In just the same way, many academics seem to conceptualise work-based
learning for their students in ways that completely sideline or ignore their
own experiences of WBL (eg on in-service teaching courses for new lecturers,
or other forms of CPD). 

Helping colleagues to explore the parallels and differences between their
own learning journeys and those of their students seems to be one of the key
roles for 'academic staff developers/educators (same problems of terminology
for us!) 

I'd particularly endorse Jill's emphasis on "A focus on their own learning
(academics) and how they became a historian, a mathematician etc. the
questions they ask that frame their subject and guide their thinking are the
very 'keys' that newer learners need.  Modelling the 'how' processes of
learning in a particular subject is extremely important for the newer
learner."

This seems to me one of the biggest tasks for the HE Academy and
particularly the future relationship between generic and subject centres -
to help build on the recognition that 'learning' is never(?never say never!)
context-free.  I'm a huge admirer of the Generic Centre's work, but it does
need to be balanced by subject-based research and discussion, and much
though I also admire Ramsden, I'm slightly worried that he leans towards a
view that most of the key L&T issues are generic.

Understanding how to learn and how to teach one's subject is intimately
connected to epistemology - what mathematicians and historians believe to be
'knowledge'is bound to affect their attitude to the 'how' of learning. That
is why the really interesting pedagogic research should start to interact
with the disciplinary assumptions of particular subjects....

Sorry to bang on like this on a Friday afternoon - but it does seem to me
that this recent discussion has demonstrated why 'student learning
development' and 'staff learning development' units should be co-located
(and I'm afraid I still can't suggest a snappy title for the conference, but
we do seem to have a theme somewhere in all of this)
Have a good weekend all

Pauline Ridley
Centre for Learning and Teaching
University of Brighton
Falmer Campus 
Brighton BN1 9PH
01273-643406
Email [log in to unmask]
Visit the CLT website at
http://staffcentral.brighton.ac.uk/clt



-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jill Armstrong
Sent: 02 July 2004 16:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: mapping the LD picture


John
Sorry to be opaque.  That's the trouble with dashing off some response. I
think that 'lifelong learning' became a vacuous cliché and that always
seemed a shame to me.  English politicians picked over this concept for a
number of their initiatives, which left it carrying a set of implications
inferring lifelong learning was for those whose lives no longer had any
association with learning and had been left behind by the system. Hence for
those in academia, 'lifelong learning' was for others.

'Learner development' faces the same danger as it is carries the assumption
(for many) that it is just something for 'those who have missed out' and
hence have some sort of inadequacy that needs fixing to make them 'normal'.

But my mission in this is to have academics see themselves as developing
their learning too, albeit at a  more sophisticated level.  If they really
did, then they would not see learner development as remedial.  The metaphor
changes from 'illness and cure' to 'developmental journey'.  The academics
have taken routes themselves towards the knowledge and understanding they
have acquired, and newer learners (students) are being guided by those more
experienced learners (teachers) on similar routes.  My point about
educational potential was that it is almost impossible to get academics to
say they have nothing left to learn, but equally difficult to get them to
see themselves fundamentally as learners. A focus on their own learning
(academics) and how they became a historian, a mathematician etc. the
questions they ask that frame their subject and guide their thinking are the
very 'keys' that newer learners need.  Modelling the 'how' processes of
learning in a particular subject is extremely important for the newer
learner.

So how do we promote the  developmental journey metaphor for the learner
development concept?  Perhaps we could call the conference 'Learner
development for new and experienced learners'!

Jill