Writing Center Newsletter Column: Building on Rocks

Building on Rocks

“No one hears anything except what he knows, no one perceives anything except what he has experienced.” (Dr. Karl Lange)

It is sometimes difficult for us to put abstract, unfamiliar, or complex ideas into words, and as tutors, we’re faced with the problem of explaining abstract English and writing principles to students in many, if not all, of our tutoring sessions. We occasionally succeed in helping a student to grasp the importance of a thesis statement or maintaining ethos, but how did we pull it off? I would suspect that often, without realizing it, we succeeded through employing the principle of apperception.

So what is apperception anyway, which is, in and of itself, quite the abstract principle? Let’s start with an example. Whenever I have the opportunity to meet with a student who has come to the Utah State University Writing Center for the first time, I explain my role as a tutor (guide, not editor) with the help of a parable: “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” The student immediately conjures up an image of a fishing pole in his small, 8-year-old hand and his dad modeling how to cast the stinky-cheese-laden hook and bobber out into the pond. The student then connects you with that facilitator role and the idea that their imminent participation in the session is a critical part of the tutoring process.

This parable-style teaching technique is based upon the principle of apperception, which is defined as the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience (Packer 1). For example, your niece might not be able to comprehend what “round” means until you connect the meaning of the word with the chocolate-chip cookies she just ate or her favorite bouncy ball lying in the corner.

This idea, that learning happens when we connect new knowledge to previous knowledge, would seem more like commonsense than some hip, new, innovative pedagogy. Stating the obvious, humans have used stories, parables, examples, analogies, and metaphors to teach and learn since the dawn of time. The majority, if not all, of the most influential teachers in history, from what I can tell, kept apperception close to the core of their pedagogies (e.g., Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus…). And if there were a teaching principle that packed the most built-in ethos into its corner, apperception would seem to be it.

However, at this point you may be thinking, “So, why do I need to learn about an instruction principle I already use all the time anyway?”

My argument isn’t that we as tutors aren’t using apperception already; it is that by becoming aware of apperception’s prominence and necessity in the human learning process, we can more consciously pull this tool out of our belt more often and incorporate it in our personal tutoring pedagogies.

If you’re like me, it might be easier to count the times you’re not at a loss for words in a tutoring session. Case in point, I admit it: I sometimes avoid talking about certain writing concepts (particularly the infamous thesis) with students because I’m not sure how I’m going to explain it to them, and my insecurity drives me to talk about their margins or a misplaced comma instead.
Apperception can help us hurdle these stumps because this learning principle is based on teaching the abstract through the use of tangible examples—following this simplified model: [abstract idea] is like [tangible object] (Packer 2). As a model, the thesis is like the match that starts the pile of wood on fire that keeps you warm all night; without a flame, the pile of wood is worthless.

Want to facilitate a student’s understanding of an ethereal term such as “ethics” when that student has never considered the term before and does not understand in which context it is used? Start with a story such as this: “So, if someone accidentally backed into your parked car, messed up your bumper, and then just drove off without leaving a note, would that be fair? What if you were the one who damaged someone else’s bumper?”

It is important to note that, when possible, it will be more effective to use tangible samples taken from the student’s own experience and perception rather than yours (Lange 104). For example, say I tell a international student from Qatar how a fly fisherman will sometimes pick up rocks in the stream to see what kind of bugs the trout might be eating and turn the story into a metaphor for how important research is to audience analysis; his eyes might glaze over the moment he pictured me flapping my arms and floating in mid air over a river.

As a counter strategy, say you want to impress the importance of using transitions to a student who likes to rebuild engines: “Transitions are like shifting gears in a car. If you don’t ease out the clutch and push in the gas pedal too quickly, the car lurches and jerks. Using headings, though, is more like an automatic transmission….”

In retrospect, I have to admit that there are some potentially harmful side affects to my apperception prescription. Though I might have made it seem easy, pulling fluffy metaphors out of your hat in front of a live audience is hard. (It took me more than five minutes to come up with the “thesis is like a match” example.) In the middle of a tutoring session, where the expectations are high as the clock ticks by, I’ve often attempted verbal origami and ended up with spit wads.

However, though practice never made me perfect at anything, it has helped me develop my apperception skills, and my current goal is to build up an arsenal of examples beyond my current selection, which consists of a lead pipe, peashooter, and a treacherous boomerang. Whether or not we frequently use apperception already, we can likely rationalize using it more often. Doing so will help us to wisely build our explanations on tangible rock instead of foolishly building on abstract sand.


Work Cited

Lange, Karl. Apperception: A Monograph on Psychology and Pedagogy. Ed. Charles De Garmo, Boston: D.C. Heath & Company, 1894.

Packer, Boyd K. “Using the Apperception Principle in Teaching.” Liahona 31 Aug 1977 1-4. 18 Sep 2008 .