THEORIES OF LEARNING

Mustafa Daw
HP INC. ENG 428
1-How is learning currently defined.
Learning is the process of gaining more knowledge, or of learning how to do
something – ride a bike, for example.
A brief historical perspective
Although the history of a philosophical interest in learning can be traced back
to Ancient Greece, the modern history of the psychology of learning dates back
to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Therefore, in very general terms, two branches of the psychology of learning
developed and have made important inroads into the practice of teaching over
the last decades. First there is behaviourism, and second ‘constructivism’,
which is an aspect of a very much larger field of understanding and study, that
of cognitive psychology.
Other developments
Howard Gardner’s work on what he has called ‘multiple intelligences’. He
describes a picture of a set of different intelligence strengths, including areas
such as linguistic, mathematical, physical and more, which we all have in
different proportions, giving each of us a different profile of intelligences which
will affect the way in which we approach problems and the ease with which we
might understand new ideas according to how they are presented.
‘Metacognition refers that: It is proposed that if an individual learner is able to
gain insight into their own thought processes and come to understand better
the ways in which they learn then they are better equipped as learners and
likely to make good progress.
The last developing area of knowledge ‘brain-based learning’, which gives
insight into approaches that appear to favour learning and that rely on what is
known about brain structure and function.
2- Behaviourism and the beginnings of theory
Behaviourism is a theory of psychology that focuses on observable behaviour
rather than mental processes. It was founded by John B. Watson Behaviourists
believe that all behaviour is learned through interaction with the environment
and that any person can be trained to perform any task through conditioning³⁵.

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There are two main types of behaviourism: methodological and radical.
 Methodological behaviourism states that only observable behaviour
should be studied scientifically,
 Radical behaviourism also considers the role of environmental
reinforcements on behavior³.
Behaviourism has been applied to various fields such as education, therapy,
and animal training. It has also been criticized for being too simplistic,
reductionist, deterministic, and ignoring the role of biology and cognition on
behaviour⁵.
Behaviourism: a definition
Behaviourism is a theory of learning focusing on observable behaviours and
discounting any mental activity.
Classical conditioning
This involves the reinforcement of a natural reflex or some other behaviour
which occurs as a response to a particular stimulus.

for example, Pavlov’s dogs learned to salivate at the sound of a bell after
it was repeatedly paired with food that naturally made them salivate. The
salivation in response to the bell was a learned behaviour.
Pavlov identified four stages in the process of his classical conditioning and
what follows from the initial connection between stimulus and response:
1-Acquisition phase is the initial learning of the conditioned response – for
example, the dog salivating at the sound of the bell.
2-Extinction is used to describe the disappearance of the conditioned response
brought about by repeatedly presenting the bell, for example, without then
presenting food.
3-Generalisation After a conditioned response to one stimulus has been learnt.
If a child is bitten by a dog, the child may fear not only that particular dog, but
all dogs.
4-Discrimination an individual learns to produce a conditioned response to one
stimulus but not to another similar stimulus.

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Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning is the most important type of behaviourist learning. It is
more flexible in its nature than classical conditioning and therefore seen as
potentially more powerful.
The key aspects of operant conditioning are as follows:
Reinforcement
This refers to anything that has the effect of strengthening a particular
behaviour and makes it likely that the behaviour will happen again. There are
two types of reinforcement:
1-Positive reinforcement is a powerful method for controlling the behaviour of
both animals and people. For example, spanking a child for misbehaving.
2-Negative reinforcement is a method of decreasing the likelihood of a
behaviour by pairing it with an unpleasant ‘follow-up’. For example, taking
away a child’s toy for not sharing.
Shaping
The notion of shaping refers to a technique of reinforcement that is used to
teach animals or humans behaviours that they have never performed before.
Behaviourism in general learning situations is an approach that
focuses on observable and measurable behaviour and ignores mental
processes.
Behaviourism in ‘school learning’
These behaviours could be either related to general behaviour (in the
‘good/bad behaviour’ sense of the word), or more educational content-related
– spellings, tables and so on.
Considerations for the use of rewards
■ The rewards need to have value to the children.
■ If rewards come unexpectedly, intrinsic motivation will remain high.
■ If extrinsic rewards are used, it is important that everyone receives one for
their best efforts.

