It requires invention and self organization on the part of the learner. Therefore, teachers must empower learners to raise their own questions, generate their own hypotheses, problem solutions, and models as possibilities, and test them for viability. Disequilibrium facilitates learning. When challenging, open-ended investigations in authentic, meaningful contexts are offered, learners are empowered to explore and generate many possibilities, both affirming and contradictory. Contradictions, in particular, are learning opportunities that need to be illuminated, explored, and discussed within the safety of the preparation experience.
Reflective abstraction is a driving force in learning.
As meaning-makers, humans seek to organize and generalize across experiences in a representational form. Facilitating reflection through journal writing and discussion of connections across experiences or strategies enables reflective abstraction and hastens synthesis of knowledge. Dialogue within a community engenders and promotes abstraction and empowers leadership skills. The teacher is a resource for initiating and enabling meaningful professional conversation. Learning proceeds toward the development of structures.