Department of Education and Training
RESEARCH ON HUMAN LEARNING
Published by the Department of Education and Training
© State of Victoria, 2004
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Acknowledgments
This resource has been developed by the Office of Learning and Teaching,
Department of Education and Training, Victoria, 2004
Authors
Sandra Mahar and Maddy Harford
Contributions
This publication was developed by the Research and Development Branch,
Office of Learning & Teaching for the Department of Education and
Training.
Contents
INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING IN THE
KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
4
Defining Learning
5
Overview of the paper
6
THEORIES OF LEARNING
7
Cognitive Learning Theories
7
Social Learning Theories
7
Constructivist Theories
8
Experiential Learning
9
Adult Learning, or Andragogy
9
Multiple Intelligences
10
Situated Learning Theory and Communities of Practice
10
FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNING
12
Neurological development and functioning
12
Emotional and Social Factors
13
Generic Skills
14
The ICT Revolution
15
CONCLUSION
16
Bibliography
17
Selected Resources
17
Research on Human Learning
Introduction: The Importance of
Learning in the Knowledge Economy
This paper is the first in a series of occasional papers developed by the Research Branch within
the Office of Learning and Teaching. The work of the Branch focuses on research concerned
with improving learning for all students in the schools, vocational education and training (VET)
and adult and community education (ACE) sectors.
The paper summarises some key theories of human learning and some of the factors that affect
learning. It is written for both policy makers and teachers. It is not an exhaustive account of the
large field of learning theory, but rather, a dip into the wide range of past and present research
on the subject. The paper includes a bibliography and selected resource list to help with further
reading, discussion and debate.
The emergence of a post-industrial or so-called ‘knowledge society’ has changed the way that
learning and teaching are conceived, both in policy and practice. As society becomes more
complex, so do the processes of education. Young people must learn to be independent thinkers
and lifelong learners, as well as productive citizens and future leaders.1 The International
Labour Organisation has argued:
…education should prepare young people for non-linear career paths and the likelihood of
several career changes during their working lives. It should...develop their capacity to
improvise and be creative and, in general, equip them to deal with the complexities of a rapidly
changing world.2
The OECD's DeSeCo Project concurs:
The development and maintenance of human and social capital represents an important factor
for societies to not only generate prosperity, social cohesion, and peace, but first and foremost
to manage the challenges and tensions of an increasingly interdependent, changing, and
conflictual world.3
Observations such as these suggest that we need to know more about how, where and why
people learn. We need, for example, to take account of knowledge about how the brain
functions to aid or inhibit effective learning. We need to understand more broadly what and how
people learn in the workplace and the community, as well as in school.
In the ‘knowledge society’, learning beyond traditional settings—in the workplace for
example—is receiving increasing recognition and validation. Most workers nominate work as
the most important contribution to their learning. This kind of learning does not usually follow a
laid-down content. It is driven by specific and immediate work requirements; it happens on the
job and is aided by other people in the workplace.4 Research into this kind of learning has the
potential to inform and guide both education policy and the direction of the ‘innovation
economy’.
1
M Baxter Magolda and P Terenzini, 1999.
International Labour Organisation, 2002.
OECD, 2002a.
4
C Chappell, G Hawke et al, 2003.
2
3
Introduction: the importance of learning in the knowledge economy
4
Research on Human Learning
In response to the educational challenges of the 21st century and the burgeoning scientific
interest in human learning, research into pedagogy is growing rapidly. Recent national and
international research identifies a number of emerging ideas about the nature of knowledge,
skills and learning. These new ideas are likely to have significant and far-reaching implications
for both policy and practice in education and training.
The term ‘pedagogy’ covers both learning and teaching, which interact in complex ways. The
differing definitions and understandings of the concept of pedagogy will be explored in a future
paper. For the present discussion it is important to keep in mind that teaching and learning
constantly interact.
