading manuals. The way he learned and became successful was by doing.

This reading also touches on how we need to learn together, not by ourselves. Learn together? Isn’t this the nightmare of all English majors? (Not me!) I prefer it.

This reading talks about how people learn, not specifically talking about academia at all.

This was a meaty reading, but I can take from it a sense of affirmation in the way I believe people should learn, and that is by doing, and by participating it with others.