Liberating The Learner

Lessons for Professional Development in Education

Terry Atkinson, Guy Caxton, Marilyn Osborn, Mike Wallace

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415131278
• eBook ISBN: 9781136168192
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

There is clear evidence that the quality of children's learning in school is very dependant on the style of the teacher's approach and the learning environment he or she creates. This, in turn, is a reflection of teachers own beliefs, anxieties and enthusiasms about learning, often gained through their own educational experiences. This edited volume provides a new framework for exploring teachers' views on a whole range of professional issues, for instance the nature of teaching and learning, the needs of students, and their own abilities as learners. Within this is presented a variety of case studies which illustrate how teachers' views impact upon students' learning. The book builds on the well established assumption that teachers are themselves also learners and that the learning processes involved in professional development are in many ways the same as those involved in a classroom context.It shows how the conclusions drawn from this study can be used in a practical way to assist teachers' professional development throughout their career. All teacher trainers and mentors who take seriously their role of helping children to be resourceful, resilient and reflective learners will find that this book helps them to achieve this aim.

Part I

Theoretical perspectives

The first four chapters draw on the research literature to establish the conceptual foundations for the empirical chapters that follow in Parts II and III. They do so by highlighting certain ‘myths’ that underpin much of current practice, showing their inadequacies as theoretical positions, and suggesting alternative bases on which a sounder approach to adult professional learning (APL) can be built. The opening chapter by Guy Claxton critiques the dominant ‘mythology of learning’ and offers in its stead ‘integrated learning theory’, an approach which places the learners’ priorities, beliefs, affective responses and learning strategies at the centre of the framework. Learners are seen as tacit decision-makers, choosing their stance of engagement (or disengagement) towards learning on the basis of their perceptions and interpretations. In Chapter 2, Mike Wallace homes in on the ‘myth of portability’, arguing that much so-called ‘experiential learning’ in APL is founded on the false assumption that learning is inherently transferable from the context of acquisition back to the context of professional activity. Patricia Broadfoot in Chapter 3 exposes another cornerstone of the current learning orthodoxy: the ‘myth of measurability’. The assumption that assessment is neutral with respect to learning is debunked, and she argues for innovative forms of assessment, in both APL and school contexts, which advance the ‘learning to learn’ agenda rather than frustrating it; while in Chapter 4, Guy Claxton returns to examine a whole range of other implicit (and illicit) theories of learning that lead to a variety of misunderstandings and barriers to successful APL.

Chapter 1

Integrated learning theory and the learning teacher

Guy Claxton¹

This initial chapter provides an overview of the theoretical framework that underpins the various contributions to the book. It argues that learning has to be seen as reflecting a tacit, or at least intuitive, decision-making process that includes social, emotional and material, as well as cognitive, considerations, the resultant of which is a stance towards the learning opportunity that determines whether, and if so when, how and with what intent, learning will proceed. The decision-making process represents a kind of cost-benefit analysis, in which subjective estimates of the available resources, the loss or gain of social status, the consequences of failure, and the weight of conflicting priorities (for example) are integrated, and a ‘minimax’ solution computed. These subjective estimates in their turn depend upon a whole variety of Implicit theories’ about what is to count as a threat or a need; the likelihood of success; what material, social and time resources are likely to be obtainable; and the nature of learning and knowing themselves. It is argued that lack of apparent ‘ability’ or ‘motivation’, amongst both students and teachers, should be interpreted in terms of this underlying, but rational, process. It is also suggested that the ability to defend oneself against unwanted or threatening learning invitations is a valuable capacity.

Integrated Learning Theory

It is the intention of this chapter to sketch the outlines of an approach to learning that offers a research-based handle on learning in real-life contexts. It aims to be both genuinely psychological, in offering a way of conceptualising the resilience, resourcefulness and reflectivity of a competent learner, and also of genuine utility in planning and appraising learning programmes. It is on this psychological skeleton that the varied case studies in this book will attempt to put some practical flesh. By looking at the ways in which teachers learn, in a variety of contexts, the book aims to illustrate, test and amplify this approach to learning, and to ground it in current practice. In particular it will investigate the personal and motivational issues that teachers-as-learners experience, and explore practical ways in which these difficulties can be addressed.

