Developing a Learning Culture
Dr Peter Ellyard
Preferred Futures, Melbourne
Synopsis
The ingredients of a learning culture are described. Such a learning culture is needed for the creation of a knowledge based industrial structure in the 21st century and for the development of life long learning, learner driven learning individuals in Australia.
The following is a scenario which describes some elements of the Education System of the Year 2010.
Many policies and programs in the 1990s were dedicated to the promotion of life long learning and to the creation of learning organisations. We knew that in the rapidly changing world of the late 90's and early 21st century, each person would be required to learn continuously in order to adapt to changing circumstances and to develop new skills and capabilities to thrive in a rapidly changing world. We also knew that any enterprise which sought to be successful in the knowledge based industrial system of the 21st Century would need to be led and managed in ways which maximised organisational learning. As a result the education system decided to promote the creation of a broad learning culture which consisted of 8 elements.
These 8 elements were:
*Life long learning (LLL) was well established by the mid 1990s. The old system of early in life learning has been replaced by continual life long, womb to tomb learning. A corollary of the acceptance of LLL was the recognition that learning would have to become, in the main, a pleasurable activity again. We had grown up with the idea that most of our education occurred early in life during the period of compulsory education. Under these circumstances we could force-feed learning into often unwilling educational consumers. This was education as a factory. When we created our education system most jobs were low or no skill ones. It didn't matter if students were so alienated by school that they vowed that they would never expose themselves to the education system again. Now we have a knowledge based society, and this early in life learning has been replaced by life long learning. Therefore we developed and promoted a pedagogy to ensure that learning was either enjoyable or the context of learning encouraged students to persist with learning pathways which were less enjoyable. Life long Learning facilitates flexible career paths, promotes adaptability and empowers the personal development required in our rapidly changing world.
*Learner Driven learning (LDL). From the years of puberty the learner not the KN initiates and manages the learning processes, utilising appropriate learning and educational technology and with the guidance of KNs and Mentors. Even in childhood the learner shares the responsibility with Mentors and parents for initiating learning. LDL is guided by both the Mentor and the student's support group. The learner is empowered by the purchasing power of the Educard to initiate and negotiate learning from education providers.
*Just-in-time learning (JITL). The concept of Just-In-Time started in the manufacturing and retail sectors. This was an altered method of production and operation which meant that enterprises did not need large stockpiles of all components which were needed for assembly into a particular product. Components were sourced at a rate that was Just-in-Time for their assembly into the final product. We applied this concept to education as we were anxious to ensure that learning occurred mostly when there was a high motivation to learn and a desire to know. Modern technology permitted us to provide such a learning system. For the most part people learn what they want to learn, when they want to learn, thereby reinforcing both LLL and LDL. The net result of these changes is that curiosity is again a driving force for learning.
*Customised learning (CL). People are different and so people think and learn in different ways. Some are vizphiles, some are audiophiles, some prefer to learn by right brain processes and some prefer left brain processes. Because of the encapsulation of knowledge in the written word, education and learning has in the past favoured people with preferred left brain thinking and learning processes. Now modern technology enables us to package learning modules to suit people with different thinking and learning preferred styles and learners can choose the way they wish to learn.
In this way the quality of learning has been dramatically improved for many people who were disadvantaged by the old system because their thinking and learning preferences were not fully catered for by that system. Educational products, services and technologies are designed to meet different learning preferences and capabilities. Educational packages can be customised as needed by the learner to meet the particular needs of individuals and groups. Thus modern technology allows both different learning and thinking preferences to be catered for, and for whole brain thinking and learning to be promoted.
*Transformative learning (TL). Learning should transform people and challenge and change belief systems and behavioural patterns to meet new needs and opportunities, and to overcome disabilities and disadvantage. Assessment systems can now measure transformation as well as evaluate knowledge and therefore people are now able to fine tune learning to achieve more effective transformation of belief systems. A major goal of learning is to encourage the transformation of individual value systems from that of a Cowboy Culture to a Spaceship Culture
*Collaborative learning (CL). Over the last 20 years there has been an increasing emphasis on effective collaboration and team building which has now largely replaced the individual Ramboism of the 1980s. In the 1980s individualistic IT dominated. In the 1990s collaborative forms of IT began to emerge. In today's more communitarian interdependent culture collaborative learning is as valued as individual learning. Today all IT, KT and WT encourages collaborative behaviour. Our work organisations are communitarian and cooperative and most workplaces emphasise the importance of collective organisational learning. In the modern world it is impossible for any of us to know everything, and the depth of knowledge required for specialisation is too deep for everyone to be able to know and understand complex issues. Certainly modern technology means that we can seek to be very effective generalists and use sophisticated knowledge. However we also need to be able to work in multi disciplinary teams. This is a basic part of our current interdependent culture.
The transformation of our society of the last 20 years from one which promoted individual rights over community rights has changed to the point where community rights are now seen to be more important than individual rights. The battles in the 1990s over smoking in public and gun ownership were just two manifestations of this battle between community and individual rights. The community won in each case but not without bitter conflict between the community and some defenders of individual rights. This has been part of the basic transformation of a 20th century society which promoted independence to that of a 21st society which promotes interdependence.
*Contextual learning (CXL). Our experience tells us that learning is most effective if it occurs in an environment which makes the learning relevant to the experience and expectations of the learner. In schools in the 20th century learning rarely occurred in this way. Traditionally learning was centred on promoting knowledge in ways that were often removed from experiencing the use of that knowledge in life . We used to sit in class rooms and be told about the nature of things. Now learning occurs throughout the community learning and is more often accomplished in real life environments.
*Learning to learn. (LTL) Until recently, if one assessed the time devoted to these activities, education seemed to assume that people did not need to learn to learn and learn to think. If people know more about how they learn and how people think they will be better placed to improve both their capacity to learn and their capacity to think. The teaching of thinking and learning is now a major component of our education system. This develops the capability in individuals and groups to understand and more effectively plan, manage and realise their own learning.