Defining Learning
There is no one, simple definition of learning. Learning is a complex concept that is defined
differently according the context in which it is being discussed. Psychological definitions
emphasise that learning involves ‘a change in behaviour or potential behaviour that occurs as a
result of experience.’5 As a science, psychology studies the processes of learning through
rigorous, empirically grounded methods of investigation, but the field of application is very
broad:
The products of learning include knowledge and intellectual skills, attitudes and emotional
responses, social behaviour and movement skills. Through our interactions with our unique
personal environments we learn to think, act and feel in ways that contribute to our
individual human identities.6
Educational definitions of learning traditionally tend to focus on learning as the process by
which people acquire skills, knowledge, understanding and attributes. For example, Julia Atkin
describes learning as occurring most readily and effectively when:
…whole brain processing is engaged, and in particular when the process of learning moves
from experience to reflection on experience so that a pattern or framework allows the learning
to grasp the meaning of the learning in the mind's eye and finally learning moves on to a facility
to use language, rules, laws, principles for accuracy and efficiency in thinking, doing and
further learning.7
American author Peter Senge popularized the concept of ‘learning organisations’ in his book
The Fifth Discipline. He emphasises the personal, qualitative nature of this kind of learning:
Through learning we recreate ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we
were never able to do. Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it.
Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life.
There is within each one of us a deep hunger for this type of learning. 8
More recently, learning is coming to be understood as a set of cultural, social, and institutional
processes that occur throughout an individual’s life (‘life-long learning’). Learning in this sense
occurs both within the education sector (early childhood, schools, tertiary and adult education),
but is also a key element in the workplace, where learning is an integrated activity that takes
place both within and between people. Learning has thus been extended from the individual
learner to the ‘learning organisation’, and even to the ‘learning society’, which is a vital concept
for the ‘knowledge economy’.
5
R Smith, 1993
Ibid
J Atkin , 1994.
8
P Senge, 1992.
6
7
Introduction: the importance of learning in the knowledge economy
5
Research on Human Learning
While each of these definitions still has a place in thinking about human learning, it is the last
definition that most accurately reflects the theories of learning presented in this paper. The
notion of learning as a social process is becoming accepted amongst educational researchers,
policy makers and practitioners. Properly applied, it should enhance learning for all individuals
as they negotiate their way through life in the ‘knowledge economy’.
Overview of the paper
This paper has two sections.
The first section describes briefly the key learning theories often cited in educational research.
These are grouped in broad categories according to their ideas of how learning occurs. Many of
these theories are complementary, and can be applied equally to student learners and to teachers
as learners.
The second section of the paper outlines various factors that researchers believe affect learning.
Our developing knowledge of the human body, mind, emotions and social behaviours help us to
understand both learning and teaching.
Finally, the relationship between learning and the revolution in information and
communications technology (ICT) is touched on. However, the contribution that ICT can make
to pedagogy needs to be further researched.
Research and thinking in areas as seemingly diverse as neuroscience and the analysis of social
capital are all contributing to our understanding of how people learn. There is also a growing
body of literature that explores the intrinsic benefits of learning as well as its uses. Despite this,
theories of learning ‘do not figure strongly’ in the thinking of educational policymakers and
practitioners.9 We hope that this paper, and the work of the Department’s Research and
Development Branch generally, can begin to fill this gap.
9
MK Smith, 2003.
Introduction: the importance of learning in the knowledge economy
6
Research on Human Learning
Theories of Learning
Cognitive Learning Theories
“Cognitive learning theories view learning as
internalizing….[aspect]s of the world around us” 10
a
process
of
understanding
and
For a long time in the West, the Swiss scholar Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was probably the most
influential theorist of learning. Piaget based his ideas on small-scale in-depth studies with young
children, from which he concluded that children go through distinct stages of cognitive
development. Each stage of development gives the child a new set of mental ‘tools’ with which
to process information. The task of the teacher is to match appropriate content to the
developmental stage of the child.
Piaget’s views have been very influential in curriculum development, particularly in early
childhood and primary schooling. However, Piaget’s work is now seen to lack several important
dimensions: it fails to take into account adult learning; it treats the stages as relatively discrete
and universal rather than overlapping and varying among individuals; and it does not take into
account the learners’ social relationships to the wider world.11
Later directions in cognitive theories of learning often draw from the work of the Russian
psycholinguist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). Vygotsky’s introduction of social factors has been
very influential in theories of learning; and has been further developed through the learning
theories described in the following section.
Cognitive development therefore requires social interaction, and learning is restricted to a
certain range (from what the child can do alone, to what it can do with help) at any given age.
