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…

E-learning

Inclusive learning

Lifelong learning

Distance learning

Union Learning Rep

Learning disability

Learning cycle

Experiential learning

Work based learning

Learning theory

Problem based learning

Vocational learning

Holistic learning

Adult & community learning

Transformational learning

Learning society

Domains of learning

Collaborative learning

LSC

Blended learning

On-line learning

Social learning

Early learning

Pre-school learning

Brain learning

Learning styles

Learning objectives

LLUK

IfL

Learning

Facilitator

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 perhapsWrite 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 learningQuestion 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 Practice, trial and error

• Feedback Other people’s reactions seeing the results

• Digesting Making sense of what has been learnt, realising,

gaining ownership

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 enterSo, 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…

Can you match the percentages with the methods?

50%

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:

MetacognitionRefers 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

04/19/23 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 Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes

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