People Learning Research Articles

Understanding and enriching young people's learning: issues, complexities and challenges®

Within the context of national debate about the motivation of young people in Year 8 and the effects of the key stage three strategy, this article examines young people's views of learning and their understanding of what helps them learn. The research method draws on the concept of Appreciative Inquiry to examine young people's experiences. The findings, based on interviews with 58 young people in four schools, indicate a range of views. Three models of learning emerge and are used to examine young people's views of learning and what supports their learning. Young people provide examples of effective learning including activity in learning, learner responsibility and collaboration. Young people express a wish that their classroom experiences would include more of these elements. In all four schools, however, there does not seem to be any time for talk about learning. Implications for schools are discussed: first, in providing more effective learning experiences for young people; second, in the value of talking with young people about their learning.

Mind or Virtue

Traditional research on human learning has neglected people's beliefs about learning, the role of culture in shaping those beliefs, and people's consequent learning behavior. Recent research provides evidence that cultural beliefs about learning are essential in influencing individuals' beliefs and their actual learning. This article reviews research on Western learning beliefs, which emphasize the mind, and Chinese learning beliefs, which emphasize personal virtue, as well as on the differences these beliefs produce in people's actual learning. Developmental evidence is also presented to show that the cultural influences begin early. Future research directions are discussed.

To be labelled, or not to be labelled: that is the question

Summary• ‘Learning disability’ label establishes accommodation eligibility and civil rights protection but provides an excuse for school officials and legislators to adopt a medical model of learning disabilities and ignore other problems in the educational and social systems.• A commitment to inclusion and equality requires an acknowledgement of various categorization problems, and a realization that various contexts may contribute to people's different learning patterns.• Pathologizing learning difference may be unnecessary or even counterproductive if we presume that all children learn in their unique ways. It is more productive to design flexible curricula that can accommodate learning diversity.

The Scope for State Intervention in Young People's Learning and Training

This article examines the scope for state intervention in the training and learning environment of young people in initial employment. It reports on the findings of a qualitative study of 11 teenagers entering full-time employment in New South Wales, Australia relating to the breadth and depth of the young people's learning in their jobs, and the factors which facilitated or inhibited their learning. Differences were found between those young people who were in formal contracts of training—apprenticeships and traineeships—and those who were not. It is argued that government intervention in young people's training need not be confined to the policy area of apprenticeships and traineeships. Other possible points of intervention by the state are suggested, using examples from the case studies to illustrate the beneficial effects which might flow from such intervention.

Learning Communities in a Learning Region: The Soft Infrastructure of Cross-Firm Learning Networks in Silicon Valley

The ability of firms, industries, and regions continually to translate information and knowledge into viable new products, services, and production processes in the face of constantly changing technology and market conditions is increasingly at the core of competitive success in the contemporary economy. Such economic learning is ultimately dependent on the ability of individuals to learn, and yet most of the literature in this area has focused on firms and organizational learning processes, and is only beginning to engage seriously with people's learning processes. This paper explores the links between social learning processes and dynamics of innovation in Silicon Valley, arguing that cross-firm, occupationally based, ‘communities of practice’ provide a critical context for individuals to learn and maintain the competencies they need to be successful in the region's dynamic but volatile economy. These cross-firm occupational learning communities in many cases are being built through the activities of formal professional associations, which are playing an increasingly important role in providing the organizational infrastructure to sustain these learning communities. Using a case study of an association of women in Internet design and development occupations, the author illustrates the value of such communities in supporting individual and collective learning processes. These findings suggest that economic development strategies could productively be focused on identifying, strengthening, and expanding access to such cross-firm occupational learning communities.

Probability judgment in hierarchical learning: a conflict between predictiveness and coherence

Why are people's judgments incoherent under probability formats? Research in an associative learning paradigm suggests that after structured learning participants give judgments based on predictiveness rather than normative probability. This is because people's learning mechanisms attune to statistical contingencies in the environment, and they use these learned associations as a basis for subsequent probability judgments. We introduced a hierarchical structure into a simulated medical diagnosis task, setting up a conflict between predictiveness and coherence. Thus, a target symptom was more predictive of a subordinate disease than of its superordinate category, even though the latter included the former. Under a probability format participants tended to violate coherence and make ratings in line with predictiveness; under a frequency format they were more normative. These results are difficult to explain within a unitary model of inference, whether associative or frequency-based. In the light of this, and other findings in the judgment and learning literature, a dual-component model is proposed.