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■ Rewards can be used to invigorate or add fun to an activity. Problems in
using extrinsic rewards
■ Rewards can belittle or demean a learning experience.
■ Rewards can engender feelings of unfairness or competition.
■ Rewards can detract from the real issue involved in completing tasks.
■ Rewards do not always lead to higher quality work.
■ Rewards may isolate children who feel they have little chance of getting a
reward.
Behaviourism in practice
In a classroom environment, the teacher identifies the behaviours that are
desirable and the behaviours that would be best discouraged. instead of
devising a punishment for undesired behaviour, a reward of some kind for the
preferred behaviour should be devised.
In the classroom
■ Standard routines and expectations for behaviour can be made clear and
reinforced in a behaviouristic way.
■ The use of rewards in the form of team points, or such like, can be a great
incentive to work hard and to behave well.
■ Punishments, such as loss of privileges, or the withholding of rewards can be
effective as well
■ Some ‘rote’ learning may be a useful way of helping some children to cope
better with some of the aspects of their work which they find difficult.
3 Cognitive, constructivist learning
Cognitive, constructivist learning is a theory that holds that people construct
knowledge by connecting new information to what they already know¹. It is
based on the belief that learning occurs as students are actively involved in the
process of knowledge construction and meaning, rather than passively
receiving information².

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Cognitive science: a definition
Study how people learn, remember and interact, often with a strong emphasis
on mental processes and often with an emphasis on modern technologies
Cognitive psychology: a definition is the scientific study of mental processes
such as learning, perceiving, remembering, using language, reasoning and
solving problems.
Constructivism: a definition Constructivists view learning as the result of
mental construction.
The types of learning that learning are joined by a fourth and are:
■ knowledge
■ concepts
■ skills
■ attitudes (DES 1985).
Piaget is one of the best known psychologists in the field of child development
and learning.
He proposed that children go through four stages of cognitive development,
each with different characteristics and ways of thinking. Sensorimotor stage,
Preoperational stage, Concrete operational stage, Formal operational
stage.
Schema theory
Human beings understand the world by constructing models of it in their
minds. (Johnson-Laird 1983)
Some of the characteristics of schemas are:
■ They are based on our general world knowledge and experiences.
■ They are generalised knowledge about situations, objects, events, feelings
and actions.
■ They are incomplete and constantly evolving.
■ They are personal.
■ They are not usually totally accurate representations of a phenomenon.

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■ They typically contain inaccuracies and contradictions (misconceptions).
■ They provide simplified explanations of complex phenomena.
■ They contain uncertainty but are used even if incorrect.
■ They guide our understanding of new information by providing explanations
of what is happening, what it means and what is likely to result.
Schema theory: a summary
Cognitive psychologists refer to units of knowledge, understanding and skill as
schemas, as a way of referring to conceptual knowledge, which is stored in
long-term memory.
Social constructivism
Social constructivism adds an important dimension to the constructivist
domain. In social constructivist theory, emphasis is placed upon interaction
between the learner and others.
Situated learning and authentic activity
‘Situated learning’ refers to the fact that all learning takes place in a context.
The context may or may not be familiar to the learner. If the context is
unfamiliar to the learner, learning will not necessarily proceed smoothly.
Metacognition
Cognition is the ability of the brain to think, to process and store information,
and to solve problems.
Metacognition: a definition
Metacognitive knowledge is the knowledge that an individual has about their
own cognition, which can be used to consider and to control their cognitive
processes.
Wray and Lewis (1997) single out four aspects of constructivist learning theory
which they consider to be of paramount importance:
■ Learning is a process of interaction between what is known and what is to be
learnt.
■ Learning is a social process.
■ Learning is a situated process.