My task here is to lay out a view of adult learning – integrated learning theory (ILT) – based on five central ideas. The first is that learning has to be seen as reflecting an on-going decision-making process about whether to engage with the challenge presented, and if so in what way. The second is that this decision-making process resembles a kind of intuitive cost-benefit analysis, which attempts to compute the most desirable course of action on the basis of the perceived opportunities, demands, costs, rewards and risks inherent in the situation and in the learners’ view of themselves. The third is that learning is not a homogeneous activity, and there is not a single ‘best way’ of learning. Rather learners have to be seen as possessing a repertoire of learning strategies and processes that they deploy on the basis of an acquired understanding of what each is good for and when it is appropriate.

The fourth idea is that, as well as a set of ways of enhancing their competence, learners need a complementary repertoire of defensive strategies. ‘Good learning’ reflects not a complete absence of defensiveness and avoidance, but the ability to make choices about when and how to learn, or defend, that are appropriate to the actual contingencies present in the situation, and which serve to further the learner’s own valued goals. The corollary of this is that learning may come to be impeded, blocked or abandoned in ways, and under conditions, in which the learner’s best interests are not promoted, if learning choices are based on bad information. And the fifth suggests that the significant risks, rewards and so on, which weigh in the balance of a person’s learning decisions, are themselves underpinned by a host of views-of-the-world that are the residues of past experiences and teachings. This concern with learners’ ‘implicit theories’ of learning, and of themselves as learners, I shall examine in more detail in Chapter 4. This chapter sets the scene for this concern by spelling out the first four of the foundation stones. First, however, I need to sketch in the background.

The Social Context

The world has changed for teachers, as it has changed, and is changing, for other professional groups, and indeed for the entire adult workforce. ‘Continuing professional development’ is no longer a matter of the odd in-service course, or an MA for those with more academic leanings. It is not an optional extra, to be undertaken as a matter of individual choice by the teacher with ambition and some energy to spare. The continuous development of a teacher’s skills is rapidly becoming a matter of necessity. The National Curriculum, GNVQs, information technology, mentoring and school-based teacher training, the Local Management of Schools, teacher appraisal, ‘league tables’ and competition between neighbouring schools and colleges … the list of changes that demand new attitudes and competencies is lengthy and familiar. Whatever their particular roles and responsibilities, no student teacher or manager is exempt from the demand to be a learner.

These professional challenges – or pressures, depending on how they are viewed – must also be located within wider social and educational contexts. The shifting and multiple patterns of religion, relationship, ideology, vocation, lifestyle and geographical mobility that characterise our pluralistic society all place demands, arguably unprecedented, on individuals to exercise choice and engage with uncertainty: to invent and reinvent their own identities. Full employment and lifelong job security are options that no government, no corporation, no trade union or professional association can honestly offer any more. Middle-class occupations and lifestyles are more insecure than they have ever been. We live in the notorious ‘enterprise culture’, in which arguably the best that societies can do is provide support; to put in place a learning infrastructure that will ‘empower’ (dreadful word) individuals, and perhaps communities, to face these challenges with resourcefulness and confidence.

We are thus in the midst of an economic and social revolution in which the ‘industrial society’ is metamorphosing into the ‘learning society’ (Ball, 1993; Husen, 1986). Learning can no longer be seen as a task for people in the first quarter of life. And what it is that needs to be learnt, and the level of flexible understanding that is required, is also undergoing a profound change. What is required of an ever-expanding majority of the workforce, as the Information Age gathers momentum, is ‘mind work’ rather than ‘body work’ (Ross, 1994). In this individualistic world, those who can acquire the requisite competencies – and keep on expanding and updating their ‘cognitive capital’ – are those for whom it will be relatively easy to find employment. Those who are unable to do so may, in the future, have an increasingly hard, and marginal, time of it. Thus are the political and social arenas being redefined as we approach the next millennium.

These changes are placing demands on education at all levels that we are only just beginning to grapple with. The traditional distinctions between ‘education’ and ‘training’, liberal and vocational learning, are breaking down. The institutions that embodied these distinctions – universities, polytechnics, training colleges, human resource development provision in the workplace – are conversing, merging and changing their character in the search for more powerful and appropriate models of education. Various new forms of ‘experiential learning’, and ways of assessing and accrediting prior learning, are appearing in traditional institutions of formal education; while industry is concerned to develop not just specific skills, but the more generic qualities of ingenuity, autonomy and reflective practice. These uncharted areas of learning pose challenges that are as relevant to the professional development of teachers, as they are to any other vocational group. The current concern with understanding the nature of mentoring, and the best ways of fostering the development of the requisite skills and sensitivities, is but one example of a more pervasive trend.

