Yvette Arts

I started writing a note to a BYU colleague this afternoon and wanted to convey my appreciation to him of having him in my life while at BYU. Learnings packed themselves into this year. I started a new line of work this March outside of the BYU arena after more than eight years at BYU (three years part-time, five years full-time). All along the way since leaving BYU, I have reflected on the network of friends and collegues who supported me in my efforts to get my masters degree and in my work as an instructional designer at the Center for Instructional Design.

A quote from Mary Parker Follett came to my mind as I thought how I could describe what is in my heart today for those with whom I now associate and have have shared association. Here’s that quote:

Every man comes to us with a golden gift in his heart. Do we dare, therefore, avoid any man? If I stay by myself on my little self-made pedestal, I narrow myself down to my own personal equation of error. If I go to all my neighbors, my own life increases in multiple measure. The aim of each of us should be to live in the lives of all. Those fringes which connect my life with the life of every other human being in the world are the inlets by which the central forces flow into me. I am a worse lawyer, a worse teacher, a worse doctor if I do not know these wider contacts. Let us seek then those bonds which unite us with every other life. Then do we find reality, only in union, never in isolation.”

But it must be a significant union, never a mere coming together. How we waste immeasureable force in much of our social life in a mere tossing of the ball, on the merest externality and travesty of a common life which we do not penetrate for the secret at its heart. The quest of life and the meaning of life is reality. We may flit on the surface as gnats in the sunlight, but in each of us, however overlaid, is the hunger and thirst for realness, for substance. We must plunge down to find our treasure. The core of a worthy associated life is the call of reality to reality, the calling and answering and the bringing it forth from the depths forever more and more. To go to meet our fellows is to go out and let the winds of Heaven blow upon us – we throw ourselves open to every breath and current which spring from this meeting of life’s vital forces.”

—————Mary Parker Follett, The New State, chapter 12, 1918

“Anticipation is an important part of skilled instruction.”

In my instructional design class at BYU, Dr. Andrew Gibbons commented that we should consider the concept of anticipation as we think about what goes on as we instruct and on what we should try to capitalize as we instruct.

Over the last couple of years I have marked every scripture in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ and the Doctrine and Covenants that to me relates to instructional design, learning, and teaching. I have noticed that one of the key characteristics associated with learning in the scriptures is desire. And so I was intrigued when Dr. Gibbons talked about “anticipation” as being a big part of learning and teaching that has gone untapped in many ways.

Immediately when he mentioned this concept I thought of Nephi’s desire to see all that Lehi saw in his vision of the tree of life. Nephi knew that he would see everything and so he anticipated being taught and he anticipated the learning process. In 1 Nephi 11:17, Nephi tells of his desire to “see and hear and know of these things.”

One definition of anticipation is “the feeling of looking forward, usually excitedly or eagerly, to something that is going to happen.” A definition of desire is “to want something very strongly.”

Nephi describes this combination of anticipation and desire in verse 19. The phrase “he that diligently seeketh shall find” I think is a good example of this combination of anticipation and desire, with “diligently seeketh” as the desire part and the assurance enveloped in the phrase “shall find” is the anticipation part.

In the first verse of chapter eleven, Nephi elaborates on this combination of anticipation and desire. He “desired to know [desire], and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me [anticipation], as I sat pondering in my heart [result of the combination of desire and anticipation].”

And the Spirit of the Lord and the angel who act as guides to Nephi’s learning use Nephi’s desire and anticipation to help him learn. The Spirit of the Lord doesn’t just appear and tell Nephi everything, He asks questions of Nephi like “What desirest thou?” [working with Nephi’s desire] and “Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken?” [working with Nephi’s anticipation that he will see what he desires].

The Spirit then confirms Nephi’s desire and anticipation by saying “because thou believest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired.” Then the Spirit of the Lord adds a nice piece of anticipation for Nephi before Nephi is shown what he desired: “After ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God.” So the stage is set for Nephi to learn, with the idea that he knows [anticipates] he will know enough after each learning to bear witness to what he has learned.

The process continues of Nephi being asked to look, to behold, to see and to bear record. And I really like the word “behold” here and I think that the definition of behold as “to tell somebody to look at something or listen to something, especially something amazing or unexpected” needs to be further explored. And I will continue this exploration the next time I sit down to write.

All definitions taken from Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.