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■ Learning is a metacognitive process.
Mental activity
Learning requires effort on the part of the learner, and without some effort
and some mental activity, it is very unlikely that learning will take place. In the
context of constructivist theory, learning is an active, not a passive, activity.
Engagement
The five-stage model sets out a route which, if followed, is likely to provide the
conditions required for learning to result:
Engagement is described as ‘the time during which students acquire
information and engage in an experience that provides the basis for, or
content of, their ensuing learning’
exploration – is closely related to the stage of engagement.
Transformation is the stage in which information with which the child has
engaged, and has explored, might be reconfigured into a form which allows for
presentation but, importantly, transformed into a format which will, from the
teacher’s point of view, enable learning objectives to be met.
Reflection can also take many forms.
Encouraging engagement
An important element of the role of the teacher is to encourage engagement,
since without some measure of involvement with information and ideas, and
the undertaking of activity centred on the content, there is a greatly reduced
opportunity for effective learning to take place, especially the deep learning
that is the aim of most teaching situations.
4 Multiple intelligences
There are nine of these intelligences, which are:
■ Linguistic: enjoyment of and facility with reading, poetry and all things
literary and linguistic;
■ logical/mathematical: enjoyment of and facility with maths and science,
games of strategy and any logic-based pursuits;

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■ Musical: enjoyment of and facility with music – listening, playing and
perhaps composing;
■ spatial/visual: enjoyment of and facility with images, drawing, construction
games and tactile puzzles such as jigsaws;
■ Kinaesthetic: enjoyment of and facility with activities that involve touch and
movement, dance, sport and other practical activities;
■ Interpersonal: enjoyment of and facility with other people, communication,
leadership and the ability to empathise;
■ Intrapersonal: enjoyment of and facility with self-motivation, no dependence
on others, awareness of one’s own feelings more than those of others – often
seen as shyness;
■ Naturalistic: enjoyment of and facility with the natural world, with ability in
recognising patterns and classification;
■ Existential: enjoyment of and facility with asking and examining questions
about life, death and ultimate realities.
Multiple intelligences in the classroom
In planning for multiple intelligences, teachers consider the range of activities
related to the content of the lesson and the intended learning outcomes which
will give a range of opportunities to the children’s different intelligence
strengths.

Some of the benefits of using multiple intelligences in the classroom are:

 It respects and values students’ individual differences
 It engages and motivates students’ learning
 It enhances students’ academic performance and skills
Follow-up activities
■ Interpersonal: Working in small groups, produce posters, which illustrate the
metamorphosis in the story.
■ Intrapersonal: Discuss how it might feel to change from a caterpillar to a
butterfly.
■ Bodily/kinaesthetic: Act out the stages of metamorphosis.

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■ Logical/mathematical: Count how many times each fruit appears in the
book. Make a chart of the fruits and examine the relationship between the
numbers.
■ Musical: Crawl like caterpillars and fly like butterflies to fast/slow music.
■ Spatial: Children make their own sock caterpillars
Summary
 Intelligence are skills, such as reading, writing and facility with numbers.
 There are individuals who are clearly ‘intelligent’ but not skilled with
words or numbers.
 It is possible to allow children to work to their strengths at the same
time as fulfilling the requirements of a set curriculum.
The Internet is a source of multiple intelligences testing and investigation.
There are many sites where it is possible to undertake a short,
questionnaire-style test which will lead to the production of an individual
multiple intelligence profile
In the classroom
 individuals have different strengths and are likely to perform very
differently
 Be flexible in teaching approaches.
 Give opportunities for learners to respond in a range of different
ways;
 Be prepared to reward responses to work that do not necessarily
conform to the traditional expectation of ‘school work’

5 Learning styles
Learning style is defined as: a particular way in which an individual learns.
The four styles described in the Honey-Mumford Model are:
1. Activists prefer to learn by doing rather than, for example, by reading or
listening.
2. Reflectors stand back and observe
3. Theorists like to adapt and integrate all of their observations into
frameworks, so that they are able to see how one observation is related
to other observations.
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 4. Pragmatists are keen to seek out and make use of new ideas
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
Visual learners Visual learners prefer to learn by seeing.
Auditory learners Auditory learners prefer to learn by listening
Kinaesthetic learners Kinaesthetic learners prefer to learn by doing. They are
good at recalling events and associate feelings or physical experiences with
memory
5-Learning styles and multiple intelligences

Learning styles and multiple intelligences are related but not the same
concepts. Learning styles refer to how people prefer to process and
remember information, such as by seeing, hearing, doing, or
reading. Multiple intelligences refer to how people have different
abilities or strengths in different domains, such as verbal, logical, spatial,
musical, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal, or naturalistic12.

