Week 3: 15th -21st May (Activities: 2.4 & 2.5)
In this section you will explore ideas about how people learn and how your own perceptions of learning may influence the way you help others to learn. The section begins with an activity where academics and practitioners in the field of learning and development talk about what learning means for them. This is intended to help you explore some of your own assumptions and ideas about learning generally.
Activity 2.4: What does learning mean for you?
Learning has been conceptualised both as a process and as the outcome of that process. The outcomes are often worded in terms of change. Saljö’s (1979) classic study exploring students’ conceptualisation of learning proposed five outcomes of learning:
- Quantitative increase in knowledge
- Memorising
- Acquisition of facts, methods, etc. for use when required
- Abstraction of meaning
- Interpreting and seeking to understand reality.
Saljö’s early research was developed in an exploration of Open University students’ conceptions of learning and how these developed through their experience as new students and into later years of study. During this research an additional outcome of learning was identified: ‘change as a person’ (Marton et al., 1993). Students felt that they had not merely acquired more knowledge and skills, including an ability to criticise in new ways what they read or heard, but that they had changed ‘as a person’. This might be characterised as ‘being more’ – or possibly ‘being different through participation’ – in contrast with ‘having more’.
These ideas are also recognised in Sfard’s (1998) influential work about two forms of learning. The first is learning as acquisition and the development of knowledge, which is based on a static view of learning with a particular end point and a focus on what goes on within the individual mind, such as storing concepts in one’s memory. This is in contrast with the idea of learning as a process of knowing through participation, which implies that learning is a dynamic process which involves others. Note the change in terminology from knowledge to knowing. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive conceptualisations of learning, nor does one replace the other.
Elmholdt (2003) found in his study of IT support staff that learners themselves often conceptualise learning as a conflation (merging of two) of both acquisition and participation. In general, contemporary learning approaches emphasise that the most complex learning experiences cannot be understood without the participation metaphor. It also underpins much of the current debate around learning (Hardyman et al., 2013; Handley et al., 2006).
This greater understanding of how learning through participation occurs, together with a shift towards trainer-led approaches, explains the adoption of working collaboratively with others as a means of learning in organisations. This is demonstrated in Case study 2.2, which is based on research by Hardyman and colleagues (2013) with medical doctor trainees.
Case study 2.2: Learning as acquisition and participation
Hardyman and colleagues’ (2013) study explores the experience of introducing iDoc, a smartphone library of medical textbooks, as a workplace learning technique for trainee doctors. The authors found the following about the usage of the iDoc:
- It was mostly used by medical trainees in their first year.
- It was used mostly for simple information-based queries but also for some clinical skills and scenarios.
- It was also useful for complex problem-based clinical questions mostly in helping trainee doctors articulate their difficulties and prepare discussions with seniors, who were not always present.
- iDoc did not replace the necessary dialogue with seniors where the transitions between explicit and tacit knowledge took place.
The authors concluded that while iDoc had been useful to increase students’ knowledge in enhancing patient care, the constant dialogue with senior doctors was particularly key in complex decision making and their personal journey from being medical students to becoming practitioners.
The next activity invites you to explore how these different ideas about learning can be used to reflect on your own experiences of learning. There are no ‘right’ answers to this activity because its purpose is to alert you to your own assumptions, which will inevitably affect how you think about how others learn.
Activity 2.5: Reflecting on your own learning experiences
Most learning theories can be classified as putting more emphasis on either acquisition of knowledge or knowing through social participation. Broadly speaking, behaviourist, cognitive and constructivist theories tend to emphasise (more or less explicitly) the idea of learning as knowledge acquisition and knowledge development. We refer to these as ‘classical theories of learning’, and these are explored in Section 2.4. In contrast, ‘situated’ learning theories are based on the idea of learning as participation. This and other approaches are introduced within Section 2.5 Contemporary approaches to learning. A good understanding of these theories will give you the foundations to design effective learning programmes. Furthermore, as a learning specialist, having this understanding becomes a powerful tool to build strong reputation and become more strategic in your actions (Jacobs, 2015).