Project-Based Learning as the Interplay of Career and Company Non-Financial Capital

In this article, the project is a potential learning episode for both project participants and the project-sponsoring company. People's past learning experiences are the `career capital' they invest in their current project activity. The project-sponsoring company's past learning experience is non-financial `company capital' it invests in the project activity. At the project's conclusion, learning disperses within or beyond the project-sponsoring company, as people's careers progress. Four case studies illustrate ideal-typical patterns of a proposed topology of learning outcomes, and some principles for promoting effective project-based learning are suggested.

Action Learning about Gender Issues

Action learning is a process of accelerating people's learning about real-life problems in context. It involves bringing relevant people together to address either individual or organizational issues in a manner that produces learning throughout the process. Relevant group members may work in the same organization or have knowledge useful to addressing the problem. Action learning does not rely on experts. Rather, it strives to bring diverse perspectives into the group and generate fresh questions that challenge participants to consider deeply held assumptions. It uncovers assumptions that may be impinging effective action and reflection. Action learning is a recurring, experiential process of embracing an issue, raising new questions, reflecting on problems and solutions and making necessary changes. Action learning is concerned with creating options that never existed, rather than copying how others have solved problems in the past or in different contexts. Unlike some process improvement tools, action learning is open-ended, dynamic and fluid. While the purpose of engaging in action learning may be clear, the result is often unexpected. It helps participants understand their internal processes of decision and action and become aware of how these patterns impact the environment around them. Action learning is best applied to issues that are shrouded in uncertainty and potential solutions are multiple and often contradictory The Process of Action Learning about Gender One example of an action learning project is in a group of eight Midwestern women who have formed an action learning set to explore how they learn about gender in their work and lives. The group was initially formed at my request as a research project. Five of the group members work for various public agencies dedicated to the prevention and treatment of domestic violence. Two members, including myself, work in higher education, and one works in a non-profit environmental organization. Two group members are African-American and six group members are Caucasian. Through this action research project, we have worked to collectively reflect and act on issues affecting gender in both our work and personal lives. The group's story provides an example of how women or other marginalized groups can use action learning to create support and foster individual and collective development. All participants volunteered to partake in the action learning process and the group membership is intact after one year. The participants working with domestic violence operate in a field marginalized by policy-makers, public agencies and society in general. Domestic violence is an emotionally-charged field, yet, prior to the formation of this group, the women had few outlets to discuss their frustrations and experiences based on sexism and racism. The women not working in domestic violence also experience discrimination in their contexts based on race, ethnicity and gender. The initial problem brought before the group was about how we learn about gender and use the knowledge in our lives. The first meeting was slightly guarded as each of us assessed the level of risk we wanted to take and gauged the level of trust within the group. The follow-up meetings evidenced increasing levels of risk taking and trust among all of us. The meetings have helped to build trust by spending entire days in a relaxed, remote setting. Exploring our lives as women in a masculine world has included dialogue, drawing and the sharing of inspirational items such as musical pieces, poetry, personal journal entries, artwork and writing. We have worked at understanding what it means to be women in a patriarchal world, mused on our learning processes, and have evolved into a support group challenging each other in various ways. We have unanimously agreed that the group is fulfilling a previously unmet need of providing a safe space for us to learn about ourselves as women. …

Conceptions of geological time among primary teacher trainees, with reference to their engagement with geoscience, history, and science

People's grasp of geological time is under-researched, despite attention being devoted to the philosophy of time. Research carried out with 179 pre-service primary teachers suggests they perceive events in Earth's geological past as falling into three distinct clusters: extremely ancient, less ancient and geologically recent. Respondents' grasp of relative time is more secure than their grasp of absolute time and instruments which address absolute time generate less conclusive evidence than do those requiring simple sequencing. Trainee teachers vary in their geoscience interests and classroom experiences and are more comfortable and imaginative with their teaching of history than with their geology, despite the parallels. In order to render more secure people's learning of geoscience concepts and processes, a deep time framework is needed for each learner, individualized to accommodate learner characteristics and local geoscience features.

GENDER ISSUES IN OLDER ADULTS' PARTICIPATION IN LEARNING: VIEWPOINTS AND EXPERIENCES OF LEARNERS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE THIRD AGE (U3A)

Populations in most developed countries in the world are aging. As well, the age of voluntary retirement has dropped which, when combined with forced retirement through redundancy and retrenchment, has increased the proportion of people living in the Third Age of their lives, loosely called retirement. For many in the Third Age the thirty or so years of life ahead are being seen as a time to embark on new endeavors. Not least among these is the opportunity for learning in organizations such as the University of the Third Age (U3A) from which many have found fulfillment. U3A is an international movement organized , managed and run by Third Agers themselves. But, for all its appeal, U3A attracts more women than men into its courses. It appears that older women want to learn while older men want to ''sit''. This article addresses gender issues in older people's learning by reporting the findings of in-depth research into one U3A campus in southwestern Sydney. It concludes that gender differences in U3A membership reflect a variety of issues centering on retirement interests, marital status, social group membership, and the feminization of U3A. More research is needed into how men and women spend their retirement and the place continuing learning has in their retirement activities.

