Winter in Lefkas

Social constructivism is the learning philosophy that meaning and knowledge (or even more profoundly, cognition) is 'constructed' in the social environment, rather than in any private 'cognition space'. Roughly put, this idea is that thinking belongs in the domain of social interaction; through that interaction with others, we construct the meaning and knowledge that we attribute to the world.

We've had a few days of fine weather in Lefkas, and so we've taken the opportunity to get out of the marina and visit a few local sites. The following photo's are taken from the island going south along the canal that separates Lefkas from the mainland. We rode our bikes down along the canal with Bob and Liz, our British next door (or is that, next passarelle) neighbours.

The end of the canal looking south

Looking north back towards the marina

Bob, Liz and Megan on the canal path

Canal pathway

More of...

So, here's an example of social constructivism in Greece. The religion here is firmly construed in social activities. Religion is bound up and inseparable from all the holiday's, festival days, dunking oranges in the water, flying kites to celebrate Lent, taking the Virgin for a walk and all the other innumerable activities that construe religious observance in Greece. So, in this sense, when people 'think' about religion in Greece, it's an external type of cognition inseparable from the social and cultural activities that dominate life here. We are now in Lent, Carnival has been celebrated and all the festivals, parades and pre-fast consumption is over. We are winding up to Easter, the most significant cultural event in Greece. You can see how all the 'religious cognition' in Greece is completely intertwined with these social observance.

Kite flying celebrants

Kite flying festival in preparation for Lent

We still delight in wandering around the narrow lanes of Lefkas, admiring its unique architecture, and discovering new little shops and curiousities.

Lefkas house

Central square church

Public spaces in Lefkas

So, I was thinking again about this idea of interiority (from a few blogs ago). In that rant, I was wondering about the differences in the 'dimensions of thought' between introverts and extraverts. Perhaps a simpler way to think about this is to imagine a dimension spanning between social constructivism and internalised cognition. Perhaps, for extraverts, their cognition is constructed in 'social and cultural spaces'; while for introverts, cognition is constructed in more internal realms.

External cognition?

Vic, John, Megan and Jill for Vic's 60th birthday

Vic and Christine

Megan and Jill

So, I'll leave you with a few photo's of our 'social constructivism', our celebration of Vic's 60th birthday party. I apologise for blending my psychobabble rants with our tourist narrative, but I'd feel a bit inane just writing a travelogue. Till then.....

Learning to Learn

Erik Erikson, a developmental psychologist, formulated a model for individual growth over the entire lifespan; unlike Freud, for whom development stopped with the discovery of genitally oriented sex! Erikson believed that the final development stage, which he termed 'Ego Integrity versus Despair', came around retirement age as we slowed down our productivity and contemplated the accomplishments of our lifetime. From this enquiry, we develop integrity if we see ourselves leading a successful life. However if we believe that our life is unproductive or feel unresolved guilt about our past, or that we did not achieve our life goals, we can become dissatisfied with life and develop despair and hopelessness. Successful resolution of this developmental stage leads to the virtue of wisdom, enabling us to look back on our life with a sense of closure and completeness, and to be able to accept death without fear.

Bridge spanning the gulf of Patras.

Megan and I had to travel to Athens last week. Megan had developed 'trigger finger' and an inflamed ganglion in her right hand and required some minor surgery to correct the problem. We think that this problem was exacerbated by Megan's enthusiastic winching during our last season, one of the hazards of being the only crew on Pavlov!

So, long periods of idle sitting in post-op waiting rooms led me to consider Erikson's final life stage and my contribution to it. I started pondering just what my life might have been about. I can't provide the easy and traditional response of naming my career, as I've had several. I've done stints as an acupuncturist, cognitive research scientist, mental health worker, juvenile justice supervisor, data analyst and computing officer, radio technical producer, gliding flight instructor, yoga teacher, secondary school mathematics teacher, university tutor, railway roustabout and several other jobs less salubrious. Career-wise, I've been a jack of all trades but master of none.

Megan resplendent in her hospital gowns.

However, I do feel that I've focused my life around one major goal: I've learned how to learn. I can remember making a pact with myself when I was a young adult, to never work in a job unless I was learning something. My life really has been about learning; not only have I completed eight or nine formal degree's, but I have mastered multiple new jobs and diverse skills sets. I'm a competent teacher, an okay seamstress, woodworker and boat repairer. I can work with fibreglass and metal, can construct electronic projects, build radio-controlled model aircraft, operate a metal lathe and mill. I can play guitar reasonably well, can program a computer and understand advanced engineering and mathematical topics. I'm not trying to inflate my ego by displaying a diverse skill set,  but to illustrate the point that the one thing that I've been good at in my life is learning how to do new things.

