Can knowledge be transmitted from one person to another?

A colleague of mine recently, commenting on poor teaching skills by some university dons, said he heard somebody one time define a 'lecturer' as 'a person who transfers knowledge from his/her notebook to the student's notebook without either parties understanding what is in the notes'. This was said during a discussion among university dons who having admitted that some of them have very poor skills in causing learning in the students (learner), agreed to focus more on creating opportunities / environment for learning than assuming to be the 'givers' / 'transmitters' of knowledge.

That statement can attract lots of questions and hence generate quite a bit of debate. My role in this post is to ask questions that will hopefully elicit a thought process and also stimulate a fruitful debate.

In that statement and considering the context, is the word 'knowledge' rightfully used? Could it be substituted by 'information'?

Would you buy a suggestion that in this case the word 'understanding' cannot be substituted by 'learning' because the latter occurs when some experience and reflection process takes place? Some schools of thought say that learning is claimed to have taken place when behaviour changes as a result of experience and that understanding is manifested through behaviour.

What do you think?

How to stay happy

The Uganda Christian Veterinary Association (UCVM) was officially launched last year (April 2007). At its launch, there were local veterinarians and visiting veterinarians from Ghana, Kenya, UK and USA. They gave wonderful presentations ranging from purely technical veterinary practice topics to practice management issues (general and specific to a vet practice). They also made hands-on demonstrations to local vets and to veterinary students and also treated animals in the community together with local vets. It was a wonderful experience. I was privileged to be part of this exercise.

This year it was unique. The activities of the UCVM constituted part of the celebrations marking the World Veterinary Day. The UCVM activities run throughout the week culminating into the World Veterinary Day (26th April 2008) when the visiting vets together with the local vets went into a rural area and treated animals for free and also shared the gospel with them. The other activities included, among others, lectures by visiting veterinarians given to students and the local vets on both veterinary (technical), personal development and practice management tips.

It will be a lie if I said I will share with you everything that was presented in a single blog post. In this post I will just highlight a few of the things shared by one of the guests, Dr. Melvin Gerstener (USA), while speaking to veterinary students and veterinary colleagues. The tips shared are not relevant to vets only but are also very relevant to people in other professions as well.

On practice management, he summarised his advice in three points:

• Get up and show up at your practice.
• Treat people as people - have empathy.
• Have the desire to do good.

On how to stay happy, he shared the following:

• Think before you speak; speak good things about others.
• Do not write anything down that will hurt somebody or hurt you in future especially in your medical records.
  
• Save before you spend.
• Give before you die.

Each of the bullets above requires lots of time for elaboration. You are invited to share your opinion and experiences on / related to some or all of them.

Dr. Melvin Gerstener is the owner of Highland Park Animal Hospital in Pasadena, California, USA and also a member of the Jefferson Club Board of Trustees of the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri. By the way, this is the first college / university I visited in the US.