Page 139 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

The Learning Process
The increased rate of innovation across economies requires the workforce to possess both technical competence and ‘generic skills’—problem-solving, creativity, team work and communication skills.162OECD
The following tables show how the Learning Process is unpacked and identifies some of the attitudes, questioning ability and competence that is required when we carry out the Learning Process
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The Learning Process
Learning Process Elements
Associated Competencies
The prompt: The most important aspect of a good prompt is that it stimulates a range of emotions. In the case of the skateboarding cat (above), these emotions can include delight, disbelief, intrigue, suspicion and surprise. The outcome of these feelings should be that the learner becomes curious as to how a cat can skate.
• Managing self: Managing my emotions: What emotions am I feeling? What is making me feel this way? Do I have the confidence and capability to find possible answers to my questions?
Curiosity: Curiosity is not a feeling, even though it is often described as such. Curiosity is an innate response, an instinct, that is wired into our DNA. When we see something that does not make complete sense or challenges our worldview, then we become curious. Often, curiosity drives us to investigate the clash that the prompt initiates with our existing worldview. This conflict in our minds is called cognitive dissonance.
We now want to discover how the event took place. Curiosity should be one of the educator’s primary tools for engaging learners to carry out independent investigations of their own.
Curiosity causes us to ask a raft of questions that we generate in quick succession, resulting in new knowledge, ideas and concepts being created and understood.
Questioning: The second trigger is our curiosity driving us to ask many questions:
• How long did it take to teach the cat to ride the skateboard?
• Did this happen, or was that video ‘photo- shopped’?
• Is that cat just very smart?
• Could I teach my cat to skateboard?
• Could my dog skateboard?
• Should we have ‘cat skateboarding’ competitions?
• Is the cat enjoying being on the skateboard?
• Does the cat skateboard because it likes it or because it gets a reward every time it does it?
162 Toner, P. (2011). Workforce Skills and Innovation: An Overview of Major Themes in the Literature. OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry Working Paper Series, No.55. (SG/INNOV(2011)1), OECD Publishing, NJ1.