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#1 learning from agreement/disagreement


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1"We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from people whose views contradict our own; disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning."

 

I disagree with the claim that we can learn much more from the people who sharing the same ideas with us rather than the ones who contradict us. In my opinion, it is completely opposite: we can actually learn more from the ones who has opposite point of view. Indeed, disagreement sometimes could stress, but it can not inhibit learning. Disagreement itself can help us consider one problem from different perspectives; therefore, it expands our knowledge and encourages learning.

 

First of all, learning is formulated as a cycle from the psychological perspective that includes acts, choices, and behaviors. Acts are the existing habits that we possess, when they go through different choices, and alter; they become new behaviors. Disagreement gives choices, thus it alters the way of behavior and result learning. In contrast, if we share the same views of others, which mean no alternatives; as a result, we don’t learn anything at all.

 

We can learn more from disagreement since dealing with disagreement itself is a process of learning. Through the listening and contemplating the opposite point of view, we gain further insights of an issue based on enriching the information, and we have more alternatives instead of having only one option to choose. After working with the people whose views that contradict us, we learn how to value diverse views, communicate with respect and empathy, and most importantly—collaboration. These skills are essential toward team-working and leaderships, and they can only be learned by working with the people whose views contradict our own.

 

A further advantage of handling the people who contradict us is it treats learning as problematic rather than automatic, which it gives more motivations and requires significant efforts. For example, when politicians are campaigning against different parties, learning becomes a problematic procedure that requires strenuous intentions. They have to learn the advantages and disadvantages of both their opponents and themselves. By learning the strategies that are used by their opponents and the fallacies of their opponents’ administrations, they can easily learn which policies are practical and which ones are more theoretical. However, if a country is lead only by a single party who shares the same ideology, there’s no need for them to learn which political system works better or which policy is actually accommodate for the nation since no one will challenge its idea.

 

Based on the above theories, many companies are actually practicing putting people together whose opinions are completely different. For instance, the president of Nissan Design International encourages the projects of purposely putting people from different professional and cultural backgrounds together and listening to their sentiments. I believe this is a wonderful opportunity to prove that disagreement could enhance learning, because when the disagreement is put in such group, it turns to conflict between everyone. Conflict is a potent source of creativity per se; it puts more ideas on the table and sparks creativity, which can lead to more discoveries, and quantum leaps in improvements and innovations. Thus disagreement can not inhibit learning.

 

In conclusion, we can learn more from the people who has the opposite point of view rather than the ones who share the same ideas with us. In fact, disagreement enhances learning, because it presents more alternatives to problems that spark creativity, and it treats learning as problematic that encourages us to learn more about the people whose views contradict our own.

****It's my first time postint my essay, and please put down some comments.****

****The problems I thought could be improved but don't know hows: 1. Do I need second paragraph? I don't think my meaning is clearly expressed, what do you think?How can I revise the paragraph and makes it more clear to you?

****2. I think I don't have good transition between second and third paragraphs,***

****3. In 3rd paragraph, 4th row, "strenous intentions" is it repeat the meaning twice?or do you know any word combinations that express similalrly to "significant effort", I don't want to repeat the phrase twice and makes too wordy.

!!!!! Nice to find this website, I registered yesturday, and will try to come here every day and help a bit!!!!!! You guys are awesome.

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