As each level of learning is achieved, the teacher or caregiver sets new targets within a new
zone of estimated ability of the student. This process of helping is termed ‘scaffolding’.
Social Learning Theories
Vygotsky takes Piaget’s notion that development leads learning, but approaches it from the
opposite direction, arguing that, in fact, learning leads development. Vygotsky noticed that
children’s levels of learning are more accurately reflected by what they can do with help, rather
than what they can do on their own. This led him to develop the notion of a ‘zone of proximal
development’ (ZPD), which represents an individual student’s potential level of learning if
helped by a teacher or caregiver.
According to Vygotsky, children’s learning becomes increasingly complex as the child grows,
and children are active participants in their own learning. The social environment the child
learns in is therefore very important, as it has the potential to accelerate or hinder
development.12
10
CIPD, 2002
Jarvis et al, 2003.
12
L Vygotsky, 1962.
11
Theories of Learning
7
Research on Human Learning
The social nature of learning has been recognised by a range of learning theorists as well as
Vygotsky. One of the most influential of these is George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), an
American philosopher and social psychologist, Mead saw learning as a purely social function, in
that ‘we can only be said to learn in so far as we can share and communicate with others’. 13
Because we are all bound by our social context, we can only do meaningful thinking in dialogue
with other people. Evidence of learning, therefore, can only be found through communication.
This means that the qualitative nature of learning (how we experience it and what the content of
it is) is defined by the social boundaries of the society we live in.
Unlike Mead, whose concept of learning is purely social, the Canadian psychologist Albert
Bandura (b.1925), in Social Learning Theory, works within both cognitive and behavioural
frameworks, encompassing attention, memory and motivation. Bandura’s theory is twopronged. He argues that children learn from observing others, (which may lead to developing ‘at
risk’ behaviours such as aggression or violence), but that they will learn from ‘model’ behaviour
if that leads to positive outcomes. Thus, ‘both people and their environments are reciprocal
determinants of each other’.14
The importance of positive adult role modelling on learning is well documented, as is the
OECD’s view that learners need ‘high challenge’, ‘low threat’ environments. These positions
are reflected in various Victorian Government reports.15
Constructivist Theories
Put simply, constructivist theories argue that learners actively construct frameworks of
understanding (‘cognitive schema’), by using both the knowledge they already possess, and new
information that is presented to them. Individuals do not come to learning tasks with no prior
ideas. Rather, for effective learning, these prior ideas must be engaged and re-worked as new
information comes along. Learning is therefore an active process in which learners develop new
ideas and concepts based upon their existing knowledge.16
Social constructivists, such as the American psychologist Jerome Bruner (b.1915), maintain that
the construction of meaning is a social process: the learner constructs meaning at individual and
social levels as he or she learns. Thus learning is not the passive acceptance of knowledge, but
an active process that is intimately associated with human interaction. Bruner uses the concept
of ‘scaffolding’ (based on Vygotsky’s work) to describe the support teachers give to students to
construct and extend their skills. As students gain competence and mastery, teacher assistance
or support is decreased, shifting responsibility for learning from teacher to student.17
13
Jarvis, op. cit.
A Bandura, 1977.
15
OECD, 2002b; Department of Human Services, 2000; National Crime Prevention, 2002; Department of Education & Training,
2002.
16
See von Glasersfield, 1989; and E Bredo, 1994.
17
J Bruner, 1996.
14
Theories of Learning
8
Research on Human Learning
Experiential Learning
Social and constructivist theories of learning do not, generally, investigate the nature of the
experience of learning. Experiential learning theories, on the other hand, seek to understand the
ways that experiences, whether first or second hand, motivate individuals and facilitate learning.
Learning thus comes to be about meaningful experiences (in school, in the workplace, or in
everyday life) that result in a change in an individual’s knowledge and behaviour. Experiential
learning theories build upon social and constructivist theories of learning, but place experience
at the centre of the learning process.18
For the American psychologist Carl Rogers (1902-1987), experiential learning is ‘self-initiated’
learning—that is, people have a natural inclination to learn, and do so when the learner is fully
involved in the learning process and has control over its nature and direction.19
In presenting his general principles for learning, Rogers asserts that:
learning can only be facilitated: we cannot teach another person directly;
learners become more rigid under threat;
significant learning occurs in an environment where threat to the learner is reduced to a
minimum; and
learning is most likely to occur and to last when it is self-initiated.
