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Learners & Learning Review

Bob Moon, Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for Research and Development at the Open University (UK) reviews Learners and Learning - one of the SAIDE Teacher Education modules. Click here to full review.

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SAIDE TEACHER EDUCATION SERIES: LEARNERS AND LEARNING

As its title suggests, Learners and Learning is the module that addresses most directly the central, core business of schooling. The aim of the module is to improve the teaching abilities of teachers. It accordingly promotes a theoretically informed understanding of what learning is, how it takes place, and how teachers may go about organising systematic learning. The module enables teachers to analyse learning, and, in so doing, to reflect on what they can do to improve it. Thus, while the module draws on the learning theories of writers like Piaget and Vygotsky, it grounds these examples, practical exercises, and case studies drawn from schools.

The design of the module pages and digitisation of module materials was done as part of the International Association for Digital Publications (IADP) Teacher Education project, with funding from Ford Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.

THE LEARNING GUIDE

The different sections in the Learning Guide present a coherent progression. However, the six sections are downloadable as individual units.

Cover, title and imprint pages, with contents list and preface

Section One: About this module
This covers the writers’ understanding of learning and how this informs the learning guide. It also explains how the writers intended the module to be studied.

Section Two: Learning to know what we don’t know
How do we, as teachers, enable learners to learn by moving them from the known to the unknown.

Section Three: School learning
How is school learning different from everyday learning, and how can teachers implement good school learning in their classrooms?

Section Four: Text as a context for learning
What role do texts and literacy (reading and writing) play in learning, and how can teachers scaffold learning through texts?

Section Five: How can teachers structure learning?
What role do teachers play in producing and improving learning, and how can they structure learning?

Section Six: Talking about theory
How can teachers use different theories of learning to understand and promote learning?

READINGS

The Learning Guide is supported by a set of 17 readings, some of which can be accessed from this website (highlighted in blue). For those not available, you can contact the publishers listed below for permission to use the readings. A full set is available from Saide at info@saide.org.za.

Reference list for Section One
Reading 1	M. Montessori. 1966. The Secret of Childhood. New York: Ballantine. pp.37-39 By kind permission of the Montessori Pierson Estate.

Reading 2	B.F. Skinner. 1968. The Technology of Teaching. New York ; Appleton Century Crofts.

Reading 3	J. Piaget. 1964. Development and learning. In R. Ripple and V. Rockcastle (eds.) Piaget Rediscovered (Ithaca, Cornell University, 1964)

Reading 4	L.S. Vygotsky. 1978. Interaction between learning and development. Chapter 6 in Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological processes. London: Harvard University Press.


Reference list for Section Two
Reading 5	B. Dwyer.1984. Some half-truths about learning. In W. McVitty (ed.) Children and Learning. Australia: Primary English Teaching Association.

Reading 6	N. Bennett and E. Dunne. 1994. How children learn: implication for practice. In B. Moon and A. Shelton Mayes (eds) Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School Routledge and Open University.

Reading 7	Maybin, Mercer, and Stierer.1992. Scaffolding Learning in the Classroom In K. Norman (ed.) Thinking Voices. London: Hodder& Stoughton. By kind permission of the authors.

Reading 8	C. Macdonald. 1991. Eager to Talk and Learn and Think. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman. By kind permission of the publisher.

Reference list for Section Three
Reading 9	A. P. Craig. 1996. Education for all. In South African Journal of Higher Education, 10:2 (1996), 47–55. By kind permission of the publisher.

Reading 10	B. Joyce, E. Calhoun, and D. Hopkins. 1997. Learning to think metaphorically. In Models of Learning – Tools for Teaching Buckingham: Open University Press.

Reading 11	D. C. Dennett. 1995. How to Make Mistakes. In J. Brockman and K. Matson (eds.) How Things Are. New York: Quill/William Morrow.

Reading 12	J. T. Dillon. 1986. Student questions and individual learning. In Educational Theory, 36:4. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Reading 13	J. Stuart. 1990.Teaching a concept-based course. Chapter 1 in G. Seidman and J. Stuart Working for the Future: a Teacher’s Guide. Gaborone: International Foundation for Education with Production.