The main difference between learning styles and multiple intelligences is

that learning styles are concerned with the process of learning, whereas
multiple intelligences are concerned with the content and products of
learning.

Summary
Descriptions of learning styles are plentiful and some are complex. One
description commanly used to help teachers understand differences in a
practical and immediate way is the ‘visual/auditory/kinaesthetic’.

6-The emergence of lifelong learning

Education has undergone many changes over the past few years. Significantly,
people often now talk about lifelong learning rather than lifelong education, or
continuing education, and so on.
The changes are from:
• Childhood to adult to lifelong;

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• the few to the many;
• education and training to learning;
• learning as a process to learning as an institutional phenomenon;
• teacher-centred to student-centred;
• liberal to vocational and human resource development;
• theoretical to practical;
• single discipline knowledge to multidisciplinary knowledge to integrated
knowledge;
• knowledge as truth to knowledge as relative/information/ narrative/
discourse;
• rote learning to reflective learning;
• welfare provision (needs) to market demand (wants);
• classical curriculum to romantic curriculum to programme;
• face-to-face to distance to e-learning.

From childhood to adult to lifelong refers to a shift in the way we view

learning. In the past, learning was seen as something that occurred
primarily during childhood and adolescence. Today, there is a growing
emphasis on lifelong learning that is focused on helping people develop
the skills they need to adapt to a rapidly changing world throughout
their lives
From the few to the many
Unlike the American system of mass education, the British system of
education has traditionally been rather elitist, training the few to assume
responsible positions in government, the professions and the Church.
From learning as process to learning as an institutional phenomenon
The process of learning has generally been understood to be the process
through which individuals go in acquiring their knowledge, skills, attitudes,
values, beliefs, emotions and senses However, more recently, there has been
another change in emphasis. Learning has acquired a social institutional

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meaning in terms such as the learning society, the learning organization and
even in lifelong learning itself.

From education and training to learning refers to a shift in the way we

view education. In the past, education was focused on providing people
with the knowledge and skills they needed to succeed in their chosen
profession. Today, there is a growing emphasis on lifelong learning that
is focused on helping people develop the skills they need to adapt to a
rapidly changing world.

From teacher-centred to student-centred education refers to a shift in

the way we view education. In the past, education was focused on the
teacher, with the teacher as the primary source of knowledge and
authority in the classroom. Today, there is a growing emphasis on
student-centred education that is focused on the needs and interests of
individual students
Liberal to vocational and human resource development refers to a
shift in the way we view education. In the past, education was seen as a
means of developing well-rounded individuals who could think critically
and contribute to society. Today, there is a growing emphasis on
vocational education and human resource development that is focused
on developing specific skills that are in demand in the job market

From theoretical to practical refers to a shift in the way we view

knowledge. In the past, knowledge was seen as theoretical and abstract,
with little connection to the real world. Today, there is a growing
emphasis on practical knowledge that is relevant to the needs of society
and can be applied in real-world situations

From single discipline to multidisciplinary to integrated knowledge

refers to a shift in the way we organize knowledge. In the past,
knowledge was organized by discipline, with each field of study having
its own set of concepts and methods. Today, there is a growing emphasis
on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches that integrate
knowledge from multiple fields.

