How do you teach learning?

Abstract

The question ‘How do you teach ‘learning'?’ is located within the domain of professional adult education practice and is dealt with through a series of ‘stock‐taking’ moves through the field of practice. First, we offer a high‐level overview of standard answers to the question imbedded in contemporary educational practice. Second, we examine the adult education case in particular, focussing on the peculiarly idealised role the ‘adult learner’ has come to assume in international practitioner discourse. Third, we narrow the focus sharply to present a brief case‐study of our own attempts to teach ‘learning’ within the Advanced Diploma Course for Educators of Adults at the University of Cape Town. Finally, we attempt to clarify our present assumptions about the requirements of a ‘curriculum for learning’. (1) 1. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Kenton Educational Conference, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 1992.