Computer games and fun in farming‐systems education?: A case study

An interactive group‐based farm simulation game used in Australia for farming‐systems education is described. The computer‐aided game is the main feature of a facilitated one‐day workshop. The game and the workshop are designed to feature fun and learning for farming systems. Responses of game players are collated to reveal their perceptions and experiences of the game. Player feedback indicates that they find the game challenging, entertaining and effective in conveying a range of farming systems issues. The Australian experience shows that it is possible to design a game package that harnesses the beneficial elements of fun, group activity, facilitation, computer simulation and peer competition; with the outcome of stimulating and facilitating people's learning about fanning systems.

Social cognition: learning about what matters in the social world

Social-cognitive principles underlie people's learning about what matters in the social world. The benefits of these social-cognitive principles reveal essential aspects of what it means to be human. But these social-cognitive principles also have inherent costs, which highlight what it means to be ‘only human’. Social cognition is ‘social’ because what is learned concerns the social world, and where the learning takes place is in the social world. This paper reviews the benefits and costs of both sides of social cognition: (1) the cognition of social psychology principles of organization, explanation, knowledge activation and use; and (2) the social psychology of cognition principles of shared reality role enactment, social positions and identities and internal audiences. The fact that there are inherent costs of the same social-cognitive principles for which there are essential benefits affords a new perspective on social-cognitive costs that is different from either the classic ‘conflict’ perspective or the more current ‘limited capacity’ and ‘dual-process’ perspectives. This ‘trade-off’ perspective deepens both our understanding of the true nature of these principles and our appreciation of our common humanity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lifelong Learning and Underemployment in the Knowledge Society: A North American perspective

The knowledge society is alive and well with adults engaged in unprecedented high levels of formal schooling, continuing education courses and informal learning. The 'knowledge economy', however, is still illusory. There is serious underemployment of people's learning capacities in current workplaces. This underemployment has several dimensions: the talent use gap; structural underemployment; involuntary reduced employment; the credential gap; the performance gap; and subjective underemployment. This article documents both extensive lifelong learning and massive underemployment in Canada and the USA. I suggest that this gap can be adequately addressed not by still more emphasis on lifelong learning, but rather by substantial economic reforms.

LD, Interpsonal Understanding, and Social Behavior in the Classroom

This study used Baron and Kenny's (1986) criteria for mediation to investigate the extent to which interpersonal understanding mediates the relation between learning disabilities (LD) and social adaptation in the classroom. Twenty-two children with and 22 children without a diagnosis of LD completed a semistructured developmental clinical interview measure of interpersonal understanding. They were also rated by their fourth- and fifth-grade teachers on a measure of social adaptation in the classroom. Interpersonal understanding and social adaptation in the classroom were found to be positively correlated. Children with LD exhibited less interpersonal understanding and social adaptation. Although this group difference on social adaptation was greatly reduced when interpersonal understanding was statistically controlled, it remained statistically significant. These results suggest that reduced social adaptation in the classroom and lower interpersonal understanding are both associated with a diagnosis of LD. However, they do not conclusively support the claim that interpersonal understanding mediates the relation between LD and social adaptation. Thus, whether the social difficulties of people with LD stem from the same complex phenomena that produce these people's learning problems remains an open question.

Democracy, Education, and Multiculturalism: Dilemmas of Citizenship in a Global World

Democracy, Education, and Multiculturalism: Dilemmas of Citizenship in a Global World

Inhalation of 30% nitrous oxide impairs people's learning without impairing people's judgments of what will be remembered.

Inhalation of 30% nitrous oxide impairs people's learning without impairing people's judgments of what will be remembered.

Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Language Learning Outcomes

We aimed to establish the vocabulary learning strategies used by Chinese university learners of English and the relationship between their strategies and outcomes in learning English. We asked 850 sophomore non‐English majors at Beijing Normal University to complete a vocabulary learning questionnaire. We correlated replies to the questionnaire with results on a vocabulary size test and on the College English Test (CETBAND2). Participants reported using a wide variety of vocabulary learning strategies. In a multiple regression analysis, Self‐Initiation and Selective Attention, two metacognitive strategies, emerged as positive predictors of CETBAND2 scores. Contextual guessing, skillful use of dictionaries, note‐taking, paying attention to word formation, contextual encoding, and activation of newly learned words also positively correlated with the two test scores. However, visual repetition of new words was the strongest negative predictor of both vocabulary size and general proficiency. Furthermore, strategies aiming at vocabulary retention only related more to vocabulary size than to English proficiency. We identified 5 approaches to learning. These strategy combinations, rather than individual strategies, may have made the difference in these people's learning.

