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Learning as Lifelong, Worldwide and Values-Deep
Dear Learner,
I hope you don’t mind me calling you a learner. I call myself one too. This is the first in a series of letters intended to share ideas and stimulate reflection on the role and nature of learning in our lives.
Lifelong learning is an important topic and it amazes me how often we take it for granted. Our highly developed ability to learn is the most significant characteristic of what it means to be human. Through learning we control our lives and achieve our goals. It stands to reason that insights on how we learn, why we learn and what it means to be competent, can be valuable and empowering.
Throughout my professional career I have been concerned with these questions. For many years I was a college professor and Director of the Centre for Education and Lifelong Learning at the National College of Ireland. Prior to that I worked in the early days of e-learning and in educational television. What I write here comes from that background, and I hope you will find it useful.
For each of us our life experience is a valuable resource that can be harvested for insights on how we can learn better. How do you think of yourself as a learner? You may be a parent, carer, worker or student keen to build your knowledge and develop new skills. You may, like me, have retired from full-time work but are still hungry for fresh ideas and new competences.
Wherever you are in life, the impulse to learn is a vital part of being alive. Most of the time we do not notice it. Learning just seems to happen.
Think back to one year ago and compare how you’ve changed over the intervening time. In a year you will have encountered situations, solved problems, met new people, and known familiar people in new ways.
Through these experiences your mind has adapted and changed. You will certainly have learned a great deal in that time. Learning is inevitable and we learn all the time. Whenever we are conscious, we are learning. When we read a newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch television, there is learning. We learn from conversations, browsing the internet, walking in the woods, or playing a musical instrument. We learn especially well in communities and through collaboration.
The phrase I use to capture the expansive nature of learning is ‘learning as lifelong, worldwide, and values-deep’.
So, you may ask, what does that mean for me?’ The implications are more significant and useful than you may first imagine. Let me touch briefly on what I mean.
Lifelong is perhaps the easiest to grasp. From our earliest moments until the end of our days, learning is with us. It is bound up with consciousness itself — to be human is to learn.
At different stages of life, the tasks and orientation of learning changes: the child learns through play, the adolescent explores identity, adults tend to focus on the challenges of work and family, while while mature adults may place more value reflection and renewal.
Lifelong learning reminds us that no stage of life is without opportunities to grow.
Seeing learning as a ‘lifelong’ process puts us and others at points on a journey of continuous development. As adults we may doubt ourselves as learners. These negative feelings often stem from our school days. Recognising that learning is a lifelong process allows us to deal with our past and to move away from defining ourselves by what we achieved in school. Lifelong learning acknowledges the on-going quest in each of us to give meaning and purpose to our lives.
Worldwide points beyond our own circle of experience. All too often we are fixed in our perspective. What we experience is a tiny fraction of the world and we often overlook the wide array of contexts in which people grow and learn.
It is easy to assume that our schools, colleges, and workplaces are the template for everyone, everywhere. Yet learning takes many forms across societies. It happens in oral traditions as well as literate ones, in villages as well as cities, in times of conflict as well as peace.
To see learning worldwide is to remember its universality, but also its diversity. The way people learn is shaped by culture, history, and circumstance, and that diversity enriches our understanding and tolerance of others. We cannot really know ourselves as learners unless we appreciate how other people have learned to see the world differently. This is the essence of human collaboration and activity. Importantly, local and community education are part of this worldwide picture. We learn best while collaborating for a common purpose, be that ‘men’s sheds’, ‘tidy towns’ or ‘rural links’.
Values-deep reminds us that while everyday learning builds our knowledge and skills, there is also a form of learning that challenges us at a deeper level. It shifts our values, our assumptions, even our sense of what is right or wrong. This is what education scholars call transformative learning — often triggered by difficult experiences that cause us to question ourselves and see the world differently. Such learning may be described as deep as it reshapes our identity and values.
What does that mean for each of us? Consider your own values and how they’ve come to shape the way you live. Did you always have these same values? We often say we are ‘nurturing our values’ and we try to instil values in young people. So, it is reasonable to argue that values are learned and if so, then surely they can change as a result of new experiences and insights.
