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Linear and non-linear learningWhat is linear learning?Some
aspects of our educational system reflect its machine-age origins.
If you look closely you will see the ethos of the factory: The
textbooks, the curricula,the classrooms, and the schedules we
follow. These are products of a 19th century factory model.They
havent changed much over the centuries. To this day, the bell rings
and we take our places for 45 mins of instruction in neat rows.
Then we receive mass-produced content that was designed around
standardized tests tests that do not accommodate individual
learning needs.The delivery model is that of the conveyor-belt. If
the system is to work as a whole, the content has to be delivered
in a very particular way: It has to be delivered in a linear
format.Textbook exampleYou can see the linear format at work in
textbooks that stagger information: Inmost textbooks youre not
supposed to proceed to Unit 2 until youve learned Unit 1.Nor will
you will understand Unit 3 until you have mastered Unit 2, and so
on. Almost all textbooks are designed, literally, along such
lines.Let me give you an example from English language textbooks.
For decades, they have traditionally begun with present tense (or
aspect) verbs and usually with the3rd person. He goes, and she
eats, etc. These are commonly the first item in along and linear
sequence of items.From there, the books invariably proceed to
simple past tense, then past continuous, and then on to the perfect
aspect, and so on. This is the order in which mo
st newcomers to English meet the language. Its also an example
of linear delivery.Linear is arbitraryThe striking thing about the
linear approach is how arbitrary it is. The sequences of language
items I mentioned have nothing to do with how and when learners
actually acquire the elements - still less to do with what they
would encounter in the wild. The linear sequence is arbitrary.Its
also the case that, in real life (and even in school life) learners
of spokenEnglish do not acquire the very first item of the entire
sequence the simple present tense - until they reach an advanced
stage of fluency. The first will be last and theres nothing the
textbook writer can do about this.So, its interesting that Chinese
speakers of English who have mastered many complex grammatical
items continue to say he go rather than he goes. For some reason
th
third persona singulars is a late acquired morpheme in some
cases very late. Again, this is the direct opposite of what
textbook order suggests.ExpediencyThe textbook sequence of items
exists for reasons other than a natural order oflearning. Its
presented out of an order of teaching expediency. This qualifies
aswhat we might call a teacher-centric approach.One assumption
behind the linear approach is, of course, that if it is taught then
the learning will follow, regardless of any natural order of
acquisition. Thatis problematic, to say the least.Non-linear
learningSo, what is non-linear learning? On one level, non-linear
learning is the way that we naturally learned for a couple of
hundred thousand years. In nature, linear learning doesnt exist.
People didnt learn to swim or hunt in a linear way throug
h a staggered, textbook process. We learned instead by doing,
through direct experience, through dealing with things as they
arose, and through discovering whatit was that was important at the
time. But most of all, we learned through making connections
between stuff we already knew and the stuff we didnt. This meantwe
actively constructed the knowledge as we needed it. It was all very
subjective and individual and not linear.In real life, children
learn their mother tongue through random exposure. They make sense
of the language by identifying patterns and they connect and store
thepatterns that work. Our brains are designed to work/learn this
way, but it is asubjective process because each individual
experiences distinct social and psyc
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hological phenomena. It is not an objective one size fit, but an
experience thatis entirely unique. Yet we all end up fluent in our
native language.Learning in the natural environment was not linear.
There is a level on which itwas actually quite random. It was
situational.Networks, not linesIf anything, non-linear learning has
more to do with a network than a line. Its about experience and
connecting the dots in our distant past that meant remembering that
a certain plant could be eaten, another could heal illness, while
others should be avoided, etc.This type of learning has a
neurological basis: Our neural networks form the basis of
memory/knowledge and even the brain itself. The web, like the
brain, is all about links and nodes. Its network qualities have
massive implications for learning that I think were just beginning
to see. The rise of the web has meant therise of a certain type of
learning and its based on a network of connections rather than on
linear sequences.This doesnt mean we have to put an end to linear
learning far from it but it doesmean we have to be open to other
possibilities, and the web is providing those.Networks are
everywhere and, as Jay Cross persuasively argues, they are changing
everything, including how we learn. The last time that happened we
had the Enlightenment on our hands.Writing techniques: Learning to
write in a non-linear wayThrough recent work on a writing program
for professionals, Ive once again seen the limitations of the
grammar-book and the linear approach.The problem with the to z
books on writing is that they suppress all context. W
hich means that each learner is forced to follow the book and
jump through the same hoops, regardless of different needs?If
todays lesson happens to be on the split infinitive then the split
infinitive itis and thats what we do end of discussion. As a
learner, it means that the content has nothing to do with your
life, your experience, or with anything you mightactually want to
learn. The effect is one-size-fits-nobody.In order to combat the
linearity problem, Ive developed an approach that I call writing
techniques. With writing techniques the learner is encouraged to
developfirst, her own interpretation of good writing. She is guided
in how to close readthe texts to see the techniques below the
surface that make it effective and sheis presented with a number of
techniques that are selected by the tutor as highly effective .With
enough skill in place to be able to make judgment calls, the
learner is the
n encouraged to close read her own writing and find the gaps.
The task then becomes to find out how acknowledged writers (from
Gladwell to Chekov) solve his problems and learn from there. This
approach subjective, connectivist, and non-linear.For more on the
writing techniques go here.Note: I updated this post for clarity in
Sept 2012.Ken Carroll