Rogers advocates a dynamic situation where new learning feeds into and influences existing
learning environments, thereby creating a process of continuous change.20 This dynamic process
of change is explored by writers in the literature on organisational learning.21
Adult Learning, or Andragogy
Experiential learning theories have to some extent grown out of investigations that attempt to
redress the paucity of information about how adults learn. Perhaps the most influential writer on
adult learning is the American educator Malcolm Knowles (1913-1997). Twenty-five years ago,
Knowles coined the term ‘andragogy’ (theory of adult learning) in direct contrast to the wellknown term ‘pedagogy’ (teaching and learning of children), in order to highlight the lack of
information about adult learning.
According to Knowles, adults have moved from being dependent upon others as children, to
being independent thinkers as adults. The notion of a ‘curriculum’ guided by others is therefore
inappropriate in adult education environments. Rather, adults are self-directed in their learning,
and they seek to learn from and about their social and work environments and the roles they
play there.
In general, adult learners expect knowledge to be applicable, and immediately useful. For these
reasons, adults need to be involved in the planning and direction of their learning, for when they
18
Jarvis, op. cit.
C Rogers, 1983.
Ibid.
21
For example, see Senge, op. cit.
19
20
Theories of Learning
9
Research on Human Learning
feel ownership and engagement they will learn more effectively. Knowles developed a set of
Principles of Adult Learning reflecting this shift.22
While it has been very influential, particularly in the shift to thinking about life-long learning
that characterises much current thinking and policy, the concept of andragogy has been
challenged. For example, in the paper Pedagogy vs. Andragogy: A False Dichotomy, by
American academics, Geraldine Holmes and Michele Abington-Cooper, it is argued that
education is a single fundamental human process, and that the processes involved in education
and learning are not radically different between children and adults.23 Both Holmes and fellow
American academic, Sandra Kerka,24 argue that it is the personal attributes and experiences of
individuals, rather than their chronological age that are the key elements in learning. Children
too can be self-directed learners, involved in the planning of their educational goals; and
children too respond particularly to learning experiences that relate to their social environments.
Multiple Intelligences
Theories of learning often discuss learning as if it is a universal human process that all
individuals experience according to the same principles (whatever those principles happen to be
for that theory). The American educator, Howard Gardner (b.1943), has challenged this with his
theory of ‘multiple intelligences’. Whilst his work is speculative, Gardner’s theory is valued by
educators in expanding their thinking ‘beyond the narrow confines of the dominant discourses
of skilling, curriculum, and testing’.25 Gardner’s work suggests that each person’s level of
intelligence actually comprises a number of distinct faculties, which he terms intelligences.
Currently, Gardner believes there are at least eight intelligences. In recent years, a number of
Victorian schools have developed curriculum and pedagogy matched to seven intelligences
identified by Gardner: linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinaesthetic,
musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.
Gardner continues to develop his theory and believes that the number of intelligences he has
identified could grow:
I have always conceded that, in the end, the decision about what counts as an intelligence is a
judgment call and not an algorithmic conclusion. So far, I am sticking to my 8 intelligences but
I can readily foresee a time when the list could grow, or when the boundaries among the
intelligences might be reconfigured. 26
For Gardner, the recognition of multiple intelligences ‘should not in and of itself be an
educational goal,’ but rather a means to achieving educational goals which are a reflection of
our educational values.27
Situated Learning Theory and Communities of Practice
Many of the ideas about human learning that we have looked at so far are drawn together in the
twin notions of ‘situated learning’ and ‘communities of practice’ developed by the American
22
M Knowles, 1980.
G Holmes and M Abington-Cooper, 2000.
24
S Kerka, 2002.
25
MK Smith, 2002.
26
H Gardner, 2003.
27
Ibid.
23
Theories of Learning
10
Research on Human Learning
social theorists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. ‘Situated learning’ accepts that context, culture
and social interaction are all vital factors in learning. It therefore engages learners in what is
called ‘a community of practice’. This is contrasted with traditional classroom learning and
teaching where knowledge is often presented out of context.
