Differences in location
I still remember when my family moved from Minsk, Belarus, to Moscow, Russia. It was a huge change for us: a new country, city, and school. I was set to go into third grade. My parents sent me to one of the top schools in Moscow, not because I was a particularly smart kid, but because it was the most convenient choice for our family. When I stepped into my new classroom and listened to my new teachers, I vividly recall how difficult it was to grasp what they were trying to teach me. I was doing so badly in my classes that the school moved me from third to second grade. It was one of the most embarrassing things I experienced as a young kid. For years, I believed that I was a dumb person. I was the oldest in my class, the tallest, yet I had the worst grades out of everyone. Because everyone told me that I was dumb, I believed it; therefore, I always struggled in school.
Meyer and Land’s book “Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding” hit the nail on the head when they compared how students learn differently. When everyone said I was dumb, I wasn’t; I just needed more time to understand what they wanted me to know. It was difficult for me because it was a different environment with different expectations of school, culture, and learning style.
Although it was a negative experience in my life, I didn’t realize at that moment that the challenges I faced were only preparing me for my future when I had to move to another country again. Who would have thought that a struggling kid, who couldn’t get higher than a “C” in his “Russian” class and completely failed his “English” class, would one day be pursuing his doctoral studies in the USA while doing so in English! Overcoming Obstacles highlights these moments of how difficult experiences tend to build one’s character.
The wonderful thing about life for someone like me is that there is always hope. It can be hard to believe in yourself when you struggle with certain subjects, yet it is through failures that one finds growth. Understanding topics like philosophy, mathematics, physics, psychology, and biology hasn’t been easy for me. There’s a reason I am a pastor! Still, I am thankful that some people excel at what I was never good at. What I have learned is that through my efforts, the path to my calling became clearer, and my failures have refined my destiny and purpose in this world. The authors introduce the idea of “troublesome knowledge,” which is described as a “conceptually difficult, counter-intuitive experience.” It’s not a pleasant experience, but it’s something everyone who is passionate about knowledge gets to experience.
I have met both types of people: those who are obsessed with learning and those who struggle with it. Meyer and Land, in “Overcoming Barriers and Student Understanding,” primarily focus on recognizing the emotional challenges associated with learning and addressing the human aspect of supporting students.
Jan Meyer and Ray Land. Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge. (London, UK: Routledge, 2006)
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About the Author
Ivan Ostrovsky
8 responses to “Differences in location”
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Ivan,
As someone who had to “repeat the second grade”, I can identify with the embarrassment that it caused you. But thankfully, the effort can pay off. Look at us now!
I appreciated your angle regarding the emotional aspect of learning and how it engages with the thresholds that we face. Do you think that there is a mindset or an approach that would help move troublesome knowledge from a “not pleasant experience” to something more palatable? Or, is the discomfort a propellent to help move us out of liminality?
It’s interesting how, during challenging experiences in life, we often feel like we are the only ones facing them alone, yet we both have similar experiences. And yes, we’re both taking doctoral-level classes!
I believe that every individual has a unique learning style. When I’m in class and my teacher simply conveys all the necessary information, I know I will not learn as effectively as they expect. However, if they show me visual examples, videos, and take the time to engage with me through questions and interactions, I will learn much better. I also understand that discomfort and hard work are part of learning, as they make us tougher and help our brains function. Throughout my life, I have been involved in sports, and the more I played, the better I became.
Ivan,
You are right that different people learn in different ways. It’s unfortunate that you had to experience feeling dumb just because you hit a liminality. I also believed I was dumb for many years. I went to a large school and didn’t really understand what my teachers were teaching about. Like you, because I believed I was dumb, I stayed in that bounded thinking. I couldn’t get what was going on in my head to the paper in any understandable way. Reading “Affective Dimensions of Liminality” by Julie Rattray helped me to understand the psychological and emotional affect of threshold transformations. Our gained knowledge is not just cognitive but includes how someone feels about learning. They discovered that when a learner has hope, the personal ability to reach the goal, she has a better chance at learning success. Rattray writes of optimism, emotional security and resilience as positive ways towards transformation intellectually and emotionally.
You had the resilience to lead you past the negative learning experiences and to get you to a doctoral program in a second language. Hats off to you!
Rattray, Julie. 2016. “Affective Dimensions of Liminality” in Threshold Concepts in Practice. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers
Jess, this is a good argument for worrying about how we teach as much as what is taught. Guilt and shame make for poor motivation, in direct opposition to encourage a desire to learn.
I’m teaching around 35 early career engineers in a couple of weeks. The schedule is compressed, so some topics will need culling. As tempting as it is to go straight for the technical requirements, you are reminding me of the importance of setting a conducive environment. Imparting the troublesome forms of ritual or inert knowledge will not move the collective through the liminality tunnel. I have something to practice.
Ivan,
You have shown great emotional and spiritual maturity in realizing that all positive and negative inputs have directly led you to where you are today. It is extremely hard to see this when you are in the moment and potentially very emotionally charged. It might feel as if you are permanently trapped in the situation.
A friend of mine who was a year behind me in high school moved from Washington State to Long Island the summer before he entered his senior year. He had attended high school with me the entire time leading up to this transition. I was in college in New York and had the opportunity to visit his family over long weekends and holidays. This senior year was effectively a liminal year for him. He took his classes and applied to colleges, but culturally and socially, he really struggled. He shared with me that his graduation really occurred back in Washington State when he moved away after junior year, except there was no celebration. As a dear friend, it was eye-opening for me, but much like you, he was able to reconcile and move on with perseverance and strength. He later became an infantry officer in the Army, led soldiers in a Ranger battalion, and has now practiced law for 25 years.
Your message about belief and hope is powerful. Keep leaning in.
Thank you for sharing some of your background, Ivan. Stories of immigration bring wonder and respect. I was born in the US, learned English through osmosis, and my only extended international assignment was in London. How boring is that?
I had to read your sentence, “The wonderful thing about life…,” maybe four times to digest it. I was skipping over the phrase, “for someone like me.” I have two close friends who have been providing trauma care in eastern Congo for 20 years. Yesterday’s text described refugees overwhelming the hospitals and clinics as they fled two coordinated acts of terrorism. There isn’t much hope in the daily lives of this people group. “For someone like me” acknowledges that God has given you and my missionary friends a gift meant to be shared. I think there are more reasons than philosophy and physics that drove you to becoming a pastor.
Ivan, your story is one of pure inspiration. Thank you for your honesty in sharing such an excellent illustration of hope. I thought of David as a shepherd boy in the field. No one saw his potential, not even his father. But Samuel reminded them that the Lord looks at the heart. He uses the ordinary and unqualified. You may have struggled in school and been deemed “unqualified,” yet here you are in this program. And as a pastor, you are pointing people to Jesus – more hope. Thank you for the reminder that even when the knowledge is troublesome, there is purpose on the other side. Here’s to crossing the threshold!
Thanks for sharing this, Ivan. I agree that people learn at different paces and forms. In one of the readings on constructionivsm, I read that there are active learners, social learners and creative learners. Most learning is bent toward one form/mode excluding others. I am glad you are here (with us in this program), challenging paradigms and make in a difference in the lives of many!