How do people really learn?

Learning and 'performance'

I was struck by this statement on page 28 of Just suppose teaching and learning became the first priority...

a focus on learning can enhance performance, whereas a focus on performance can depress performance

This is, in fact, a quotation from Learning about learning enhances performance, a paper by Chris Watkins that you can access directly here.

There has been such a strong emphasis on results and performance in recent years that the focus of thinking in schools, colleges etc. has moved away from learning as such. Chris Watkins paper suggests that even those whose primary concern is educational  'performance' would do well to concentrate more on how we can promote real learning.

A good read

Although I have some grave concerns about aspects of education and learning in the contemporary world, I hope that How do people really learn? will be a positive and optimistic blog. I will make a real effort not to be dragged towards negativity by the way that current policy and funding tend (in my view) to be encouraging shallow rather than real learning.

So I am delighted to start the blog with a recommendation for an excellent book (or 'pamphlet' as the author has called it). I was introduced to Just suppose teaching and learning became the first priority... by Frank Coffield just a week ago, and was delighted to discover that someone had at long last written a book about the learning and skills sector that:

• promotes the central importance of teaching and learning

• includes several references to my favourite theory of learning (Lave and Wenger's  Communities of Practice)

• is damningly critical,  but in a carefully argued way, of the policies of the government and its Learning and Skills Council (LSC) 

• is written in a delightfully witty and engaging style.

It really cheers me up not just that this book has been written, but that it has been published by a well-known national organisation (LSN). And it's free! You can download a copy (and even order a free hard copy) here.

What this blog is about

This blog has arisen out of my increasing concerns about what has been happening in education and learning in England. Although we have seen 10 years of perhaps unprecedented input in terms of investment and policy, grave concerns remain about whether this is resulting in an improvement in people really learning. What, you may ask, do I mean by 'really learning'? Well, I hope that this will become clear as the blog progresses.

Most of my own work is in what is now called the 'learning and skills' sector (LSS) in England. The LSS includes further education, work-based learning and adult eduction (if I dare use such an old-fashined term) - in other words pretty much all formal learning for those aged over 16 apart from higher education. The content of How do people really learn? will therefore concentrate to some extent on post-16 learning in England. But I hope that the issues discussed may be relevant to learners of all ages and in all parts of the world.

Terry Loane