I’m not suggesting that values are fickle and easy to change – quite the opposite they are deep convictions that are usually taken for granted and unquestioned. But every so often in our lives, or in the lives of people we know, we face an unexpected problem that challenges our assumptions. These experiences may be disorienting and lead us to question our deepest values. Appreciating that this as a learning process helps us carry through these unsettling transformations.
In this letter I have only touched the surface. I hope it gets you thinking about learning in all its forms: the everyday and the transformative, the personal and the global, the lifelong thread that ties our human story together.
In future letters I intend to provide more details and useful insights from the scholarship of learning and my own experiences. We can regard each letter as a conversation starter, so your comments and responses are especially welcome.
To facilitate this I have prepared a list of Self-Reflection Questions below. I encourage you to take a moment to consider your response to each question; they are designed to develop your critical understanding of learning.
I have also developed a Discussion Space where you can register, comment and engage in constructive dialogue about this topic.
I invite you to walk with me on this journey, as fellow learners, open to whatever the world has yet to teach us.
Your partner in learning,
Leo
Self-Reflection Questions for
Learning as Lifelong, Worldwide and Values-Deep
1. Looking back over your last year of life:
Think carefully about how you have changed in the past twelve months — in your thinking, in your relationships, in the way you see yourself. This is a way of noticing that learning happens continuously, not just in school or college. By taking stock of how you’ve grown, you are practising the habit of recognising yourself as a lifelong learner.
2. Revisiting your school experiences:
Most of us carry memories of our school years, and often these memories shape how we think of ourselves as learners today. Some people left school confident, others left doubtful or discouraged. Ask yourself: how much do those old experiences still influence the way you approach new learning? By reflecting on this, you can begin to separate who you are now from the labels or judgements of the past. This is an important step in adult learning: reclaiming your capacity to keep growing.
3. Considering learning from a worldwide view:
Our own culture, community, and workplace strongly shape what and how we learn. But learning takes very different forms across the world. Try to imagine how someone your age in another country or setting — perhaps in a village, a conflict zone, or a culture with oral traditions — learns and grows. This exercise widens perspective. It reminds us that learning is not only personal but also cultural, and it helps us appreciate both the diversity of human experience and the common thread that connects us as learners.
4. Reflecting on a time when your values were challenged:
Think of a situation when you questioned what you had always taken for granted — perhaps about fairness, right and wrong, or your own assumptions. These are moments of values-deep learning. They can be unsettling, but they are also powerful turning points. By revisiting one of these moments, you can see how learning can reshape not only your knowledge but your identity. This kind of reflection helps adults to make sense of change and to grow stronger from it.
5. Bringing the three dimensions together:
Now ask yourself: of the three ideas — lifelong, worldwide, and values-deep — which feels most relevant to you at this point in your life? Why? By making a choice here, you clarify your own priorities as a learner. This final step helps you set a direction: it could be continuing to build confidence as a lifelong learner, opening yourself more to global perspectives, or working through questions about your values. This is how reflection turns into action. -
Ready to Learn – Taking the First Step
Oh I was just wondering have you got a moment, I just want to ask you about something‘ she had arrived at NCI reception and they suggested I might meet with her. ‘No problem at all‘ I assured her while thinking how much I had to do that afternoon.
Five minutes later she sat in my office. She was very nervous and I thought I noticed a slight trembling in her voice. Her name was Susan.
‘It’s like this‘ she said ‘I was thinking of doing a course here but I am not sure if I’d be able for it‘. She went on to tell me her story. She left school at sixteen without a Leaving Cert. She worked in the retail sector for the last twenty five years and now she is a manager. She is married with three kids and two of them are in college. She reads a lot and is well liked by her colleagues. Generally, she’s happy.
But there’s always been a niggle. An unease and sense of being often left out, ignored and taken-for-granted. ‘Sure what would Susan know‘ she once overheard a younger colleague remark.
Susan explained that she has been thinking about college for years but had never taken the first step. Recently she floated the idea of doing a course with her friends and family ‘Yeah go on why don’t you give it a try‘ they would encourage her. But deep down she was nervous and didn’t know where to start.
‘So I don’t know Leo why I’m here, perhaps it’s just a crazy idea, I mean, I don’t even have a Leaving Cert and I was crap at school, this is a terrible idea, sorry for wasting your time‘. I just listened, it was like I was the audience for her inner debate. ‘But I can do it! I’m good with words, this is for me, this is my chance!‘
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ I asked, eventually finding something I could be useful at. ‘Yes that would be great‘.
Later we talked about adult learning and how she was not that unusual. College, especially National College of Ireland, is not like school. Adults are welcome and treasured as they bring valuable life experience to the classroom. We discussed how people like Susan make a conscious decision to learn and often thrive when they go to college. They find new ideas, make new friends and find new meaning in their lives.
Years later we were standing at the conferring ceremony in the National Convention Centre, Susan was all gowned up and proudly clutching her parchment. She introduced me to her family and there were smiles all round.
‘Do you remember our first meeting?‘ she asked. I nodded ‘yes’. ‘Well! I just want to say thanks for the tea. You make a good cup of tea‘ she grinned ‘one that will last a lifetime!‘.
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New Learning and Education Degrees at National College of Ireland
I am delighted to introduce two new degree programmes at NCI the BA (Honours) in Early Childhood Education and the BA (Honours) in Adult and Workforce Education.
These are new awards developed by our team to address the growing interest in education at all stages of life and in all contexts. An important idea underpinning our approach to learning is that education is not confined to school. We learn so much in early childhood that stays with us throughout life and likewise when our school years are over we continue to learn as we progress through our career and meet the challenges of our lifespan.
It is natural to learn. This seems like an obvious statement but it is so simple we often overlook its importance. We are ‘natural born learners’ and more than any other living organism we are destined to learn all the way through life.
Early Childhood Educators are now rightfully regarded as professional practitioners who require advanced qualifications and specialist knowledge and skills. The sector is now the subject of important legislative and policy developments. It is a wonderful area to work in and requires committed educators trained to the highest level.
Adult and Workforce Educators are much in demand (try searching ‘learning and development specialist’ in the jobs websites). This is an emerging and evolving profession; ’emerging’ as there are so many new competences required in modern workforces such as collaboration, problem solving, communications, and creativity – teaching for these so-called 21st Century skills requires the most up-to-date skills and techniques – and ‘evolving’ because existing trainers have accomplished so much and there is so much research and evidence based practice that we can learn from.
Initially these programmes are aimed at those already working in the sector and wish to consolidate their experience with a recognised qualification or those in related contexts who wish to upskill to work in either of these areas. Classes take place two evenings per week and some Saturdays. There are friendly starting points for people who may be daunted by the prospect of doing a degree – in other words ‘we teach as we preach’ and take it step by step. Not everyone will want to complete the full Level 8 degree so there are also exit awards at Levels 6 and 7.
So these are exciting times for education and educators who cater for learning before and after school.
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Learning Without Assessment and The Willie Clancy Summer School
If you’re ever lucky enough to find yourself in Miltown Malbay, County Clare, Ireland, around the early part of July each year you will find a most wonderful musical and learning event taking place: the Willie Clancy Summer School. Sadly, one of its founders Muiris Ó Rócháin passed away this year. Many years ago I made a TV documentary called Up Sráid Eoin about the wren boys of Dingle and Muiris featured prominantly in the film. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam usual (trans: May he be honoured at the right hand of God) .
Now let me tell you about this school. It uses a form of cascade to facilitate musicians of all levels (and ages) to improve their playing of traditional music. The development of Irish set dancing skills is also an integral part of the week long programme. So experts teach the proficient, the proficient teach the novices etc.. In addition, there is a very strong social aspect to playing traditional music, its fullest expression is through group playing with a mixture of fiddle, flute, tin whistle, uilleann pipes, accordion, guitars, banjo and bodhráns.
