L4D Learning for Democracy

The initial question in this discussion was: to what extent are the boundaries to schooling necessary to learning and what impact do they have on it?  See the whole discussion online or download it in PDF.

It was suggested that boundaries seen in terms of the units (class, school, subject,...) that make up schools are more important to schooling than learning. The difficulty of discussing such subjects due to the misleading notions attached to words was evoked and the example of teaching was given. It was suggested that schooling and learning were not necessarily synonymous. Schooling was defined as a complex often ritualistic activity related to the organisation of learning and the handling of learners in dedicated institutions. Learning was defined as building new knowledge or new ways of working in any place or at any time, where newness is with respect to the individual or group developing it.

A number of boundaries were discussed including the notion of "subject" and the impact on learning of the division in terms of subjects. The ambiguous role of ICTs as a purveyor of boundaries was also mentioned in relation to the concept of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) and to that of Seamless Learning Environments. 

Talking about such boundaries in a wider context, a brief return in history pointed to periods when some divisions taken for granted today (for example between work and leisure and private life) did not exist. The formal nature of much schooling was also talked about in relation to informal learning elsewhere in society.

The question was raised whether there was proof of the dissolution of boundaries with respect to education and whether it was necessarily a good thing for learning. It was pointed out that boundaries and divisions are necessary to make sense of the complex world we live in. The Kahn Academy was mentioned as an example of changing boundaries in learning due to different approaches and the use of ICTs. Amongst the ideas put forward of the possible impact of dissolving boundaries on education was the loss of leadership of schools when it came to learning. 

In talking of the possible impediments to learning caused by barriers due to schooling it was suggested that the nature of schooling made the handling of complexity very difficult if not impossible within such institutions. There was considerable discussion and some disagreement about the nature of complexity. Concrete examples were given of how complexity as a scientific and mathematical phenomenon could be taught at school. From a different perspective, it was argued that what was important was not the ability to teach complexity as a subject but the ability to take into consideration the impact of complexity on schools as organisations and on learning as a process of change in a complex world.

dissolving boundaries, summary, learning, schooling, complexity, teaching, school

Last updated 266 days ago by Alan McCluskey