Page 62 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

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Learning as a Process
Once learners are sufficiently competent and know how to learn independently they have the most important and enabling set of capabilities for this century.
Everyone has the potential, as well as the right, to gain the capability of becoming an autodidact; someone who can learn independently. Providing everyone with an understanding of the Learning Process bestows the gift of the fishing rod rather than requiring educators to have to find fresh fish every day to feed learners. This proficiency is fast becoming the focus of schooling systems across the globe. The Learning Process is a critical concept framework, as increasingly people of every age are now having to understand new capabilities every day and learning those new capabilities requires us to be able to learn very efficiently.
The scientific model for how the brain learns proposes four +(1) learning systems:
1. perceiving our world and storing sensory data
2. sequencing so we can learn to speak and listen and carry out apprenticeship learning
3. developing ideas, concepts and concept frameworks
4. applying knowledge, ideas and concepts creatively to develop new knowledge, ideas and concepts that are innovative and ingenious.
+(1). the adaptation of sequencing to remember knowledge via rote
Learning knowledge is essential in the Learning Process, but it is rarely the end-point of learning. It is not possible to develop the capacity for reading and writing without learning the sounds and shapes of 26 letters and then developing a vocabulary of words, so that we can communicate in a written form.
One of the challenges with our current pedagogical practice in schools is that the body of knowledge learners are expected to know and remember in school is expanding exponentially.
Unfortunately, the ‘learning via rote system’ used for retaining knowledge is our least efficient learning system and the success of the learner in doing this is largely dependent on both nature and nurture. So, if the learner didn’t choose their parents ‘wisely’, and did not have the experience of a rich formative environment, it is probable they will struggle with reading and writing. The reason for this problem is that the establishment of reading and writing is based primarily on the rote learning of letters, sounds, words and grammar structures.
However, the same learner did not necessarily struggle to learn to set up their mobile phone, download apps or take fantastic photos. Thinking that you are not intelligent because you cannot read and write with a high level of fluency is a complete fallacy; everyone is intelligent, and that includes you – of course.