Throughout the week there is a mix of structured classes and spontaneous sessions usually in the local pubs. These sessions embrace young and old, expert and novice – what we get is one continuous, joyous expression of music – all the while people are learning new tunes and developing their skills.
There is no assessment, no barriers to ‘giving it a go’, no penalties for mistakes and great learning takes place.
This entire approach is completely at variance with our institutionalised version of education. We often take for granted the assumption that all learning must be assessed and we see learning as an individual and often lonely process. The Willie Clancy Summer School gives us a different perspective on this.
Thanks Muiris.
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How to Write a Literature Review for a Dissertation
Writing a Literature ReviewWriting a dissertation is one of the great learning tasks of college education. However, many students find it a daunting process. One of the first challenges you face is writing a literature review and the purpose of this post is to help you get started with the process, to keep you on track as you proceed and to provide a means of self-reviewing your outputs when you (think you) have completed.Let’s start with a simple set of questions: What constitutes a literature review? What is it used for? and What distinguishes a good literature review from a poor one?As the name implies, a literature review is a review of other people’s work in a particular field of scholarship. Such a review is always directed and informed by the research question to be addressed. For example, if your research question is related to adult literacy then you will need to provide a review of other works, be they theoretical models, research reports or practice studies, that relate to adult literacy. Most importantly, a literature review cannot be of any value unless it is referenced to some form of research question or problem.It is a common mistake for students to misunderstand the purpose of a literature review – it is not a means for the student to demonstrate wide ranging knowledge or to reproduce theory or to provide a history of developments in a particular field (although it can involve each of these). It is simply a matter of ‘re’viewing the literature from the perspective of the research question or topic. In other words, asking and addressing questions of the form ‘if such and such says or has found this then what are the implications for my research?’
The purpose of a literature review is to guide and support you and your reader in furthering the investigation or inquiry at hand. In academic scholarship you can and should build on the works of others – provided they are properly cited.Here is an analogy that might be useful: If you were planning to visit Rome then you would likely consult a guidebook and some web sites for information. You would be very interested in the section dealing with the specific area were you intend to stay, and you would also focus on the sites you plan to visit. To a certain extent, you don’t need to read everything in the guidebook. However, you might need to bring the guidebook with you and consult it during your visit. Imagine if each visitor had to explore the entire city for the first time – we would have very poor experiences in Rome. It is wise therefore to find out from other sources all that you need to know to make your particular journey as successful as possible. So (please forgive me if this sounds patronising!) consider the following – the value of a guide book is always considered with respect to the place and time of your visit and similarly, literature reviews are intended to support the research inquiry at hand.In academic scholarship you can use a literature review to address the following issues:
- To outline a conceptual framework for your research question
- To develop an argument as to the importance of your research question and to discuss the wider implications amd context
- To discuss the theoretical and philosophical (epistemological) underpinnings of the problem
- To refine, focus and improve the research question
- To discuss relevant and related theory, models or frameworks
- To discuss other relevant research
- To discuss research approaches and methods (although a fuller treatment of this is normally part of a later section on methodology)
A good literature review is never passive – the writer is constantly making connections between the work of others and the current research or inquiry. Indicators of a good review:- It is constructed from and connected to the research question
- It is comprehensive in relation to the research question
- It is connected and well structured
- It provides a sound foundation for the other components of the dissertation
- The writer adopts a critical stance
The most straightforward way to organise a literature review is to structure it around the central themes that arise from the research question.Here are 10 questions you can use to self-assess your literature review:- Have I clearly stated my research question or problem at the onset?
- Have I provided an introduction that indicates the structure of my review and a rationale for that structure?
- Have I discussed each of the concepts/terms as used in my research question and provided a rationale for their inclusion?
- Have I conducted a comprehensive search for, and included the key relevant theoretical and research works related to my topic?
- Have I connected all parts of the review to my research question?
- Have I adopted a critical stance in my writing?
- Have I included discussion on other similar research?
- Have I argued for the importance of my research question and framed it in terms of wider issues and philosophies?
