What is Learning?
Why is this question important for you?
1. Dual professionalism
2. Multiple roles – you have been both a learner
and a facilitator of learning
3. Making assumptions – not good
4. Your understanding of learning underpins
everything you do in the classroom,
workshop, training room…
Transformational
Learning
learning
Inclusive learning
cycle
E-learning
LSC
PreLearning On-line
school Learning objectives theory
learning
learning Union Learning Rep
Vocational learning
Learning
IfL Learning
Collaborative learning
disability
society
Lifelong
Social learning Work based Brain
learning learning
learning
Learning styles Adult &
Problem based learning
community
Holistic
Learning
Early
learning
learning
Facilitator
Blended learning
learning
Distance
Domains of learning
learning
Experiential learning
LLUK
So…we see the word used in a
myriad of ways – Do we actually
know what learning is…?
What is learning…?
A change in behaviour?
Memorising facts?
Understanding?
something?
Being able to carry out
a task?
An insatiable curiosity?
“Given that we all learn, it is unsurprising
that we all have an intuitive idea of what
learning is. However, when we pause to
try to define learning in depth, we cannot
help but be struck by the awesome
breadth and complexity of the concept”
(Jarvis, M. 2005:2)
Learning:
‘Any process that in living organisms
leads to permanent capacity change and
which is not solely due to a biological
maturation or ageing’ Illeris 2007:3
‘The process by which relatively
permanent changes occur in behavioural
potential as a result of experience’ J.R.
Anderson, 1995; cited in Jarvis 2005:3
How useful is the strict definition of key terms?
‘Stipulative definition of abstract terms is of very
little value – indeed it may get in the way of
deeper thinking; instead the cultural critic
cultivates and, by example and even by irritating
obstructiveness, incites others to cultivate, a
restless dissatisfaction with abstract terms, a
mindful awareness of the reductive or Procustean
potential of all general formulations.’
Stefan Collini Review Saturday Guardian 17.8.13 p15-16
Procrustean: Producing or designed to produce strict
conformity by ruthless or arbitrary means.
Define learning:
- Discuss the different
definitions of learning
So, what is it we want to
understand about
learning?
What is the relationship
between learning,teaching
and education?
• What are the mechanisms by which we learn?
• Does learning take place within the individual or
is it an interpersonal process?
• Should we think of it as a set of cognitive
mechanisms or rather as an emotional, social
and motivational experience?
• Does everyone learn or learn most effectively in
the same way?
• What should be the focus of learning; facts,
attitudes and values or skills?
• Is the capacity of the individual to learn fixed or
variable according to their experience?
Factors underpinning effective learning
Question 1
Think of something you are good at –
something that you know you do well. Jot it
down
Write a few words about how you became
good at this
Factors underpinning effective learning
Question 2
Think of something about yourself that
you feel good about – a personal attribute
or quality perhaps
Write a few words about
how you know that you can
feel good about whatever it
is
i.e. what is the evidence for
your positive feeling?
Factors underpinning effective learning
Question 3
Think of something that you did in fact
learn successfully, but at the time you did
not want to learn it. Maybe it is something
that you are now glad you learnt
What kept you at it?
Factors underpinning effective learning
• Wanting
Motivation, interest,
enthusiasm
• Needing
Necessity, survival, saving
face
• Doing
• Feedback
Practice, trial and error
• Digesting
Making sense of what has
been learnt, realising, gaining
ownership
Other people’s reactions
seeing the results
Gregory Bateson
• Learning is a systemic phenomenon
(the mind does not reside in the brain)
• Learning is inherently relational
• Learning is emergent
• Learning is recursive, involving
multiple logical levels
Bateson’s Levels of Learning
1. The transfer of information to be memorised.
‘Delivering’ learning? (ballistic missile)
2. The mastering of a ‘cognitive frame’ into
which information acquired or encountered in
the future can be absorbed and incorporated
(‘smart’ missile)
3. The ability to dissemble and rearrange the
prevailing cognitive frame or to dispose of it
completely, without a replacing element
(permanent revolution)
What is Education for?
The preparation of youngsters for life
according to the realities they are bound
to enter
So, quality schooling needs to provoke
and propagate openness, not closure of
mind
Zygmunt Bauman (2012) On Education
Conscious Competence Model
By what methods do we learn best?
Depends on what, but try the following in
relation to classroom learning…
50%
Can you
match the
percentages
with the
methods?
30%
5%
20%
75%
10%
90%
5%
Dale’s Cone of Experience
What I hear, I forget,
What I see, I remember,
What I do, I understand.
Confucius
(551 BC - 479 BC)
The 3 “Gogy’s”
• Pedagogy
• Andragogy
• Heutagogy
• These ideas refer to ‘ways
of learning’
•
http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=135534
Pedagogy:
Andragogy:
Heutagogy:
Metacognition
Refers to ‘knowledge and
thought about learning itself’
Pritchard (2009)
Brain-based learning, neuroscience,
learning styles, right and left brain
tendencies, colours, rhythms, multiple
intelligences, movement
What is your view of Education?
In small groups – think about your own teaching
Agree
• a definition of Education in your experience
• List (3-5) essential principles of education in
your view
3/15/2016
29
‘Give a man a fish and you feed him
for a day. Teach a man to fish and
you feed him for a lifetime.’
‘When planning for a year, plant corn.
When planning for a decade, plant
trees. When planning for a life, train
and educate people.’
Re-cap:
1. Appreciated the widespread and disparate use of the term
‘learning’
2. Formed a working definition of the term ‘learning’
3. Asked some key questions about learning that we will
come back to again and again during our course
4. Listed some key factors underpinning successful learning
5. Related one model of learning (conscious competence) to
an experience of our own
6. Considered best teaching methods to promote learning
7. Considered the key features of the 3 ‘Gogy’s’ or ‘ways of
learning’
8. Discussed various approaches to and models of learning
Phew!
Reference list
Bauman, Z. & Mazzeo, R. (2012) On Education. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Blanchard, J. (2009) Teaching, Learning and Assessment. Maidenhead: Open University Press
Canning, N. (2010) ‘Playing with Heutagogy: exploring strategies to empower mature learners in
higher education’ , Journal of Further and Higher Education, 34:1 pp59-71
Coffield, F. et al (2008) Improving Learning, Skills and Inclusion London: Routledge
Corder, N. (2002) Learning to Teach Adults London: Routledge
Cross, S. (2009) Adult Teaching and Learning. Maidenhead: Open University Press
Hase, S. & Kenyon, C. http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/dec00/hase2.htm [accessed 26.9.11]
Illeris, K. (2007) How We Learn London: Routledge
Infed http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm [accessed 26.9.11]
Jarvis, M. (2005) The Psychology of Effective Teaching and Learning
Thornes
Cheltenham: Nelson
Leamnson, R. (1999) Thinking About Teaching and Learning Virginia: Stylus
Pritchard, A. (2009) Ways of Learning. Abingdon: Routledge
Morgan-Klein, B. & Osbourne, M. (2007) The Concepts and Practices of Lifelong Learning
London: Routledge