Learning through life

Professor Gina Wisker

Head of Centre for Learning & Teaching

Please consider

• How, when and why we learn?• From what do we learn?• In what ways?

• Learning theories and practices• Our own experiences• Learning curves• Personal and professional planning of learning

• There is more to learning than meets the eye

• Like the Tardis, it opens up greater and more exciting spaces - inner as well as outer

Research and experience tell us that

• There are many different ways to learn• We are all different kinds of learners at different

points in our lives in relation to different contexts and needs

• We learn better from some situations than others• Sometimes we have to develop new learning

strategies to cope with new experiences and demands in work and in life

Why do we learn what we do when we do?

• Think of something you have learned in the past or recently - in the last couple of years - either formally (course) or informally (at work, in life outside work)

• Why did you learn it? What motivated you to learn?

• How did you learn it? Repetition, trial and error, experience, reading, listening…

• Did you have any difficulties with this learning? If so, how did you overcome them? What kinds of pleasure and success did you experience in this learning? And in its outcomes? What have you gained from it?

• What can you do now? • Are you changed as a result? • What do you know about how you learn, why

you learn, what helps or hinders you, because of this experience?

• Please share

What have you in common?

What differs?

What have you learned about learning - yours and others’ - from this sharing?

Learner diversity presents in many ways

• Learning preconceptions, learning background, approaches, styles, previously rewarded learning behaviours all also affected by

culture, origin, age, gender, class, mental state, distance, learning environment, expectations and learning outcomes of the subject, and the level of study - on the job, workplace, whether informal or formal, what else is going on in your life and that of others, how good or appropriate a teacher, mentor, support you have, others learning around you

• Formal learning can be in a professional work context or on a course - foundation, undergraduate, postgraduate, adult education

Some learning theories about learning styles and approaches

• There is some debate about the usefulness - dependability/reliability/validity - of any kind of inventory or questionnaire or theory about learning styles and approaches

• However they can be helpful in giving us a sense of the variety against which we can measure our own changes and differences

• Approaches to study inventory Deep, surface and strategic learning

• Reflections on learning inventory (i) What is learning (ii) How we go about our learning (iii) Why we learn i.e. motivation (iv) What outcomes we seek from our learning (v) How we know when we are learning

• Theories about kinaesthetic, auditory, sensory learning

• Theories about experiential learning - Kolb’s learning cycle of experience, reflection, planning, action, evaluation, reflection and change - more action

• Schon’s reflective practitioner

Learning styles - Honey & Mumford• Please consider the brief descriptions of the

learning styles

Activist

Reflector

Theorist

Pragmatist • Which style or ‘mixture’ are you and when?• What does that say about how, when and why

you learn (or don’t learn) from what experiences and in what situations? How might you develop your style further to benefit from other learning experiences?

Learning curves - context and change

• How have you developed as a learner? When were, or are, your peaks and troughs?

• Explore your own learning curve

• Are you learning formally and/or informally? On the job? Working with others and learning from and with them? Because of experiences?

• Explore a very recent professional learning

moment - either formal or informal - what were its characteristics?

• We probably juggle and spin more than our predecessors did - in work, and as members of families and of the community

• Being careful not to drop any of the balls

• What are the implications of balancing for you as a learner and a professional?

• Managing stress and time, keeping your eye on the ball

Formal

learning

Life and learning

And informal learning

Work and learning - during and on the job

Continuing professional development planning

• At any one point in our lives there are probably personal, professional, formal and informal things we would like to learn whether

Knowledge

Skills

Behaviour/attitude

Some of this is available through

• Formal courses • Staff Development workshop programme • CLT events • Outside training and development • Informal working groups • Coaching and mentoring • Critical friends• Other outside activities

Planning• Please complete the grid individually, then share

with your neighbours• Think of THREE things you would like to learn

over the next TWO years • Then discuss:

Why?For what reason?How?Where?When?

• How will you know when you have learned?• Then COMMIT! And enjoy!

informal formal

knowledge

attitude

skills

personal professional

Learning changes our perceptions