Page 23 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

The Language of Learning
Before we start talking about learning in detail, we must first define the language of learning so
that we have clarity about learning and how we communicate with others about learning.
Definitions are critical in education practice. For example, it is not uncommon when someone talks about ‘knowledge’ for each person to interpret that word differently. If we say a learner has knowledge about something, do we mean they know some facts, understand that knowledge, know that knowledge, have a concept of that knowledge, can they apply that knowledge to be creative, or can they be innovative or ingenious with that knowledge? Definitions are essential in clarifying exactly what we mean when we use specific words to describe our learning.
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A prompt, such as the one opposite,19 can often initiate learning by making us curious and inducing a range of emotions. A prompt can be an experience, storybook, video clip, event or need that provokes a personal emotional response. The emotional response to that event triggers our curiosity. These processes combine to prime us to ask questions of what we have experienced.
Resource 5: Jason DaSilva – The Ecstasy of Curiosity
It is the effective combination of emotion, curiosity and questions that allow us to learn efficiently. As a learner, we can ask and apply additional questions, and the answers to those questions are derived from our learning and research processes. At this first stage of the Learning Process, we are looking to build a knowledge-base that will provide initial answers to our questions.
Knowledge is defined here as a sequence of sensory data that is interpreted and remembered as facts or elements of information that may be developed into actions (skills), most of which may be learned via rote (repetitive) learning.
Knowledge does not include relationships between any variables (things that can change), or processes that change, such as the temperature or the number of people we meet each day. For example, the statement, “In autumn that tree loses its leaves”, is not knowledge. The fact that we can identify a tree is knowledge, but the whole statement is an idea. An idea is a relationship between variables (things that change over time) in one or two contexts. In this case, the variables are the time of year and the loss of leaves - for the context of that specific tree. By applying further clever questioning and interrogating our knowledge we can begin to form ideas.
19 DaSilva J. (2014) The Ecstasy of Curiosity. Shots of Awe, 16 Sept. 2014. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOVmVMJEhg8