Learners and Learning: a Primer for Students and Faculty

Wirth & Perkins - Learning to Learn1

Learning to Learn

Karl R. WirthDexter Perkins

Macalester CollegeUniversity North Dakota

1a. Introduction

Many students would likely cite a desire to learn as the primary reason for committing four years to a college education. But what do we really mean when we use the word “learn”? It is something we all do from the moment of birth, so most of us likely take this very complex process for granted. How many of you have spent time trying to understand the meaning of learning, or how it occurs? Although many of us have a general sense of what it means to learn, there are often many assumptions involved. Teachers often assume that, because they are “teaching,” students must be learning. Students assume that, because they have read their text and memorized facts, they have learned something. What should we expect to learn from a college education? What are the roles of students and teachers in the learning process? Are certain kinds of learning and thinking more valuable than others? What does sophisticated thinking look like and what are the developmental stages for getting there? What kinds of skills and knowledge do employers desire in their perspective employees? How do grades reflect a student’s thinking and learning? What role does higher education play in modern society? These are but a few questions to consider while reflecting on the purpose of a college education.

The past few decades have seen considerable advances in understanding the brain and learning. These new findings have significant implications for what instructors teach and how students learn, and I have changed the way I approach teaching. As I began to revise my courses to include new instructional methods, I realized the need to add some readings and classroom discussions to help students understand their vital role in the learning process. I initially sought to find an existing document that would provide a concise summary about learning. After not finding a suitable overview, I decided to write one myself. So, the purpose of this document is to provide a brief overview of learning, how people learn, and the importance of learning as a lifelong objective. This summary is distilled from a number of books, papers, and web pages related to learning, thinking, and educational practices. Although intended for students, the document might also be useful to instructors as they consider what they teach and how to teach it. Feedback, both positive and negative, is welcomed to help guide future revisions of this “work in progress.” A review by J. Serie greatly improved this document. However, any errors are the sole responsibility of the authors.

1b. The Current Situation

The American education system is considered among the best in the world. More than 50% of our nation’s high school graduates continue on to college and each year our universities and colleges enroll thousands of students from other countries. Despite these statistics, several recent studies have shown that many college seniors have neither good general knowledge nor the necessary skills for reasoning in today’s society (Fink 2003). As an example, Saunders (1980) compared U.S. students who had completed a yearlong economics course with those who had never taken a course in economics. At the end of the course, the test scores of those students who had completed the economics course were only 20% better than those who had not taken the course, and this difference dropped to less than 10% seven years after completion of the course. Equally shocking are the results of a study of critical thinking and college faculty in California. Although most of the faculty (75%) claimed to value critical thinking and to promote it in the classroom, less than 19% were able to provide a clear explanation of critical thinking, and less than 10% were able to identify criteria for evaluating the quality of students’ thinking (Paul et al. 1997). The results of these studies, and many others, strongly suggest that our current instructional practices are not working and that many students are not learning, or retaining what they do learn (Fink 2003).

1c. Need for New Kinds of Learning

There have been calls for new kinds of learning from many different parts of society (Fink 2003). College teachers have expressed frustration about attendance in class, uncompleted reading assignments, and student focus on grades rather than learning. Student surveys indicate that courses are not interesting, that students fail to recognize the value of what they are learning, and that many faculty rely too heavily on lectures for transmitting information. Recognizing the need for greater accountability by our public schools systems, a significant number of state legislatures have begun to link appropriations to performance. A number of national organizations have also called for change. An Association of American Colleges report in 1985 recommended that the central theme of any curriculum should be to teach students “how to learn.” Surveys of professional organizations indicate that besides specific competencies and skills, today’s employers seek workers with people skills (e.g., teamwork, communication, leadership) along with a desire and ability for lifelong learning. The 1996 National Science Foundation report on Shaping the Future (of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education) urges faculty to promote new kinds of learning that include developing skills in communication, teamwork, and lifelong learning. Gardiner (1994) compiled a list of “critical competencies” for citizens and workers from leaders in business, industry and government:

1)personal responsibility,

2)ability to act in principled, ethical fashion,

3)skill in oral and written communication,

4)interpersonal and team skills,

5)skills in critical thinking and problem-solving,

6)respect for people different from oneself,

7)ability to change,

8)ability and desire for lifelong learning.

Fink (2003) summarized Dolence and Norris’ 1995 report on Transforming Higher Education in the information age as follows: “Society and individual learners now have different needs, both in terms of what people need to learn and how they can and should learn.” For all the reasons given above, and for many others, the focus of education is shifting from “teaching” to “learning” today. Faculty roles are changing from lecturing to being primarily “designers of learning methods and environments” (Barr and Tagg 1995, cited in Fink 2003). Brookfield (1985) argues that the role of teachers is to “facilitate” the acquisition of knowledge, not “transmit” it, and the NRC (2000) recommends that the goal of education shift from an emphasis on comprehensive coverage of subject matter to helping students develop their own intellectual tools and learning strategies.

If you ask most college teachers what is the greatest gift that they could give their students, you will rarely hear an answer that includes mention of specific discipline-related content. Most will answer “the desire and skills for lifelong learning.” It’s not that it isn’t important to learn some facts while in college; these will likely be necessary for future employment. More important though is having the skill to learn on one’s own after leaving college. This single, most-important skill will empower you for a lifetime and should be one of your highest priorities for attending college.