Lave and Wenger define situated learning as a theory of ‘the relational character of knowledge
and learning…the negotiated character of meaning, and … the concerned (engaged, dilemmadriven) nature of learning activity for the people involved…there is no activity that is not
situated.’28
In this theory, learning is said to occur most effectively within ‘communities of practice’. These
communities bind their members together into a social entity. The interactions that occur within
a community of practice (such as cooperation, problem solving, the building of trust and
goodwill) have the potential to build community social capital (the networks and relationships
of a community that enhance the wellbeing of its individual members).29
While American author and educator Thomas Sergiovanni does not set out to develop the ideas
of Lave and Wenger, his exploration of the connection between learning theory and learning
communities reinforces their idea that learning is most effective when it occurs in communities.
He suggests that learning communities anchor students in frameworks and domains of
knowledge that help them become lifelong learners. Sergiovanni asserts that improved academic
and social outcomes will occur only when classrooms become learning communities, and
teaching becomes learner-centered. However, learning communities for students will ‘remain
more rhetoric than real unless schools also become learning communities for teachers’.30
Communities of practice are most emphatically not confined to schools—indeed Lave and
Wenger’s original work grew out of studies of traditional and modern apprenticeships.31 The
work of Australian academic and researcher Stephen Billet, and of the Australians Mary
Kalantzis and Bill Cope on situated learning in the workplace, specifically investigate the
relationship between work and learning. Billet’s work on ‘authentic settings’ and communities
of practice in the workplace has challenged the notion that learning is an objective process
independent of its context.32 Kalantzis and Cope argue that workers learn ‘from and with each
other’ and that a productive workplace will provide opportunities for this to happen.33
…
This brief outline of a number of influential learning theories illustrates the wealth of ideas that
unfortunately receive insufficient attention in education and training. The complex demands of a
changing society clearly require a more thorough application of these theories to the range of
settings (school, community and workplace) in which learning is now occurring.
28
J Lave and E Wenger, 1990.
Lave and Wenger op. cit., M Smith, 2003.
30
TJ Sergiovanni, 1994 .
31
Lave and Wenger, op. cit.
32
S Billet, 1996.
33
M Kalantzis and B Cope, 1997.
29
Theories of Learning
11
Research on Human Learning
Factors Affecting Learning
The theories of learning discussed in the previous section are based on a range of empirical
research and philosophical reasoning. Also relevant to human learning are research projects that
investigate various factors that can affect learning. Such factors include the neurological
development and functioning of the brain, social relationships and emotional attributes such as
resilience, the notion of generic skills and the influence of information and communications
technology. While some of these factors have been examined in our discussion of theories of
learning, it is also worth taking a brief look at some research specifically targeted at these
issues.
Neurological development and functioning
The sciences of neurology and physiology have developed to the point where their findings are
particularly relevant to educators interested in how learning occurs in the brain. There are now
several publications that are seeking to incorporate these insights into theories of human
learning. For example, the OECD publication Understanding the Brain: Towards a New
Learning Science asserts that cognitive neuroscience might offer a productive basis for the
understanding of learning and the practice of teaching, and carefully reviews and interprets a
wide range of cognitive neuroscience research and its implications for education.34
How People Learn also reviews research into brain functioning and development specifically
with regard to its usefulness in education. Three main features of the brain guide their
discussion:
1. Learning changes the physical structure of the brain.
2. These structural changes alter the functional organization of the brain; in other words,
learning organizes and reorganizes the brain.
3. Different parts of the brain may be ready to learn at different times.35
Neuroscience and brain research in the early years of life highlights the importance of early
child development and its effects on later stages of life. This research suggests that the most
important influences on brain development and subsequent learning and health occur between
conception to age six.36 The discussion paper Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia
concurs:
Over the past decade, neuroscience and brain research has found that the brain changes as a
result of experience, and that IQ is not fixed at birth. Further, there is strong evidence that some
abilities are acquired more easily during certain sensitive periods or ‘windows of opportunity’
early in a child’s life, and that learning is strongly influenced by emotion as well as
experience.37
34
35
OECD, 2002b.