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From knowledge as truth to knowledge as
relative/information/narrative/discourse refers to a shift in the way we view
knowledge. In the past, knowledge was seen as objective and absolute, with
one correct answer. Today, knowledge is seen as relative and subjective, with
multiple perspectives and interpretations. This shift has been influenced by
postmodernism and critical theory, which emphasize the importance of
context and power relations in shaping knowledge.
From rote learning to learning as reflection refers to a shift in the way
students learn. Rote learning is the memorization of information without
understanding its meaning or context. Learning as reflection, on the other
hand, is a process of critical thinking and analysis that encourages students to
think deeply about what they are learning and how it applies to their lives.
From welfare needs to market demands (wants)
Bacon and Eltis (1976) argued— Britain had to transform its welfare provision
into wealth production. This was the economics of monetarism, popularized by
the American economist Milton Friedman. Education had to be seen to be a
money earner —much simpler after the success of the Open University
From classical curriculum to romantic curriculum to programme
The classical curriculum assumes that there is only one truth, or proper
interpretation, of the material to be taught—this means there is only one
possible way of presenting curriculum knowledge.
there was more than one possible interpretation of knowledge and, indeed,
more than one type of history, religion, and so on, to be taught in a multi-
cultural society
Increasingly, optional choices have been built into the system. Now these
options have become modules and so education has moved to a situation
where older children as well as students in higher education are presented
with programmes of courses from which to choose. The idea of curriculum is
therefore now of limited value.

The differences between classical and romantic curriculum include

that classicism emphasized order and reason while Romanticism
emphasized feelings and emotions

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From face-to-face to distance to e-learning
In 1970, the birth of the British Open University was to be a catalyst in the new
Information Society in education. Liberal adult education courses could be
delivered at a distance, through print, radio and television. Students could
choose the modules they wished to study—and as associate students they did
not even have to register for a whole degree course. Modules could be bought
off the shelf and studied in the students’ own time, in their own place and at
their own pace.
7-Types of learning
The chapter falls into two parts. In the first, we discuss the terminology used
by various authors. In the second, we endeavour to synthesize some of the
types of learning discussed.
Authors and their terminology
C Argyris and D Schön
‘In single loop learning, we learn to maintain the field of constancy by learning
to designations that satisfy existing governing variables. In double loop
learning, we learn to change the field of constancy itself.’
J Botkin et al
In a report to the Club of Rome in 1979, Botkin, Elmandjra and Malitza
suggested that there are two fundamental types of learning: maintenance and
innovative. They defined maintenance learning as ‘the acquisition of fixed
outlooks, methods, and rules for dealing with known and recurring situations.
They contrasted this type of learning with innovative learning.
Stephen Brookfield
A great deal of Brookfield’s writing has focused upon learning and thinking.
He suggests (1987:7–9) four components of critical thinking:
• recognizing and challenging assumptions;
• challenging the importance of the context;
• being willing to explore alternatives;
• becoming reflectively sceptical.

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Paulo Freire
Freire maintained a distinction between what he called ‘banking education’
and ‘problemposing education’. This resulted in two types of learning. In
banking education’, learners were expected to remember and repeat what
they were taught. In problem-posing education, they were encouraged to
question situations and learn from their questioning.
Peter Jarvis
Distinguishes between no reflective and reflective learning. In addition, he also
introduces a category of non-learning. All learning and some elements of non-
learning begin with situations where there is a disjuncture between a learner’s
Malcolm Knowles
Knowles (1980) made the classic distinction between andragogy and pedagogy
in 1970, although he was later forced to reformulate it.biography and their
construction of present experience.
Jack Mezirow
Mezirow (1991) made two sets of distinctions of interest. The first came quite
early in his study when he wrote that the ‘formative learning of childhood
becomes transformative learning in adulthood’.
Adults on the other hand need to acquire new meaning perspectives. In a
sense, he makes here the same type of false distinction that Knowles made in
1970 between andragogy and pedagogy.
F Marton and R Säljö
Since the 1970s Marton and Säljö (1984) have endeavoured to understand the
different approaches to learning that students employ when they read. They
have popularized the distinction between ‘surface’ and ‘deep’ learning. In their
original experiment they gave students an article to read and then questioned
them about the way that they approached the task.
A process of synthesis
This section is divided into two subsections:
Learning that reinforces the status quo