Winning Pre-College Education Programs

There is widespread agreement that pre-college science and math education in the United States lags behind many other countries, and that significant improvement is needed. Nevertheless, there appears to be no systematic effort by industrial firms to learn from one another about which have been most effective. Most companies prefer to devise their own initiatives and concentrate their efforts on helping school systems in the communities where they reside. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, it fails to take full advantage of other people's experience and learning. For this reason, the Pre-College Education Committee of the Industrial Research Institute established a subcommittee on in 1992 to identify best practices and to share information with member companies on science and math programs. Prior surveys by the committee showed that almost all IRI member companies, as well as many other large companies, were involved in educational activities in their local school systems. Several were also involved in national initiatives to reform and improve education. This article reports the 11 winning programs in our survey. It is our hope that the learning gained from them will provide a start toward benchmarking best practices. SELECTING THE WINNERS A total of 37 submissions were received in reply to a variety of solicitation letters sent to IRI members and other companies and institutions. Ron Cochran of Babcock Wilcox devised the measurement process, shown in Table 1. Each of eight criteria was scored on a 1-to-10 basis for a maximum total of 80 points. Each of three subcommittee members used at least two other people to judge so that a total of ten judges were used for the evaluation. The average scores ranged from 30 to 64. The top 11 ranged from 49 to 64 points and clearly stood out from the rest. The intent is to continue this process every two years. The are listed in Table 2 and brief descriptions of the are given in Table 3. (Table 2 omitted) COMMON THEMES There appear to be at least three common themes that emerge from most of these programs. 1. Hands-on Experiments. -- Almost every winner involves some type of activity with students and/or teachers. The most popular approach, particularly at the elementary level, is actual in-school experiments and demonstrations with students using experiments that have been designed especially for the classroom. Educators have known for some time that teachers who have hands-on experience can most effectively lead their students through the learning process. The Franklin Institute Science Activity Kits of the Museum To Go Resource Center have taken these kits to the highest level of design at reasonable cost. The kits cover life, physical and earth sciences, and include at least 23 different subjects, from astronomy and ecosystems to light and color and magnetism and electricity. The kits were designed in collaboration with the Philadelphia school system and aim at helping teachers who may not be comfortable teaching science. In fact, many teachers did not teach science at all until the introduction of the kits. The kits are now available nationwide (Tel. 800-828-7777). Amoco also designed cost-efficient kits for its Science Enrichment Program. Other programs, such as the 3M Wizards Program, also rely heavily on demonstrations. Even at the high school level, like the Rockwell Youth Motivation Program and the Ford High School Science and Technology Program involve instruction within the host company laboratory. For students to see and meet scientists and engineers in their own laboratories and perform real experiments communicates a very effective message about the nature and application of science and engineering. The Phillips Petroleum Green County Science Teachers Program also involves demonstrations with teachers, but with a twist. …

Interpreting Visual Versus Audio Messages in Television News

A three-way experimental design examined the relative power of visual, audio, and audiovisual television messages on people's learning of and feelings about political issues. Evidence from these experiments showed that audio alone is just as effective as a combined audio and visual presentation for conveying information, including the critical interpretation of a news story. Comparing results across stories demonstrated that encoding information in a narrative form enhanced learning from the visual track alone. In stark contrast with much of the accumulated findings on the affective impact of visuals, the results here show little difference between the affective responses to audio and video channels. Rather, subjects were most emotionally aroused by a combination of audio and visual channels, which is the essential character of television.

Literacy in a Larger Context

Illiteracy is a social phenomenon reflecting structural problems of society; therefore, the nature of the illiteracy problem can be better understood and the solutions found by looking at the larger social context. The complexity and social ramifications of illiteracy make it inappropriate to talk about eradication of illiteracy by a certain date. Literacy is not merely learning the mechanics of decoding the alphabet. To be meaningful, literacy must help meet people's basic learning needs, and, to that end, it must be reinforced and supplemented by a network of opportunities for diverse and continuing education and post-literacy learning. Effective primary education for children and the use of all channels of communication and education to create a learning society are essential conditions for nurturing a culture of literacy. Participation of all segments of society and additional resources are needed to promote literacy as an integral part of the effort to meet basic education needs. The research agenda in literacy should include, in addition to technical aspects, the exploration of policy issues relating to the role of literacy in a larger social context.