Theorizing learning process: An experiential, constructivist approach to young people's learning about global poverty and development

Kate Brown

doi:10.18546/ijdegl.07.1.04

Abstract

Learning processes in global education have not been significantly theorized, with the notable exception of the application of transformative learning theory. No theory of learning is complete, and to understand the complexity of learning, multiple theoretical lenses must be applied. This article looks at Jarvis's (2006) model of lifelong learning and argues that it can help global educators understand young people's learning about global poverty and development. Considering young people's learning through the lens of this theory highlights the way in which learning occurs in multiple contexts, its individual nature, and the significance of emotion, action, and identity as well as knowing in the process. These themes are already evident within existing research into the way in which young people in England learn about global poverty and development, as well as global education theory and commentary. As a result, and despite some limitations, Jarvis's learning theory has potential utility in extending global educators' understanding of young people's global learning.

Highlights

Learning is increasingly recognized as a highly complex process, covering social, psychological, and neurological dimensions
Learning process is used here to mean the way in which individuals respond to opportunities to learn, for example in terms of emotion, cognition, and action, and the way these responses interrelate in the elaboration, integration, or change of an individual’s understandings
These include: Jarvis’s broad and imprecise use of terms such as reflection; the limited attention his model gives to the social dimension of learning and to socially constructed bodies of knowledge; the way in which the model suggests learning is essentially reactive and sequential; and Jarvis’s holist approach, meaning he fails to attend to different elements of learning process fully

Summary

Introduction

Learning is increasingly recognized as a highly complex process, covering social, psychological, and neurological dimensions. Jarvis’s (2006) work is subject to critique (e.g. Le Cornu, 2005; Jarvis, 2006) These include: Jarvis’s broad and imprecise use of terms such as reflection; the limited attention his model gives to the social dimension of learning and to socially constructed bodies of knowledge; the way in which the model suggests learning is essentially reactive and sequential; and Jarvis’s holist approach, meaning he fails to attend to different elements of learning process fully. It highlights themes evident both within the model and global education literature, including empirical research into the way in which young people in England learn about global poverty and development, and about global education theory and commentary from the English context These include an approach to learning as actively constructed by the individual in a range of contexts, including behavioural and emotional, as well as cognitive responses, and as strongly related to identity. Existing research into young people’s learning about global poverty and development

Active construction of understandings by the individual learner

Learning context: learning as continuous process

Centrality of identity in learning

Conclusion