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In Table 7.1 page: 73 we see the different terminology used by these scholars
who all describe the same approach to learning, even though each describes it
differently. It is as if the learner treats the external world as objective and that
the sole task of learning is to be able to recall accurately that external reality.
Learning that allows for change
The potential for change, whether it is cognitive or physical, was recognized by
all the writers in the above section P: 74. They recognize that it is not the
external reality that has to be grasped but that it has to be understood, and
only when that happens, can change of any type occur. Once again, however,
they use different terminology to reflect what they are describing.
8-Open and distance learning
Over the past couple of decades, open and distance learning systems have
emerged from the margins of education and training to take their place at the
centre of things. This chapter introduces some of the theories of open and
distance learning.
In what senses might we describe traditional education as ‘closed’?
Here are some examples:
• It was institutionally based, in schools, colleges, universities and so on.
• These barriers take the form of administrative rules and regulations which
govern the time and place where learning occurs—in timetables, academic
terms and classrooms.
• Traditional education was organized around a closed curriculum, so the
content of learning was divided rigidly into subjects, disciplines, knowledge,
skills and so on.
• Traditionally too, educational institutions held a monopoly over the
accreditation of learning.
Defining open learning
‘Open learning is an elusive term, meaning many different things to different
people. Paul sees the evolution of open learning in higher education as the
result of many factors, such as expansion and democratization of the system,
economic investment, and so on. He sets out the dimensions of openness as
follows:

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• Accessibility. This involves such things as: open admissions policies;
acknowledgement of students’ prior commitments in the timing of study
programmes;
• Flexibility. This involves frequent admission periods, rather than fixed terms
or semesters
• Learner control over content and structure. Individual students have the
ability to negotiate their learning
Open learning and distance education
The adjective ‘open’ occurs frequently in connection with distance education,
no doubt because of the strong influence of the British Open University and
other distance-teaching organizations that have adopted practices
corresponding to and names containing this adjective. However, distance
learning has often been thought of as a subcategory of open learning, even
though in a strict sense it is not. Open learning is not necessarily distance
learning, and distance education, as we have seen in the case of the British
Open University, is not necessarily open in every respect.
Theories of distance education
Otto Peters
The production element in distance learning reduces education to a kind of
industrial production process. Distance education for him is an ‘industrialized’
mode of education, a form of ‘Fordist’ mass production. Peters shows that
distance education was made possible by the production system of industrial
society, and the rapid postal service and other forms of communication this
created.
Michael Moore
The contemporary tradition in independent study he calls the telemathic. This
means learning at a distance ‘designed for adults who live too far from
institutions to attend, or are unable to find classes at convenient times, or who
prefer “home study”’
Börje Holmberg
Independence and autonomy are characteristic of all effective learning,
according to Holmberg. He has, however, gone further in his analysis of what
Moore called the ‘educational transaction’. This has considerable practical
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implications for the design and delivery of distance learning materials, as we
shall see.
From theory to practice
The three theorists whose writings have now been introduced have provided
us with three organizing principles for approaching the practice of distance
education:
• Peters’ account of the division of labour involved in delivering distance
education, reflecting an ‘industrial’ model;
• Moore’s concepts of independent learning and the autonomy of learners;
• Holmberg’s concept of guided didactic conversation.
Distance learning materials
Holmberg calls the teaching strategy appropriate to distance learning
materials, and what Moore described as the types of interaction involved in
distance education:
• Easily accessible presentations of study matter;
• Explicit advice and suggestions to the student as to what to do and what to
avoid, what to pay particular attention to and consider, with reasons provided.
• Invitations to an exchange of views, to questions, to opinions and comments.
• Attempts to involve the student emotionally so that he or she takes a
personal interest in the subject and its problems.
• Personal style including the use of personal and possessive pronouns: I, my,
you, your, etc.
• Demarcation of themes through explicit statements, typographical means, or
in recorded, spoken communication, through a change of speakers
E-learning
The entire learning process can be carried out without recourse to traditional
educational sites or face-to-face relationships. The scope for interaction is
made independent of time, place or space, and becomes immeasurably more
flexible than those possible in traditional education systems.

