NewsLetter #8, June 3, 2024
Understand Your Goals
Self Improvement is a growing field, and I believe it will continue to grow, energized by the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence. Rather than making it easier to improve ourselves, Artificial Intelligence will create the need for self-improvement. Jobs that would have once made us a living and created the fabric of our lives will disappear from our landscape. This work, which was once very visible, will disappear; and we will forget that something does this work, like we forget our heart beats. In my work in this niche, I find myself interchanging two basic concepts: growth and improvement. Growth implies improvement, but the two are not synonymous. When writing goals, one should understand clearly which is being pursued: growth or improvement.
What Is Improvement?
In my opinion, improvement is the concept of lesser scope. An improvement in a skill is generally limited to the skill itself. For example, if I improve my running skill, I see a performance increase in those facets of the skill that apply directly to running. When we measure improvement, we measure only relevant aspects of the skill being measured. In the example of running, I would not measure my math calculation skills if I were concerned with improving my running skills. Improvement always involves a positive increase; we never find a decline in skill. If we do, we conclude there has not been an improvement.
Thus, improvement is a very linear phenomenon. For this reason, it is one-dimensional. Being one-dimensional, improvement lends itself to measurement. It is easily reduced to a number. Another characteristic of improvement is its specificity. Improvement is always about some particular something. Generally, this something that is improving has been well defined in a way that lends itself to counting.
What is Growth?
One major difference between growth and improvement is that growth does not have a simple, linear structure. Growth is complex. It is not so easily analyzed, and it is much more difficult to measure. Things that grow have many aspects and these aspects interact with each other. Mental development is such a thing. Because they are complex, the mind and body grow rather than improve. The skills in one part of the brain will influence the development in another part. For example, an increase in a child’s walking and balance will greatly increase that child’s interaction with her environment, bringing her into contact with more information about her environment. This increase in information will affect her motivation to explore her environment, thus giving her more information. This increase will likely produce growth in her cognitive skills which will result in even more exploration of her environment. Research has observed a decrease in performance in one skill area while growth in other areas are occurring. It is as if the brain only has so much energy for change and allocates its energy where the greatest change is occurring.
When observing ones child, the parent must keep in mind this difference. Don’t expect to see the nice linear structure of performance that results from improvement. Children’s learning is a result of both practice and growth. The growth of their brains and bodies makes learning come very easy for them. The same amount of instruction will produce much more learning in children than in adults. If you fail to see improvement in one area after instruction and practice, don’t assume no improvement exists. The improvement may be in other areas than those being measured. Thus, when assessing children’s learning, the influence of growth is important to remember.
Qualitative Change
Growth produces large and rapid change in children. It greatly increases the complexity of measuring improvements in a child’s performance. The information in this newsletter considers growth and improvement as it occurs in typically developing children. For children with developmental delays, the basic ideas apply but are complicated by underlying physical conditions. Watching children learn and grow is like watching magic. It’s unpredictable and always exceeds expectations. It’s useful to measure a child’s improvement, but always remember there is much more happening in that’s child’s mind and body than measurement can quantify. Remember, both qualitative and quantitative changes are happening when children are improving and developing.