Post Op Salute from the Patras ferry.

Megan recovered from her surgery, and after 3 days, we drove home from Athens. We were shocked at the 14 Euro toll just to cross one bridge spanning the Gulf of Patras, so on the return journey, we detoured and crossed via ferry that cost us only 6 Euro.

A major learning opportunity came by late in my working live. At 50 years of age, I gave up a senior psychology position to retrain as a secondary school teacher. I completed a 2 year graduate diploma of teaching qualification, began teaching mathematics at a rural high school, and put myself through a  master's degree in education while completing a major sequence of study in Pure Mathematics. That was a new experience; for the first year of teaching, I felt like a bunny rabbit caught in the headlights of a Mack truck!

Boat harbour in Messalongi

We took a break from driving and explored Messalongi, a small town on the Gulf of Corinth that we had always wanted to sail to,  but hadn't found the opportunity.


So, I feel that I've been very successful at learning how to learn. I've mastered a skill set that makes the acquisition of new skills relatively easy. Its allowed me to excel at university study, winning a university medal, first class honours and several research scholarships. Its interesting how this theme of learning has played out: my PhD thesis was on learning (specifically the computer modelling of the acquisition of multi-column arithmetic skills in young children). Even more so, our boat (which we did not name) is called Pavlov, after the Russian psychologist who was the first to systematically study learning.

Messalongi  bay

So even though I may not have excelled in any one particular area, I feel as if I've obtained some meta-skills about learning at allows me to feel a sense of integrity (in the Eriksonian sense) about achieving my life goals. Its interesting that I'm now attempting to pass on some of those meta-skills. I'm teaching a guitar theory and blues class for expatriates at the local marina. Observing this class, I desperately want to pass on some idea's about how to learn. Here's a short list:

* Don't practice mistakes - you only learn to play the wrong thing better.

* Break down big things into little things - learn achievable sub-skills then put them together.

* Use your practice time strategically - play the bits you're bad at, not the good bits.

* Learn to listen - both to instructions and yourself.

* Separate practice from playing - and make sure you enjoy yourself and just play when playing.

* Play with others, share skills, and teach what you know.

* Have fun.

Megan in Messalongi main street

Whew, thank some higher entity that I passed Erikon's last stage, achieved Ego Integrity and can bask in my newly acquired wisdom! I was worried there for a bit.

We are back on the boat, and Megan is recuperating well. Winter has been wet, windy and cold, and we are starting to look forward to the frantic activity of the sailing season. Albania, here we come.

Ioannina and Interiority

Panorama of Northern Greece

The depths of winter are upon us, and whether its the enforced time in the enclosed womb of the boat, or the lack of external stimulation from without, my mind turns again to philosophical phantasizing about psycho-babble. Filters on!

Lake shore at Ioannina

Jung interpreted many symbols of external belief systems as reflecting inner psychological realities. He took the astrological view of the seasons, polarised as the summer and winter solstices, as reflecting two different orientations to life. He named these polar opposites extraversion and introversion. Extraverts were those who focused on the external world, the bright days of summer, full of warmth and light. Introverts were those who focused on the internal world, dark nights and shadows, things not shared in the light of day. It was a matter of orientation; outwards or inwards.

Road side worship. I think this one is for St George.

Megan and I felt a need for some outwards orientation, some non-boat-womb time, so we hired a car for 3 days and headed up to Ioannina, the capital of Epirus, the most north-western state of Greece. Ioannina was a lively university town situated on a picturesque lake surrounded by imposing mountains. We loved it there.

Statue honouring women who supported the soldiers fighting the Italians in WW2.

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Mountains, looking towards Albanian border.

Taking this idea of Jung's further, I've been intrigued with the idea that the 'interior spaces' of different individuals are different. In one sense, this is a trivial idea; of course, people think different things and have different contents of consciousness. However, there's another sense of this idea; people may differ in terms of the dimensions of their thinking, the organising principles of cognition may be different. Of course, we already understand a lot about individual differences in terms of processing, modern IQ measurement tests differentiate people in terms of short and long term memory capacity, processing speed, verbal and spatial processing.

Climbing old Christian walls

Archeological dig in progress.