J Bransford et al, 2000.
36
M McCain and J Mustard, 1999.
37
CESCEO Early Childhood Education Working Party, 2001.
Factors affecting learning
12
Research on Human Learning
It appears that ‘there is a corresponding relationship between experience in a complex
environment and structural change in the brain’.38 This ‘plasticity’ of the brain is not limited to
childhood (although this is when it is most pronounced); so too with the response to complexity
– we learn best when our brains are stimulated on multiple levels of sound, sight, taste and so
on.39 This holds true for learning in both children and adults.
Emotional and Social Factors
Closely related to neurological development are the developmental processes of emotions and
social relationships. A growing body of research is exploring the links between cognitive,
emotional and behavioural realms. For example, recent theories of cognitive development
acknowledge the links between social context and interpersonal relationships, and conclude that
learning is facilitated or hampered by our emotions, that emotions drive learning and memory,
and that mood and motivation are correlated.40
The OECD report cited in the previous section presents scientific evidence to support the link
between emotions and learning. Mastery of cognitive skills in reading, writing and mathematics,
is a common goal for education. The OECD paper, however, recognises that emotions play a
major role in the overall cognitive mastery of the learner, and therefore need to be addressed
more fully: ‘…the education and nurturing of children interact deeply with the development of
their brain and of their natural expertise.’ Neuroscientists, through ongoing research, are
increasingly able to demonstrate that emotional processes can either help or hinder the
educational process.41
Research by American early childhood researchers and educators Diane McClellan and Lillian
Katz, suggests that children’s academic and cognitive development, their social and emotional
adaptation and their sense of citizenship are all affected by their social experiences with peers
and adults.42 Further, acknowledgment that students’ academic and cognitive development is
shaped through peer and social relationships and out-of-class experiences as well as formal
academic experiences, is leading to more holistic views of learning and teaching.43
The emotional characteristic of resilience is becoming an important measure of school success.
For example, California’s Academic Performance Index (API), regarded as one of the richest
surveys assessing risk and resilience in the USA, examined the links between risk, resilience
and academic progress. Improved educational achievements were noted in schools where
students experience high levels of caring relationships, are exposed to high expectations and
participate in meaningful community activities.44
There are strong links between risk and resilience research and the emerging research on social
and emotional competence. McClellan and Katz’s research stresses that unless young people
achieve minimal social competence in the early years of schooling they are very likely to be at
risk into adulthood:
38
B Raban, 2001.
E Jensen, 1994.
40
See, for example, M Boekaerts, 2002; Goleman, 1995; R Sylvester, 2004; and Peterson & Seligman, 1984.
41
OECD, 2002b.
42
LG Katz and DE McClellan, 1997.
43
Magolda et al, op. cit.
44
California Education Department, 2003.
39
Factors affecting learning
13
Research on Human Learning
A child’s long-term social and emotional adaptation, academic and cognitive development, and
citizenship are enhanced by frequent opportunities to strengthen social competence during
childhood.45
Research indicates that social and emotional competence is integral to successful learning and
that students, are therefore most likely to succeed within a supportive and engaging environment
that links learning and wellbeing.46 Tony Bertram and Christine Pascal, highly regarded in the
field of early childhood research in the UK, identify social competence as one of three elements
essential to lifelong learning.47
Australian social scientist and commentator, Eva Cox, rejects the notion that success in
education consists of achieving high academic scores in formal assessments. She calls for wider
definitions of success to include sociability, self-esteem and interpersonal skills.48 Bertram and
Pascal also raise this issue, stressing the need to ensure that what is being measured is
significant and not merely ‘those things that are easily measured’.49
Resilience, emotional development and social competence are all fostered in communities with
high levels of what is called ‘social capital’. The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, for
example, found that social and community factors such as family income and parental education
influence children’s educational achievements. Other contributing factors include the quality of
home and school environments, parenting practices, and the child’s temperament, particularly in
relation to attention and persistence.50 For these reasons, schools need to become more aware
that they can play a role in building social capital:
Learning needs to take place within an ethical culture that pursues fairness, respect for
difference, trust, and other aspects of good social and organisational cultures. In particular, the
education sectors need to consider the question of tacit learning: of the ways students learn
from what we do, not just what we formally teach and say. 51
Generic Skills
Generic skills are skills that can be applied to a variety of specific tasks. Research into generic
skills has mostly been about the skills used in vocational training and workplaces, but the idea
of generic skills is very important to all sectors of education.