- Have I correctly used the Harvard Referencing System or similar?
- Have I proof read the review such that it is free from typos and errors?
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Really Useful Websites on Learning and Teaching
As a follow-up to my previous blog on the Top Ten Insights on Learning I would like to provide a list of web sources and resources that may act as good places to start with insights on learning and teaching.
I’ll try to give a brief description of each and why it makes the cut for me.
Starting Points: Aggregation Sites
Theory into Practice (TIP)
Greg Kearsley has put together an excellent resource that deals with a wide variety of learning theories. This is an excellent starting point and it will give the beginner a good appreciation of the breath of theories and their practical applications.Emtech’s Learning Theories
This is another excellent starting point with a comprehensive list of learning theory orientations. What I like about this list is that each section is authored by a different person and you can cite each as an individual resource.Martyn Ryder’s Instructional Design Models
Martyn Ryder’s very comprehensive listing of instructional design and learning theory resources -this site is well maintained, comprehensive and deals with an wide expanse of theoretical orientations.Learning and Teaching
Teaching Tips Index
This is another great starting point for lot’s of interesting exploration. The index is compiled by the faculty development team at Honolulu Community College. I’ve looked at many of these teacher development sites and I have to say this is certainly one of the best!Angles on Learning
James Atherton’s resource for called: An introduction to ideas about learning for college, adult and professional education – brings together ideas about learning for college, adult and professional education. Great piece of work!The ETL Project
This project sought to identify evidence-based good practice in teaching-learning environments for a range of undergraduate courses.National Survey of Student Engagement If you are genuinely interested in what goes on in college classrooms then this site dealing with an extensive US research project is a good place to start.
Doing What Works
This is a US Government site that promotes research-based educational practices. This resource is particularly relevant for primary and second level teachers.Learning Research
ERIC
The Education Resources Information Center – a search-able database containing loads of journal articles and other resources on education and learning.Education and Policy
European Commission
The Education and Training Directorate of the European Commission – a good starting point for EU and national policy documents. -
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Top Ten Insights on Learning
It’s the time of year for reviews. I call it the season of the “top tens”: we have the top ten songs of 2009, the top ten sporting moments, the top ten films and so on.I have decided to step on the band wagon and am now pleased to present my Top Ten Insights on Learning.Here we go:
- Learning is constructed
- People are curious
- We learn best in social settings
- Much adult learning is child’s play
- We have a Learning Identity
- Meet the Digital World
- Adults learn what they want to learn
- Learning can be additive or transformative
- We learn throughout life
- We strive to be all that we can be
1 Learning is constructedThe best analogy is that of a tree with many branches.
We learn through the integration of present and past experiences. As we experience the world we connect new experiences with our past – in other words we construct knowledge.Learning has nothing to do with transmission of knowledge – it about personal construction.
Educators who recognise this focus on process rather than output and encourage students to make their own meaning rather than reproduce the work of others.
2 People are curious
We can use whatever terms we wish: “learning as inquiry” “problem-solving” “achievement goals” – the plain fact of the matter is that people are curious. We can be both mentally and physically curious. We have evolved our higher order thinking skills because our curiosity has provided a competitive advantage on this planet.
Curiosity is at the root of learning – to make learning happen provide conditions where curiosity is aroused.
3 We learn best in social settings
We have created our society and culture by developing systems to share knowledge, organise tasks, transmit knowledge between generations and collaborate with others to solve problems.No matter how clever or knowledgeable a person is – very little can be achieved alone.
When we learn our instinct is to share and communicate with others.
Students who work together through group work will learn much more than the task at hand: they will have to listen, discuss, debate, concede, collaborate, co-operate and share. These are really usefull skills.
4 Much adult learning is child’s play
I said above that people are curious both mentally and physically. Curiosity can be very dangerous if it is left unregulated.I could be curious about what its like to walk on the central partition of the motorway, manage an international bank or pilot a 747 but I’ll never do these things.
However, through play and imagination I can experience these actions and their consequences.
