Community Learning Development Resource 100 – 02
THE NATURE OF PEOPLE AS LEARNERS
SUMMARY
In enabling and supporting people to choose to change their lives for the better, we see learning as the key change process. How can we effectively respond to the needs of people as individual adult learners who have different levels of individual awareness, confidence and readiness to learn? This resource (100 – 02) presents some ideas about what we know about the nature of people as learners.
SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT PEOPLE AS LEARNERS
- Every person has the capacity to learn – everyone is a learner
- People learn all the time – throughout their lives – ‘from the cradle to the grave’
- When someone learns, they are changed by this in a variety of possible ways – in what they know and understand, what they can do, and how they feel and react to what they have experienced
- Whilst all people can learn, they individually have different learning skills and abilities – their capacity to learn
- Even when people come together to learn, they learn as individuals and no-one can learn something on behalf of anybody else
- The individuality of learners is limitless and although people often learn together in groups, the what, how, when and why of learning for each person is different
- People probably gain most of their learning informally, from what they experience as they live their lives – not from learning within formal education and training situations
- Successful learning enables people to gain control of their own lives and their own destiny
- People generally learn best when they are happy and comfortable to learn, when they see the learning as relevant and important to them, and when it has been their choice to learn
- The ‘teaching’ function – of a worker (e.g., community development worker; group leader; mentor; coach; tutor; trainer; guidance worker, etc.,) is to enable and support each individual to learn successfully and benefit from the learning experience
- People may not understand that learning is a natural and universal process and may deny that they can learn. What they probably understand as learning is their experience of formal education and training, which has been a negative for them and their perception of themselves as a learner is one of failure
- Many adults do not choose to take up formal learning opportunities (education and training) but for them to do so, it should be a matter of individual choice
- Choosing to learn is often made difficult for individuals because of their previous negative experiences of learning within their families, communities and education and training
- For many adults, of all ages, their self-confidence as learners and their self-belief in their own ability to learn, are both lacking
- To purposefully seek to enable people through learning, we need to recognise the importance of the individual being self-motivated and free to choose to learn and apply their learning
- It may be key to their learning success and development that individuals have to first feel successful before they can understand how they achieved that success.
PROMPTS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
- How do you see yourself as a learner and can you analyse why you have this self-perception?
- Should we be more concerned about how a learner feels about the learning experience and how they have learned, rather than whether or not the learning has successfully been put in place?
- Where do you and your organisation stand in relation to the statements – do they identify with your beliefs, core values and the principles by which you operate?
- If everyone learns as an individual, and no-one learns anything on someone else’s behalf, what is the value of people learning together in groups?
- Every person is on a lifelong learning journey made up of many shorter learning journeys – when you work with a learner, what do you contribute to their learning journey?