The dynamics of learning in a curriculum practice that reflects "mimesis" include rote memorization, teacher-driven didactic pedagogy. Aristotle stated that humans naturally imitate the behaviors and skills of other humans, more than other living creatures imitate each other. He said, “Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature.”1 He likened learning to a new artistic painter copying a master artist. No recognition was given to new learner ideas or discoveries that are not copies of existing materials.

An example of mimesis reflected in a curriculum practice was described in Why Should They Look Behind Them?2 where learners had to memorize capes along the USA’s east coast. The learning process utilized touching a map while reading and reciting the cape names. The idea was that more senses used in the learning process would make the memorization more successful. The problem was, they had to use the touch of a book cover in an attempt to install the memorized capes in list form for answering the teacher’s question to list the capes in order, north to south. Only memorization and two or three senses were used, and there was no engagement or student-driven collaboration or discursive dimension to the learning experience, to enable the cape names to be learned and enjoyed instead of being memorized. This approach is still used today, as seen in a video entitled Learn the Korean Alphabet in 10 Minutes by Jenol Q. Quililan, who shows Korean letters and pronounces them, but the learner has no ability to self-direct the learning; the learner is left to note-taking, watching and listening.3

The dynamics of learning would be different if the curriculum practice that reflects synthesis was used. Students drive their learning process by what interests them. In the cape-names example, synthesis would have the learners selecting what they want to know about the east coast capes. Teachers should guide learners, but teachers do not always know how to build and support such a curriculum and may just do what they are accustomed to doing in student-driven learning: “I mean we know what we are doing but we don’t …”4

And the dynamics of learning would be even more different if the reflexivity approach was adopted. In the east coast cape example, the students would be supported by teacher scaffolding, helping leaners take one step at a time. Teachers would coax learners to engage in independent thought and be motivated by what interests them in the topic, rather than handing information to them about the capes.5 Some students might want to know what foods were common in the area restaurants in cape areas. Others may be motivated by learning the swimming possibility or number of beaches at each cape. The students would search for information related to their interest, and in that way would learn about the capes through the lens of their interest. It would be like traveling to each cape and sampling the local cuisine and beaches for swimming, and having memories of each cape support the learned information, without having to travel. And learners may obtain new skills, be a different person than they were before they started learning in the reflexivity approach. They may learn how to use spreadsheets to compare data and learn “how to learn”.6 It is important in reflexivity learning for teachers to have complex scaffolding, to avoid learners finding inappropriate sources, particularly online. An example is another video, Learn Hangul (Korean alphabet) in 30 minutes7 by Miss Vicky, where she compares Korean alphabet characters to items to visualize the character easier. She says a particular character sounds like an English “g” and proposes that the Korean character looks like a gun to help remember the “g” sound. She later presents a character that looks like the “g” character with a line added sounds like an English “k” as in kill, so remember you can kill a person with a gun. That statement is potentially traumatizing for the learner, regardless of age, and demonstrates the importance of teachers reminding or guiding students to carefully consider the sources to be used in their research.

1 https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-8/aristotle-on-mimesis

2 https://youtu.be/4vkTnxw3l9Q

3 https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-8/why-should-they-look-behind-them

4 https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-8/moves-you-make-you-havent-given-names-to

5 https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-8/coaxing-learners-to-think-for-themselves

6 https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-8/he-didnt-know-what-he-didnt-know

7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85qJXvyFrIc