Early Christian churches at Nicopolis

Roman ruins and Christian walls at Nicopolis

We visited an archeological site just north of Lefkas on our way to Ioannina.  Nikopolis was a Greek city founded by the Roman conquerer Octavius to commemorate his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra at Aktio. Interestingly, we hauled our boat out at Aktio boatyard, on the spit of sand where Octavia and Anthony fought this battle. History abounds here, you're sort of treading on it every day.

So, it wasn't differences in processing (treating people as different types of computer) that interested me about Jung's idea. It was that people might have different 'dimensions of experience'. An introvert (and I will own that I am one!) might have a different type of 'interiority' than an extrovert. By focussing more on their inner world, introverts might develop a different type of internal experience that extraverts. Conversely, the exterior world of extraverts may be more vividly experienced and nuanced than the exterior experience of introverts. Introversion/extraversion is just one dimension; you can think of thousands of ways that people's inner experience could differ.

Walled gate to Ioannina

City wall of old Ioannina

We checked into a hotel in Ioannina, and then the next day we drove into some small villages in Pindus mountains known as the  Zagoria region. These were spectacular villages clinging to the sides of steep and inhospitable mountains. It was pretty cold in the mountains, the temperature was around -4 degrees. The population total of the 45 villages in the Zagoria is only about 3,700, so the density is far less than in the rest of Greece. Consequently, wildlife abounds and we saw signs warning us of the presence of bears, wolves and other wildlife that must border on the extinct in Europe.

Of course, its total solipsism to contemplate the nature of the 'interiority' of others. But you've got to admit its a fascinating idea. Haven't you ever looked at your partner, and thought "Man, you think in such a different way to me". Haven't you ever desired to quantify that difference, to understand just how differently others think?

Heading into the Zagoria

A village in the Zagoria

Its as cold as it looks!

From the villages in the Zagora, we drove up into the Vikos gorge. This gorge is 990m deep and is one of the world's deepest gorges. This gorge is scientifically interesting due to its virgin and untouched nature, and for the rare wildlife still living in its precincts. This area is all national park, but we had to wonder what this meant, given the number of heavily armed hunters in the region.

Our first Greek snow

Unusual rock sculptures

 So, how could one go about defining differences in interiority? Many years ago, I worked with a psychology professor at University of NSW, developing a computer program that did 'Multi-dimensional scaling'. Essential, we asked people to make thousands of similarity ratings between concept words related to the area of interest. From  similarity judgements ( a 'dimensionless' rating on a multipoint scale), we can extract dimensions that capture the most variance with the least number of  dimensions. Labelling these dimensions is another issue, but it may be possible to describe the dimensions, the 'scaffolding' that constrains and contains individual thought.

Now, I'm just trying to find a way to administer a few thousand similarity judgements to Megan without her knowing!!!

The path leading to the gorge

Vikos Gorge

Stunning view into the gorge

A photographically inclined Megan

Sheer and breathtaking!

The face of the gorge

Panorama of the gorge

We returned to Ioannina rather than stay in Metsovo, another village we visited as we enjoyed the hotel and ambiance of the city so much.

Our lunch stop in Metsovo 

Lenticular cloud formation over the Pindus mountains

Small village shop

Zagorians ... remnants from the Pasha

Our coffee shop stop

Outside the coffee shop

Mountain views

So, thoroughly de-boated, we returned to Lefkas, grateful for the brief reprieve from boat life. Lefkas has had a few 'happenings' lately. There was a strange religious festival, where priests threw a gold cross into the freezing winter waters. Young men dived into the water and competed with each other to be the first to retrieve the cross, thereby earning ... ?? divine grace? extra altar wine? frozen testicles? Also, all the locals threw oranges into the water, some on strings. Perhaps the young mens struggle sanctified the water and now the oranges can impart the same divine grace, altar wine or testiculitis to the non-diving mortals. Truly, religion puzzles the be-jesus out of me (pun intended).

Pre-dunking Optimism!

Fighting for the cross

Dunkin' Oranges

Belief bandits

Ready for easy retrieval

Lefkas is still an enchanting town, and we're enjoying our wanders through the lanes and by-ways.

Young sailors getting into the orange dunking.

Our favourite bakery

Colourful shops and facades

That's all the news that's fit to print, its been pretty quiet this winter. However, both Megan and I are playing lots of music, and I've been lucky enough to do a few local gigs. I'm teaching a guitar class to the local and marina residents which I'm finding very enjoyable. Both of us lashed on new guitars, with the consequence that the boat is even more crowded now! Megan's exploring her artistic side with art classes, and doing some surprisingly good work. So I'll leave you with an image of our domicile, with our flashy new passarelle.

Megan on our new passarelle.