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9-The learning organization
The idea of the learning organization denotes an organization in which learning
is, or is intended to be, promoted and supported, or one in which there is
intentional effort to utilize organizational learning towards business goals.
Organizational learning is concerned with the specific collective processes
through which learning takes place. Various models and theories are
associated with this broad theme, such as the ideas of Argyris on single and
double loop learning. Jones and Hendry (1992) say that, in one sense, the
concept is almost a dare to organizations to think and act differently. Others
regard it more as an ideological device for the maintenance of organizational
power relations.
The historical evolution of the learning organization
Reviews and retrospective appraisals of the learning organization began to
appear in the late 1990s, for example Easterby-Smith et al, 1999, Marsick et al,
2000, and a special issue of the journal, The Learning Organization, in 1999,
featuring articles by Bob Garratt, Nancy Dixon, Victoria Marsick and Karen
Watkins, and Peter Smith. Easterby-Smith et al (1999) provide an overview of
work and debates in the fields of organizational learning and the learning
organization. They argue (1999:8) that the fields have distinct literatures, the
former having an action orientation ‘concentrating on the development of
normative models and methodologies for creating change’. Marsick et al
(2000) survey the literature of the learning organization, acknowledge related
themes (eg knowledge management), and emphasize the contribution of chaos
theory to the understanding of systems behaviour.
Growing acceptance of the idea that change is a constant:
The theme of a rapidly increasing rate of change is by no means new. Alvin
Toffler’s Future Shock (1970) raised this issue in the early 1970s. But, as a
broad generalization, many businesses have come to accept that change is not
a temporary interlude between periods of stability.
The ‘post-industrial era’ and the need for a flexible workforce
There has been increasing emphasis on the need for a flexible workforce.
When employees need to adapt quickly and keep up to date with new skills,
learning becomes an essential core competence.

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Advances in understanding of how organizations change
A third possible factor is that we now know more about how organizations
change and what makes them effective. When organizations were perceived as
machines, the issues were to do with design and technology. While many
people do still take a mechanistic approach to organizational functioning, the
20th century also saw growing sophistication in thinking about organizations as
human systems.
Defining the learning organization
Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell define the learning company as: ‘an organization
which facilitates the learning of all its members and continually transforms
itself.
The learning organization is one that learns continuously and transforms itself.
Learning takes place in individuals, teams, the organization, and even the
communities with which the organization interacts.
Landmark contributors
Chris Argyris
Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell
Argues that learning is in fact a social, interpersonal and relational
phenomenon as well. The implication of this is that it could be perfectly
legitimate to refer to organizations ‘learning’
The learning company is described in two ways. The first is a schematic
depiction of flows of information through policy, operations, ideas and action,
which Pedler et al call the ‘energy flow model’ (1991:32). The second is the
following 11 characteristics:
• a learning strategy;
• a high level of participation in policy making by organizational members and
stakeholders;
• use of information technology for sharing knowledge and mutual awareness;
• accounting and control processes which give feedback helpful to
understanding the effects of action, to learning and decision making;
• internal ‘customer/client’ relationships feeding mutual adjustment and
adaptation;

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• reward systems consistent with an employment philosophy which includes
the incentivization of learning;
• forms of structure which enable learning and can shift, adapt and
accommodate change resulting from it;
• boundary workers—people working at the formal boundaries of the
organization, collecting and passing in ‘environmental’ information, involving
external stakeholders in improving organizational processes;
• willingness and ability to learn with and from other organizations and
companies;
• a culture and climate which encourage responsible experimentation and
shared learning from successes and failures;
• mechanisms and employee relationships which encourage and support self-
development.
Peter Senge
In Senge’s view, the essence of the learning organization lies in the presence of
five ‘disciplines’. These are:
• personal mastery;
• mental models;
• shared vision;
• team learning;
• systems thinking
Applications
What impact has the thinking about learning organizations had so far on
organizational practice?
“”Enables an organization to enhance its knowledge performances.””
A critical perspective
Authors such as Alvesson and Willmot (1992) and Thomas (1993) propose a
critical perspective on ideas about management and organizations. They point
out the risks of such ideas being over-influenced by the interests of managers

