# Knowing and Proficiency By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2022-10-14 One of the challenges of learning analytics is that it makes use of math. Some people do not like math. The reasons for this are varied. Math is exacting and requires precision. This can be tedious. Further, one is unable to bluff one’s way through it. Math provides useful insight into the nature of knowledge which is useful more broadly for how we as individuals and organizations take on challenging projects. It isn’t really that math is easy or hard. Rather, math is either executable or impossible. One either understands how to do a mathematical procedure, or one doesn’t. One either understands what the symbols mean, or one doesn’t. There isn’t a middle ground here because one needs to understand ALL of it to do it. Mathematical notation can be crazy. Often it is filled with foreign notations. There have been plenty of times when I have looked at an equation and concluded I had no idea what to do. After that initial freakout, I was able to realize that I did have some ideas. First, I would see an equal sign. That helped, okay the left side and right side are different ways of saying “the same thing.” At least that is a start. I might see exponents and fractions. Again, check and check. Going symbol by symbol revealed that I knew quite a bit of the equation. Most frequently the part I didn’t understand at all was a new group of Greek letters. What does θ mean? In the process of learning such a step-by-step process is helpful. With this gap in understanding defined one could ask a colleague, instructor, or Google. As it turns out, θ is often used mathematically as a variable to represent a measured angle. The key to this step is that one either knows it, or doesn’t, and one needs to be honest with oneself as to whether one does. Knowing something doesn’t necessarily mean that one is proficient at employing that knowledge. There are different levels of [[comfort]] with making use of one’s knowledge. When one first learns a given mathematical procedure it can be challenging to make use of it. There can be simple mistakes in execution, or it can take time to move from understanding something in theory to being able to make use of it as praxis. In learning something new it is useful to determine the degree to which one’s barrier is conceptual or practical – one of knowledge or proficiency. Resolving these quandaries requires radically different approaches. Questions of knowledge can be addressed through interrogation and research. Questions of proficiency can be addressed through practice. At the core of gaining knowledge and proficiency are two relatively simple questions. Does one care about knowing the material? Does one want to develop proficiency in making use of it? These are not unique to math they are simply clearer when dealing with math because there is nothing outside of the equation to defuse focus from this dynamic. As we take on our most challenging problems it is likely beneficial to disambiguate knowledge from proficiency. The common denominator is time. It takes time to research and study to gain knowledge. It takes time to develop proficiency. If organizations are unwilling to invest significant time in this, it seems there is no way they could ever truly be learning organizations. #### Related Items [[Knowledge]] [[Learning]] [[Learning Organizations]] [[Problem Solving]] [[Proficiency]] [[Analytics]]