Speaker: Jeremiah Mock

Date/time/place: Saturday November 14th, Kochi University, Building 3, Room 310 (2:00 – 4:00 p.m.)
Abstract:
Intuitively, most people appreciate the close kinship that play and learning share. The process of play can lead to deep insights about everyday life, culture, language, values, relationships, nature, physics, metaphysics and so on. Fun-filled learning experiences lead to the enrichment and flourishing of all involved. Research and experience show that adult learners, like the children they once were, learn best when learning-facilitators stimulate their curiosity, imagination and creativity. Unfortunately, the modern Fordist model of education that has proliferated around the world emphasizes arduous “work” and test taking as the way to be educated. Such didactic authoritarian education conditions students to be deferential, passive and “switched off,” thus making it difficult for them to find their voice to express themselves in classroom settings. Even the metaphorical notion of a “workshop” (i.e., an informal, “hands-on” group learning setting) focuses on “work” (as in production manufacturing) rather than emphasizing curiosity, imagination and creativity.
The Insight PlayshopTM approach to learning, including language learning, emphasizes creating a fun environment that sparks the curiosity, imagination and creativity of learners (i.e., course participants and learning-facilitators alike) for the purposes of generating insights about a topic and stimulating greater ability to communicate. This participatory seminar will invite participants to dialogue about “traditional” education, understand the rationale for the Insight Playshop approach and methods, and engage in some experiential playshop learning experiences. Come ready to have fun!
Speaker profile:
Jeremiah Mock, MSc, PhD, is a health anthropologist and education enthusiast. Currently, he is a Fulbright Scholar conducting comparative research on the culture of alternative living in Kochi Prefecture and Central Thailand. He is Clinical Professor at Kochi Women’s University Faculty of Nursing, and Visiting Associate Professor at Osaka University Center for the Study of Communication-Design. While faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, he led many intensive training courses and seminars on participatory learning in San Francisco and across Asia.