But the challenges for schoolteachers are even deeper than they are for other groupings, because it is their business to prepare all young people – and not just the traditionally ‘bright’ or academically inclined – for this world. Teachers and managers must not only be willing to become career-long professional learners themselves; they must be actively engaged in the development of new – perhaps radically new – forms of education that equip students to function well under uncertainty. No longer can this be taken to mean the provision of particular vocational or discipline-based intellectual skills and knowledge. Something altogether deeper is needed. Whether one views the situation from a political/economic perspective, with its concern for competitiveness in global markets; or a sociological perspective, with a concern with equity and opportunity for different groups within society; or a psychological, or even spiritual, perspective, with focus on individual well-being and fulfilment; whichever vantage point one adopts, vital benefits will accrue to a society that develops a form of schooling that reliably produces young adults who can engage with learning, in whatever form it appears, with enthusiasm, resilience and resourcefulness.

The Psychological Context

This book addresses, jointly and in a variety of ways, the socio-cultural and the psychological aspects of learning. Learning happens in social settings – classrooms, conference rooms, staffrooms, laboratories – that are saturated with cultural meanings and assumptions. But it also happens in people’s heads. And understanding the internal dynamics of learning, as well as its contexts and occasions, can only lead to the design of more reliable, powerful and effective learning programmes and procedures. The problem is that no even half-way adequate psychology of real-life learning exists.

On the one hand the traditional theories that have emerged from academic psychology have been partial and simplistic. They have emphasised ‘behaviour’ or ‘problem solving’ or ‘self-esteem’ without putting all the facets back together into an integrated but recognisable picture of a real-life learner. And they have, until very recently, focused on types of learning that have no counterparts in the ‘real world’: they lack, in Ulric Neisser’s phrase, ‘ecological validity’ (Neisser, 1984). Warmed-over Piaget-for-grown-ups is not going to do the trick. On the other hand conceptualisations that have been distilled from the genuine complexities of some area of everyday life tend to be descriptive, and what they often lack is insight into the subtleties of the learners’ inner world. The recent explosion of interest in ‘experiential learning’, explored by Mike Wallace in Chapter 2, for example, has produced much enthusiastic experimentation with educational practice without generating anything very helpful or sophisticated in the way of theory. Kolb’s famous ‘learning cycle’ (Kolb, 1984) still seems to be about as good as it gets (see Keeton, 1994).

The Decision to Learn

A comprehensive approach must throw some light on the when, the where and the why of learning, as well as the how. To be a ‘good learner’ one must be ready and willing to learn, as well as able, and this means being alive to the opportunities that present themselves for pursuing valued goals; and free of any internal blocks and barriers that inhibit one from learning when it is appropriate to do so. Before one attempts to depress the accelerator and drive off on a learning journey, the ‘clutch’ that links the cognitive motor to the learning wheels must be engaged, and the brake must be off. There is much attention being paid, at present, to the facilitation of learning. But unless we understand equally the dynamics of engagement, which enables learners to commit themselves and their learning resources whole-heartedly to the process of learning, and of disinhibition, which enables learners to avoid or overcome tendencies to defend or withdraw unnecessarily, then our attempts at facilitation are always liable to founder.

It is a matter of widespread concern in the area of professional development and learning in education, for example, that the uptake and outcomes of learning opportunities – often expensively and thoughtfully designed – are disappointing. Where courses are voluntary, attendance is sometimes thin, even when the topic is one that teachers know to be important; while where their presence is expected, or even enforced, as in many whole-school training days and conferences, there may be teachers whose active participation is minimal, and whose attitude can be fatalistic or even overtly cynical. While teachers’ previous experience may make such an attitude seem reasonable, it is capable of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. If one enters a learning event firmly believing it to be a futile exercise, it is quite likely that that is precisely what it will be. And the problem seems to run deeper than making courses ‘attractive’ and ‘relevant’, or instituting carrots for attendance and sticks for avoidance.

The decision about when and how to engage – or disengage – with a specific learning opportunity is not a simple matter of conscious, rational appraisal of its potential value. Rather, I suggest, it is better seen as reflecting a complex, largely tacit ‘cost-...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Illustrations
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• Part I: Theoretical perspectives
• Part II: Cultural perspectives
• Part III: The facilitation of learning
• Name index
• Subject index