Many talk about “lifelong learning” I think we should call it “lifelong playing”. These day’s I’m playing with the Italian language.Teachers should let students play – this is also important in 3rd level: role play, simulations, gaming, problem-solving, apprenticeship and peripheral participation can be regarded as adults at play.
5 We have a Learning Identity
We all have a Learning Identity and I have written about this in a previous blog post.In my own research on how adult’s go about learning digital skills late in their careers I found that Learning Identity loomed large whenever educational endeavour was considered. I would ask “why do you want to learn computer skills?” and people would respond with “well I was no good in school…”
Perhaps it’s because society places such a high value on schooling and educational qualification that those who have had difficult experiences in school feel so inadequate when it comes to learning in later life.
It’s as if what they learned in school was that they were not good learners.Educators and trainers should not underestimate learning identity. It’s not just about praising and encouraging (although we should do this all the time) it’s about being aware of social comparison, fear of humiliation and genuine exam anxiety. The big message should be – this is not like school.
6 Meet the Digital World
Your first thought might be that the digital world is “out there” in the places where people are using technology to make things happen. But what I want to talk about is the Digital World that’s “in here” – I mean inside your mind!
We all build the world in our mind and through this process we organise, ascribe our values, assumptions, unquestioned beliefs and preconceived patterns of thought about aspects of the world.
For me its the Digital World but for other people it may be the world of the literate, of the wealthy, of the workers, of the young or of the future.
The important point is critical awareness. That is the learning task: to be cognisant of our assumptions, prejudices and patterns of thought.
7 Adults learn what they want to learn
This should be written on the wall of every training room and college classroom.Learning decisions are often neglected. I find this a fascinating area of inquiry: why do people choose to learn at a particular point in time?
We can pack our children into a classroom and somehow get away with telling them what they need to know but there is no way this will work with adults.Connecting usefulness and application is integral to the learning task for adults.
8 Learning can be additive or transformative
Of all the learning typologies this simple distinction is the most useful. We tend to think often about adding to our bank of knowledge but we seldom describe learning in terms of reorganising our thinking about something.
One of the characteristics of transformative learning is that it it involves loosing something (and this can be disconcerting) and rebuilding or putting something new in its place.
I think that transformative learning can take place at a societal level also. Imagine the upheavals caused by Calileo’s assertion that the Earth orbits the Sun or when Darwin described the Origin of the Species. It wasn’t so much that we rejected the new ideas but we also had to face the reality that to do so involved moving away from preexisting, more comfortable, beliefs.
Transformative learning can take people outside their comfort zone and challenge ‘the way we’ve always thought about things’. This is not always an easy experience.
One example of transformative learning that I frequently encounter is the process of college students moving beyond a positivist view of the world to become more comfortable with uncertainty, different perspectives and and awareness of their own subjectivity.Teachers who challenge students to think differently, to appreciate other perspectives and to self-reflect on practice will create conditions for transformative learning. When students argue and critique we know we have accomplished.
9 We learn throughout life
We tend to compartmentalise our short existence into a series of stages each with its own tasks and challenges. We are born and grow in childhood developing of motor, language, thinking and communications skills. As teenagers, we build our identity and later we are tasked with our partner relations, parenting and success in the workplace. Later still, we face the challenges of ageing and the fragility of our bodies and finally we face the fact that we are mortal.
We need to learn as we go – there is no point of arrival where we have all the we need to confront the challenges ahead. This is why learning is often described as a journey, this journey parallels the journey of life.
People of all ages look for meaning in their life, learning is one way to give meaning. Senior learning is often regarded as “nice” – in fact it is much more, it is essential. Lifelong learning is also learning for a long life!
10 We strive to be all that we can be
This is the so-called drive for individuation. One way to think about this is in terms of a desire to be competent no matter what the field of activity.
This is not the same as wanting to be good at everything. To strive to be ‘all that you can be’ is to take account of opportunity, capability and circumstance.But what you need to be good at is: who you are – you need to be the best “put your name here” possible. As we grow this guides our approach to learning and life.
We learn to be all that we can be.