The internationally acclaimed French social scientist, Alain Mounier, has developed a
framework for defining skills, which encompasses:
•
•
•
Cognitive—a foundation of general skills (general educational competence)
Technical—associated with the performance of particular tasks (trade, professional skills)
Behavioural—associated with the ability to perform in the context of particular work
relationships.52
Some generic skills can promote what is called ‘reflective practice’ or ‘meta-cognition’.
Australian lecturer in workplace learning, David Beckett, suggests that reflective practice
45
Katz and McLellan , op. cit.
Department of Education and Training, 2002.
47
C Pascal and T Bertram, 2001.
48
E Cox, 2003.
49
Bertram and Pascal, op. cit.
50
Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2002.
51
Cox, op.cit.
52
A Mounier, 2001.
46
Factors affecting learning
14
Research on Human Learning
enables the flexibility that is at the heart of what he calls ‘organic learning’, or active learning.53
Organic learning can happen in any situation. In an ‘organic’ workplace workers learn with each
other and from each other. In such workplaces learners not only acquire knowledge but also
create, perhaps innovative, knowledge. This kind of working knowledge contributes to both
human capital and social capital.
The ICT Revolution
The revolution in information and communication technology (ICT) has naturally prompted
research into how it might affect learning. Opinions are divided. In
Australian and New Zealand ICT literature, Phil Coogan asserts that research findings are
inconclusive, but he says that education should provide the skills required for the 21 st century:
‘individuals, communities and nations (must) not be left behind in the digital age’.54
The Department of Education & Training’s paper, ‘Key Influences on Educational Outcomes’
supports Coogan:
There is limited evidence that ICT contributes to enhanced learning outcomes, although there is
the need for more comprehensive research. There is also evidence that ICT has the potential to
improve the quality of teaching when used in a well-planned manner.55
On a more positive note, some Australian research indicates that access to computers at home
and at school can lead to improvements in higher order thinking. Further, students can improve
their problem-solving, cooperative and communication skills through the collaborative use of
ICTs.56
The OECD paper ‘Quo Vademus’ (Where are we going) regards ICT as a tool for assisting
schools to become more effective and efficient.
The potential of ICT to enhance certain kinds of learning is being explored at a time when
educational reformers advocate ‘reorienting schooling from rote learning, shallow but wide
coverage and individualistic learning processes to higher level skills, problem-solving, in-depth
study and collaborative learning.’57
53
D Beckett, 2000.
P Coogan, 2003.
55
Department of Education & Training, Victoria 2003.
56
B Holkner, 2004.
57
OECD, 2002c.
54
Factors affecting learning
15
Research on Human Learning
Conclusion
Current and emerging research on human learning provides a platform for the development of
guiding principles of pedagogy aimed at improving student learning outcomes and the
development of a life-long learning culture. Understanding of human learning has significant
and far-reaching implications for teaching practice and merits further exploration. Two
questions for consideration are:

What are the implications for pedagogical practice along the spectrum of learning that
encompasses schooling, vocational, workplace and community settings?

How might policy makers and practitioners respond to these challenges in ways that
progress the Government’s goals and targets for education and training?
A subsequent paper will explore the implications of contemporary research on human learning
for pedagogical practice. However what is clear for a high quality, future-oriented educational
discourse, is the need, actively and continuously, to draw upon, synthesise and refine the rich
array of insights available from this rapidly growing body of research.
Conclusion
16
Research on Human Learning
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Resource List
Further to the sources cited in the bibliography, the following free on-line resources contain useful summaries of a variety of
topics around learning and education.
Explorations in learning and instruction: the theory into practice database http://tip.psychology.org/bandura.html
The encyclopedia of informal education
http://www.infed.org/
Eric digests
http://www.ericfacility.net/databases/ERIC_Digests/index/abtERICDig.html
Learning with software: pedagogies and practice
http://www.educationau.edu.au/archives/CP/default.htm
Conclusion
19