Mysteries & Their Solving

This is the Mystery Machine:

When doing adult learning, (where you are there by choice), the discipline you are in for a novice often presents itself with fun-puzzles.

• How did they do that?
• I watched X do this but still can work that out?
• How do you do this ... I have attempted this 100s of times but still cannot - it must be magic!

The skills involved look like they are magic as they transform one state into another state.

If you do not know the mechanics of this then the mystery creates awe and arousal - which can be addictive parts to adult learning.

Even once tasks are broken down and shown, adopting the skills are hard.

This is how a learning - as mystery typology looks, (source http://www.mysterynet.com/learn/why/ : accessed Feb 2014)

All Stages of Bloom's Taxonomy

As presented in Bloom's Taxonomy, mysteries can be used to achieve higher levels of thinking in these ways:

• Knowledge: Students arrange characters and events in the mystery.
• Comprehension: Students classify events, describe characters, and explain precisely what has occurred.
• Application: Students apply existing knowledge to the mystery by illustrating, dramatizing, and writing their interpretations.
• Analysis: Students analyze, categorize, and differentiate characters and events.
• Synthesis: Students collect and organize facts to form hypotheses.
• Evaluation: Students appraise, argue, assess, and evaluate their opinions in the process of solving the mystery.

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I was thinking about this in relation to some moves Slippers showed me once. The moves are new and they look mysterious - a knife disarm ... but could be a guard pass, or block, or defence to kicks .. anything ...Working down this typology you can see the mystery unravel and be less ... mysterious .... you break it down even more - the synthesis gets involved when you locate the new mystery move in relation to familiar moves you know.Then you evaluate and weigh up this new strange move. (It probably is still 'a mystery', as a sensory motor skill takes ages to hone and 'own' in order to 'apply' usefully.

But the point is the sense of mystery is the key to keeping going. There are loads of mysteries in adult learning asking to be solved. I wonder if you could amend Blooms typology to fit with the mentalities of the Scooby Do crew.

• Are you like Fred ?

Fred is adventurous and pro-active and tries to take immediate proactive solutions to mysteries. 

• Are you like Velma?

Velma is very cerebral and thinks and reflects on how to solve mysteries. She takes her time and is not the most physical of people, but wont be put off because of that. Even though she is short sighted and loses her glasses - her other senses compensate for that. Many roads lead to the solving of a mystery. Notice how she often gets separated from Fred and Daphne in the solution of a mystery. Some types collaborate better with others for mystery solving.

• Jyyyyikes ... Are you like Shaggy and Scooby?

These two are risk averse.

These two would be the last to pick up an injury in training as they take care of themselves too much. (But that is not a bad thing, but some sense of adventure would not be harmful, always).

When they solve a mystery it is by being in the right place place in (their) wrong time, via serendipity.

These two are not in the business to solve mysteries, they want to fill their stomachs really. Their motivation is not really pro-mystery solving.

[NB no Scrappy-do here, as I don't think he should have been created. He does not add that much to the mix].