My pictures are from Christmas Day in Maynooth 2009 when Maire and I took a walk by the canal.
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My Learning Identity
The term “identity” is widely used in many different contexts – we often speak or our national, cultural, linguistic or sporting identities. This multifaceted aspect of identity signifies that we should really think about our identities rather than a singular identity.
There seems to be two ways in which we use identity in everyday life; firstly, we identify with a particular group or practice – in this we seek to belong or to be a part of something and secondly, we develop an internal notion of our own identity – this is self-identity – and it is often used to compare ourselves with others.
It is not difficult to see how the two are intertwined.
Imagine a situation where you meet someone for the first time and you wish to get to know more about them – you might start by asking where they are from etc.. There follows an exchange of descriptive information usually in the form of identity signifiers: “I am from Dublin”, “I am an educator”, “I have teenage children”.
In no time there is common ground and perhaps you find a mutual area of interest with your new friend.
Identity signals serve a useful function in social situations they help us to quickly categorise and appraise other people. They act as a kind of shorthand that avoids the need for detailed time-consuming descriptions.
What of our self-identity? We may also use this to categorise and appraise ourselves – we do this in reference to others.
Our self-identity is neither singular (we should say self-identities) nor stable over time. We have many self-identities and they are greatly influenced by context.
I am happy to say that I am a competent golfer when I am in the company of non-golfers but I feel totally inadequate on the tee-box when members of my club are watching on.
In fact, as far as golf is concerned, I have a very unstable self-identity concept.
In my opinion, I am usually much weaker at golf that others I see around me. However, my golfing identity is greatly influenced by my most recent experiences and so I might find myself feeling pretty smug if I just birdied the last hole.
I believe that we all have a learning-identity and that it forms an important part of our overall self-concept. This is true especially for adults and I believe that we need to give greater consideration to the influence of learning-identity when we talk about adult education, return-to-learning, skills in the workplace and older people using computers for the first time.
For many older people learning-identity is founded on school experiences and unfortunately these may not have been very positive for the individual concerned.
Recently as part of my my own research on adult learners I asked people (generally over 45 years of age) why they decided to undertake a basic computer course. In the first few sentences of their response many of them would refer to their experiences at school. Typically they would say something like“well you see I wasn’t very good at school – so I never really did any other courses but I found that I was missing out as far as computers were concerned – so I decided I’d try and give this a go but I’m really quite nervous.”
This would be their first response – notice that when I never asked about school people always seemed to want to bring in their school experiences when they talked about any kind of course they were considering.
I suspect that what’s going on is that these people have invoked their school derived learning-identity and are already nervous about a situation that involves any combination of the words like learning, course or college.
This is really a double whammy – if you did poorly at school you are less likely to have taken up a course in your adult life and therefore your learning-identity will be based largely on your school experiences. But because you did poorly at school your sense of yourself as a learner will not be very positive.
Just going back to my earlier example based on my self-identity as a golfer – it’s as if I have not played any golf for the last thirty years and all I remember was that I was awful and had a horrid experience when I last played thirty years ago. How do you think I would feel when standing up to take the first shot.
And that’s an example from a really trivial activity like golf – imagine how much worse I would feel when it comes to something that really matters like my learning-identity.
So what can be done?
Here are some ideas on how to manage your learning-identity- Think about progress – how much has changed in terms of schooling between when you were at school and what happens in schools today. These changes were as a result of improvements in the craft of teaching and better understanding of what it means to learn. In other words the problem in the past may well have been with the system rather than the individual.
- Know where you learn – many people do not regard themselves as learning unless they have participated on a course. We learn all the time and throughout our lives. Your learning-identity should extend beyond your school experiences.
- Know where you teach – think about all of the situations where you have guided others as a parent, an experienced co-worker or as a mentor. Ask yourself -if you are naturally good at facilitating learning in others – how does this make you feel about yourself as a learner.
- Finally it’s not like school! This is the most common description that adult learners use when they eventually participate in a course and describe their experiences.
Go on then and give your own learning-identity a good shake-up.
