Zonenetworking

Wednesday, 27 March 13

How do we learn best?

Wednesday, 27 March 13

Wanting to learn is important. I like the word 'wanting' better than words such as motivation, even though we may mean the same thing. 'Wanting' is a powerful, basic human drive, while 'motivation' is just a bit more clinical and detached. We all know how when people really want something, they usually get it sooner or later (whether or not it's good for them!).

Wanting

Wednesday, 27 March 13

Learning by doing is how most people learn, including by trial and error, practice, and learning from mistakes. This is the same really as what most people mean by 'experiential learning' but again, words like 'doing', 'practice', 'trial and error' are easier to think about. For example, you can plan in episodes of each of these into lectures, or tutorials, or student assignments, while it is not quite so easy to know exactly what 'planning in some experiential learning' may mean in any particular situation.

Doing

Wanting

Wednesday, 27 March 13

'Making sense' of what has been learned. Students often say that the important step in this area is 'getting my head round it'. It's tempting to use the word 'understanding' for this, but it's not the best word. The problem with 'understanding' is that people don't really have a shared view of what the word really means.

DigestingDoing

Wanting

Wednesday, 27 March 13

I prefer the word digesting for the 'making sense of it' dimension of learning. In its everyday physiological sense, 'digesting' means:

• sorting out what's worth retaining;• building on to ourselves what is

useful;• providing us with energy to keep

going:• discarding what was just a 'means

to the end' or the roughage.

DigestingDoing

Wanting

Wednesday, 27 March 13

Learning through feedback: 'other people's reactions' is the most frequent reply about how people account for having developed positive feelings. Human beings are a feeling species. Whatever we do or think, we have feelings about it. Ignore our feelings about learning at our peril!

Feedback

DigestingDoing

Wanting

Wednesday, 27 March 13

Feedback

Digesting

Doing

Wanting

The best way I've so far found to describe my 'wanting, doing, feedback, digesting' model of learning is as 'ripples on the pond', with each of the four processes in dynamic interaction with the

rest.Wednesday, 27 March 13

Feedback

Digesting

Doing

Wanting

Probably the best way of thinking about the driving force of the ripples is with 'wanting' at the centre of things, providing the

energy for the ripple to spread.

Wednesday, 27 March 13

Feedback

Digesting

Doing

Wanting

'Feedback' is best shown as coming in from the outside of things. Feedback to learners comes from all directions fellow

students, learning resources, expert witnesses such as tutors, and so on.

Wednesday, 27 March 13

Feedback

Digesting

Doing

Wanting

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Wednesday, 27 March 13