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and organizations themselves, and of failing to ask questions about the context
from which the ideas have emerged.
10- Assessing learning
How do we know that someone has learnt something?
What we need to do is develop techniques to discover whether learning has
taken place. In fact, a large array of such techniques for conducting educational
assessment—tests, examinations, and other ways of measuring performance—
have been developed. Assessment may be planned in order to discover how
much learning has taken place. But in practice, it has many other effects. For
instance, tests play an important role in motivating learners. Depending on
their exam grades, they are admitted (or not) to colleges, schools, universities,
professions, jobs.
The traditional approach to assessment
Assessment in education and training is therefore about how we judge
whether (and what) learning has taken (or is taking) place. (There is also a
related, though less common, usage, relating to how we judge in advance a
person’s capacity to learn.)
Formal and informal
Formal assessment is organized on some kind of official or structured basis. In
contrast, we make assessments of others informally all the time.
Formative and summative
Formative assessment is conducted to help plan how teaching or learning
should take place, or to alter teaching or learning while it is going on.
Summative assessment only tells us what has been learnt at the end of a
learning or teaching process.
Measurement
Assessment of learning involves some kind of measurement. This may be
expressed in a quantitative way (as when a student gets 7 questions out of 10
correct in a test, and we award a mark of 70 per cent).
Judgement
In order to measure something (eg how much a person has learnt), we must
make a judgement. We must decide that a student’s essay is of a B+ standard

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(rather than A, B or C), or that the quality of her progress in Mathematics
justifies allocation to the category Pythagoras.
Validity
Every assessment instrument (test, examination, essay, etc.) measures not
what we would like to measure, but only a surrogate, a ‘stand-in’, for what we
really want to measure. This leads to the concern that judgements or measures
should be valid. A valid measure, put simply, is one, which measures what its
designers believe it measures.
Reliability
A reliable assessment instrument is one where we know that equivalent results
will be given for equivalent student performance, regardless of when or where
the assessment is conducted, or who conducts it.
Contemporary issues in assessment
Contextualized learning and assessment
The context within which a person learns is fundamental. It shapes the
meaning which he or she attributes to the information (or skills or attitudes)
learnt. What information, skills or attitudes mean is inseparable from what we
think or feel they mean. This has a key implication for assessment. What
matters is not individuals’ knowledge of decontextualized bits of information,
or skills, but how they apply or use this information (or skill) in real
(‘authentic’) situations.
Developmental assessment and the construction of knowledge
One of the implications of this is that people learn cumulatively. This does not,
of course, mean that they add additional bits of information to a shapeless pile
of individual items of knowledge. We interpret new information and
experiences in terms of our existing mental constructs. We also use this new
information to review, add to, build on, the constructs. Our constructs,
however sophisticated, are therefore always provisional. But they are seldom
utterly wrong. Another implication is that the learner, rather than the teacher,
determines what is learnt. The teacher may of course set the broad agendas,
but learning only takes place if the learner engages with them.
Who should do the assessing?
Assessment is therefore a task to be carried out by experts.
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Contracts, competencies and assessment
Clearly, formulating what should be, and judging what has been, achieved in a
learning contract are assessment tasks. Students using learning contracts are
often asked both to determine ‘criteria for assessment at the negotiation
phase’ and to decide when their work is ‘ready to be presented for formal
assessment and able to meet formal criteria’
Competence (according to Knowles) provided a mechanism which enables the
learner to specify what they seek to learn in terms of clear tasks to be carried
out.
Assessment of prior experiential learning (APEL)
The view that what people know or can do matters more than how they came
to know it underpins the movement known as ‘assessment of prior experiential
learning’ (APEL).
External examination systems have long provided a method by which prior
learning is assessed. For well over a century, for example, the University of
London has offered examinations open to all.
Assessment, accreditation and quality assurance
Broadly speaking, education systems perform two functions: they educate, and
they select. They allocate people to particular social (occupational, etc) roles,
and they educate (train, etc) people for these.
Opportunities, both occupational and educational, are limited. As societies and
economies become more affluent, they can afford to offer educational
opportunities more broadly. Now the production process needs quality
management and an acceptance/accreditation of the original programme of
production.

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References
Ways of Learning Second edition
Alan Pritchard
The theory & practice of LEARNING 2ND EDITION
PETER JARVIS, JOHN HOLFORD & COLIN GRIFFIN

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