1.3 LEARNING IS A WAY OF LIFE

Learning is inevitable and an unavoidable constant in every aspect of our everyday lives. It is a conscious activity throughout our schooldays, in formal education and in training but it also lives in our subconscious, in our thinking and in our reflection, and even in our imagination. Learning is innate. It is responsive to the dynamics of our personal circumstances and to our immediate environment.

So, why do we need to ‘learn to learn’ and why should it become an integral part of the school curriculum? In short, because an understanding of how we learn and how our Learning Power dictates the habits and behaviors we exhibit when coping with the challenges of change, is fundamental to the quality of our contribution to family life and to the well-being of society as a whole.

The accelerating pace of change across every aspect of society makes it necessary for all of us to hone our ‘learning’ skills, to constantly acquire new knowledge and develop and adopt new ways of working. In this climate of perpetual change, how we learn at school has an abiding influence as we grow older. Schools, therefore, have a critical responsibility to use the curriculum, classroom culture and organizational frameworks to equip their students for the demands of citizenship, ensuring that:

 

  • they have skills in ‘learning how to learn’;
  • learning is accepted as a continuous process which will extend throughout life;
  •  recognition is given to the fact that learning takes place in a wide variety of different
    situations and contexts;
  • schools as organizations are structured and managed to encourage and reward learning.

FORMAL LEARNING IN SCHOOL

Some educational theories assume that systematic learning is not possible without teaching, that learning only occurs in response to teaching.
 
Research tells us to the contrary! Yes, it is the teacher’s responsibility but that responsibility is much more than drilling students in the subject-matter.
Teachers are most successful when they help students understand how they learn and become better able to plan and evaluate their learning for themselves. As independent learners they are found to be more reflective and better equipped as lifelong learners.
Indeed, research shows that the ‘wider competencies’ exhibited by these learners produce significantly better test results than those whose school experience has merely been one of the traditional ‘chalk and talk’

STAFF DEVELOPMENT IN A ‘LEARNING’ SCHOOL

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MOVING ON TO SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING​

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TRANSITIONING TO SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING

What and how we learn, our learning energy, the way we accept or reject new ideas and the manner in which we marry new experiences with what we already know determines who we are. Together they make us unique.

If formal learning has given us too little autonomy … being told when, what and how to learn … our pleasure in learning and motivation to learn may be inhibited.

Similarly, if we find ourselves with more responsibility for our learning than we are used to, we may become anxious and withdrawn.

The transition to self-direction begins at school and those who have not learned about themselves as learners and, thereby, how to manage their learning struggle when they reach college and university and enter employment.

THE ADULT LEARNER

Research suggests that adults are more receptive to learning following major changes in their lives. However, in today’s society we are all being swept along by a tsunami of change and tend to view life as, ‘an ever increasing past, a fleeting pressured present and an infinite future’.

With time being our most precious commodity, we are most likely to value, and profit from, learning activities that make a practical contribution to our lives. ‘The moment of greatest learning for any of us is when we find ourselves responsible for addressing a problem that we care desperately to resolve’.

Nonetheless, it is our journey through life that usually reveals our learning needs … entering employment, becoming a parent, leaving parenthood to a succeeding generation or exchanging independence for dependence as our well-being dictates.

Learning to Learn’ … when it matters most

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THE TECHNIQUES OF PERSONAL ENQUIRY

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TECHNIQUES OF PERSONAL ENQUIRY

As each new year dawns, the majority of us enter it with all manner of good intentions, often promising to put energy and effort into self-directed learning projects. These can be as varied as learning a new language or taking those difficult decisions that unclutter the wardrobe or the home as we plan to downsize and move house.

The temptation is always with us, to give up once the initial enthusiasm has waned. However, there are a number of factors that will contribute to our staying-power as a learner. Namely:

1. pursuing a genuine interest that maintains our curiosity
2. the motivation to continue derived from ‘quick wins’
3. collaboration with a friend or seeking out an audience or planning towards the ‘end game
4. having to report or demonstrate progress.

LEARNING AND THE WORKPLACE

Research suggests that adults are more receptive to learning following major changes in their lives. However, in today’s society we are all being swept along by a tsunami of change and tend to view life as, ‘an ever increasing past, a fleeting pressured present and an infinite future’.

With time being our most precious commodity, we are most likely to value, and profit from, learning activities that make a practical contribution to our lives. ‘The moment of greatest learning for any of us is when we find ourselves responsible for addressing a problem that we care desperately to resolve’.

Nonetheless, it is our journey through life that usually reveals our learning needs … entering employment, becoming a parent, leaving parenthood to a succeeding generation or exchanging independence for dependence as our well-being dictates.

Employee development and employer expectation 

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RECOGNIZING THE SELF-DIRECTED LEARNER

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THE SELF-DIRECTED LEARNER

Personal autonomy as a learner is a precious and exemplary attribute because it brings with it the confidence to challenge received wisdom, to learn from mistakes and to question decisions that would appear to lack foundation.

The fully autonomous self-directed learner is a risktaker, unafraid of offering creative, sometimes unpopular, solutions to perennial problems and knowing when to persist and when to seek an alternative way forward. They are more likely to be team leaders than team players.

The confident self-directed learner also tends to be a self-starter, not only as a learner but also as entrepreneur, leader, writer or artist. They choose to be self-employed and to rely on their own abilities as a means of creating a livelihood.

THE FAMILY AS LEARNERS

Learning for every young person begins in the home with family. Parents and siblings as well as members of the wider family do much more than keep us safe, they are our first teachers and set standards that remain with us for the rest of our lives.

However, learning plays a much bigger part in the way in which our families function and in the development and evolution of relationships as the roles and responsibilities of each generation change. Whilst new parents learn how to manage the home with the demands of employment, their parents are often called upon to compromise a new-found independence by sharing parental duties.

Whether consciously or sub-consciously, learning is a family constant and the manner in which it plays out, influenced directly by the way in which each family member experienced learning as part of their formal schooling.

The family as teachers
and learners

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Preparing the Young Learner
for Life

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LEARNING AND CITIZENSHIP

Change is a fact of 21st Century life, be that the political implications of globalism and a world increasingly accessible to all of us as it shrinks through the speed and reducing cost of travel; economies no longer self-sufficient and interdependent with the exchange of food, raw materials and manufactured good; the social challenges with the random sharing of our personal data, access to massive libraries of knowledge available to everyone; and the evolution of intrusive technologies that know no boundaries or frontiers.

The speed of change is such that learning to learn and an understanding of the dimensions, habits and behaviors associated with the management of personal Learning Power have never been more pertinent.

Our schools must take responsibility for introducing Learning Power to the citizens of tomorrow in order to optimize their potential contributions to society.

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