Reference list for Section Four
Reading 14	P. Freire.1985. The act of study. Chapter 1 in The Politics of Education – Culture, Power and Liberation. Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey.

Reading 15	B. Bettelheim and K. Zelan. 1981. The magic of reading. Chapter 3 in On Learning to Read. London: Penguin.

Reading 16	R. E. Floden and M. Buchmann. 1993. Guided adventures in learning. In M. Buchmann and R. E. Floden (eds.) Detachment and Concern: Conversations in the Philosophy of Teaching and Teacher Education. London: Cassell. By kind permission of Continuum International Publishing Group.

Reading 17	A. Brown and J. Campione1990. Developing communities of reading and thinking. In D. Kuhn (ed.) Developmental Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Thinking Skills. Series 21, ‘Contributions to Human Development’, Basel, S. Karger, pp 108–121.

AUDIO

The audiotape includes interviews and discussions that cover three key questions:

What is learning?
Is there a difference between everyday learning and school learning?
How do we teach to enable learning?

For the most part of the 84 minutes of recording we listen to the views of experts who provide interesting and valuable insights and debates. These require careful listening, though, and probably re-listening! They are certainly worth the effort. Downloadable parts are:

TITLE	LENGTH
Part 1: Introduction; Socrates dialogue; What is learning?	18:30 MINS

Part 2: How do we get learners to know?	9 MINS

Part 3.1: What is the difference between everyday learning and school learning?	14 MINS

Part 3.2: What is the difference between everyday learning and school learning?	10:40 MINS

Part 4: The importance of books, reading and language	9:10 MINS

Part 5: Teaching with learning in mind	13:40 MINS

Part 6: Teachers talking about teaching	9 MINS

USER COMMENTS ON LEARNERS AND LEARNING

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Karen Ferreira-Meyers karenferreirameyers@gmail.com 12/1/2011 10:27:13 AM
Learners and learning Thanks for sharing these wonderful resources. I will definitely be taking my time to go through them and will probably use a few for my own classes. Submitted By: Karen Ferreira-Meyers

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enos hlungwani enos.hlungwani@students.wits.ac.za 7/27/2010 11:44:03 AM
joining I am very interested in using this link to receive anything that educational related to my course Submitted By: enos hlungwani

enos hlungwani enos.hlungwani@students.wits.ac.za 7/27/2010 11:40:16 AM
joining I am very interested in using this link for my own bennefit Submitted By: enos hlungwani

yonelajafta skillsadmin@jgdm.gov.za 6/23/2010 8:57:10 AM
Skills Development ND Morning i am interested in Studying the Skills Development Facilitation just want to check does your school offers something like that and is possible that you can e-mail the prospectus. Thanks Yonela jafta Submitted By: yonelajafta

Carola Steinberg carola.steinberg@wits.ac.za 2/10/2010 10:16:01 AM
At the Wits School of Education, we have used this package for several years and will continue to use it. Each year, the teacher–students on our ACE programme get excited by the insights offered – the inevitability of making mistakes while learning, the need to work with student misconceptions, or the possibilities opened by scaffolding a learning path from everyday to school learning. The package gives them a way of understanding their task as a teacher and knowledge worker in a new way. Submitted By: Carola Steinberg

Tony Mays tonymays@vodamail.com 10/5/2009 9:06:04 PM
Learners and Learning In order to make meaningful decisions about 'teaching' we need to begin by exploring our understanding of 'learning'. 'Learners and Learning' provides an accessible introduction to the field of learning theory and represents a solid foundation on which more detailed study can subsequently be based. An active engagement with the text cannot fail to help teachers examine their own practices and the assumptions that underpin them. It is an essential reference that I find myself returning to on a regular basis. Submitted By: Tony Mays

OER Africa is an initiative of the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide)

Reference list for Section One

Reference list for Section Two

Reference list for Section Three

Reference list for Section Four