Example 1: The Reading Recorder
A breakthrough in helping talk back through learning came with the idea of a recording device to attempt to see how people “read”.
The device has a reading window pane which scrolls a paper with words, sentences and/or paragraphs and turning of the wheel is linked to a graph plotter on the right, which records Lines read (back and forward) by Time.
See the example graphs for various types of reading attempts:
a) smooth read
b) item read
c) search read
d) think session
e) check read
From the results of a person or persons using the reading recorder it can lead to very interesting results in how they process meaning during reading and the results when talked back afterwards, it can in many cases improve one’s understanding and meaning towards improving their reading skills.
Example 2: Royal Navy – Air Intercept
In this case, an air intercept radar controller does three ‘air intercepts’ with two friendly’s and two enemy aircraft. Each manoeuvre (getting progressively more difficult) he then talks back through each manoeuvre and gains knowledge and insight into each intercept with a coach to see how he did, could he have done it better and learn from any mistakes.
Below are the Original overlay from the RADAR screen together three distinct manoeuvre(s).
Zoom-In of the Three Manoeuvre’s from the main RADAR screen
First manoeuvre
Second manoeuvre
Third manoeuvre
Fourth manoeuvre
As you can see, during our examination via Pete the Controller’s talk-back, he said he only did three manoeuvres, but when we looked at it to break apart and see each manoeuvre, we picked a fourth (which could be initial intercept setup?). Due to the time since it was done, we have no records to back this up.
Example 3: Chef making omelette video talk-back
During our work with the Hotel and Catering Industrial Training Board (HCITB) we had lecturer from the Catering Department who was a professional Chef make a record of how he went about making an omelette and interestingly he insisted on making separate recordings (video no sound) before he was reasonability satisfied with it making used for training.
Quite separately he later became quite excited about what he had learned from watching the video(s) and when we came to talking him back through them, it was clear that he often thought that he was doing something differently that revealed by the recording.
Example 4: Rowing
Roy Groves who had been a first division goal keeper and was now head of sports department in a Teacher Training College, did as part of his thesis, did a study with the British Olympic Team. Each member of this team separately recorded their understanding of the race as they watched the video recording of the complete race.
Each member of the team, separately, recorded their understanding (meaning) of the race whilst watching the recording of the race and each one differently commented in various ways about what had been going on in their head (personal meaning) whilst the race was taking place.
Also after then, the members of the rowing team then got together to discuss what they had learnt from watching the recording of the race, they first became quite heated in hearing each other’s description of the race and then began to discuss in earnest how each of them had different descriptions of various stages of the race. This led to each of them commenting on the fact(s) that their personal meaning had been challenged and given them new insights which Roy discussed with them in terms of the five levels of personal meaning.