The 2002 panel report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College) defines student-learning needs for the 21st century. To prepare students for “emerging challenges in the workplace, in a diverse democracy, and in an interconnected world” colleges and universities should place new emphasis on educating students to be “intentional learners” who are purposeful and self-directed, empowered through intellectual and practical skills, informed by knowledge and ways of knowing, and responsible for personal actions and civic values (AACU 2002). Becoming an intentional learner means “developing self-awareness about the reason for study, the learning process itself, and how education is used.” Intentional learners are integrative thinkers who “see connections in seemingly disparate information” to inform their decisions. Self-directed learners are highly motivated, independent, and strive toward self-direction and autonomy. They “take the initiative to diagnose their learning needs, formulate learning goals, identify resources for learning, select an implement learning strategies, and evaluate learning outcomes” (Savin-Baden and Major 2004). Specifically, the AACU report recommends that students should learn to:

• effectively communicate orally, visually, in writing, and in a second language
• understand and employ quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems
• interpret and evaluate information from a variety of sources
• understand and work within complex systems and with diverse groups
• demonstrate intellectual agility and the ability to manage change
• transform information into knowledge and knowledge into judgment and action

In addition to intellectual skills, the report also emphasizes learning that includes “ways of investigating human society and the natural world”, including:

• the human imagination, expression, and the products of many cultures
• the interrelations within and among global and cross-cultural communities
• means of modeling the natural, social, and technical worlds
• the values and histories underlying U.S. democracy

Furthermore, to ensure citizenry with social responsibility, education should foster:

• intellectual honesty
• responsibility for society’s moral health and for social justice
• active participation as a citizen of a diverse democracy
• discernment of the ethical consequences of decisions and actions
• deep understanding of one’s self and respect for the complex identities of others, their histories, and their cultures.

Finally, the report suggests that for the intentional learner “intellectual study connects to personal life, formal education to work, and knowledge to social responsibility.” These sorts of connections don’t develop on their own when one “becomes an adult.” They take deliberate effort and continual reflection. When are you going to begin developing these kinds of connections? How will you develop them? Why not start now?

The most recent call for education reform comes from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. This 19 member panel, with representatives from large research universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, trade schools and corporate executives, was appointed by the Secretary of Education to examine concerns about access and accountability in higher education. The panel recently released a blistering report (SECFHE, 2006) on the state of higher education in the U.S. Among other things, the panel stated: “we are disturbed by evidence that the quality of student learning at U.S. colleges and universities is inadequate and, in some cases, declining” and “employers report repeatedly that many new graduates they hire are not prepared to work, lacking the critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today’s workplaces.” In addition, they note “business and government leaders have repeatedly and urgently called for workers at all stages of life to continually upgrade their academic and practical skills.” The message is clear; learning is not something you just do for a few years in college. Learning is a lifelong commitment!

2. Different Kinds of Thinking and Learning: the Cognitive Domain

Since the 1950’s, researchers in cognitive theory and education have used Bloom’s (1956) taxonomies of learning. In a number of landmark papers, Bloom and colleagues identified three learning domains:

• the cognitive domain
• the affective domain
• the psychomotor

The cognitive domain involves thinking of all sorts; it is discussed in some detail below. The affective domain includes feelings, emotions, attitudes, values, and motivations. Levels within the affective domain range from initial awareness to a commitment to values that guide behavior and decisions. The psychomotor domain of learning includes physical movement, coordination, motor-, and sensory-skills. The psychomotor domain is not considered in this document. The other two, however, are involved in just about everything that follows. (Read on!). Although widely used by instructors for course design and student assessment, Bloom’s taxonomy does not include some of the new kinds of learning deemed important today (e.g., learning how to learn, communication and leadership skills, adaptability).

Without question, the most widely used of Bloom’s taxonomies is for the cognitive domain. Bloom divided this domain into six levels of understanding in a hierarchical sequence (Table 1). According to Bloom, the acquisition of facts (knowledge) marks only the beginning of understanding. The facts must be understood (comprehension) before they can be applied to new situations (application). Knowledge must be organized and patterns recognized (analysis) before it can be used to create new ideas (synthesis). Finally, to discriminate among competing models or evidence, the learner needs to be able to assess (evaluation) the relative merits and validity of information or ideas. Clearly, to attain the level of understanding that makes “evaluation” possible requires significant time and effort by the learner. Such a sophisticated level of understanding is not easily attained by simply reading a book or hearing a lecture. It requires active thought and reflection. Think about something in your own life in which you have attained a high level of understanding. Perhaps it is a hobby, a sport, or a skill. Try to write down examples of the different levels of understanding related to this proficiency that you have. How many hours did you spend dedicated to that task before you attained your current level of proficiency? Are you prepared to dedicate that much effort to leaning in college?

Bloom and colleagues identified six levels of understanding. Subsequently, Anderson et al. (2001) pointed out that there are different sorts of knowledge, each requiring different kinds of learning. They identified four principal kinds of knowledge: factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. Factual knowledge consists of isolated and discrete content elements. Conceptual knowledge is more complex and organized, including such things as knowledge of classifications, categories, principles, theories, models, and structures. Knowledge of “how to do something” such as techniques, methods and skills is termed procedural knowledge. Metacognitive knowledge is “knowledge about cognition and awareness of and knowledge about one’s own cognition.” Anderson et al. revised Bloom’s taxonomy and showed that each of their four kinds of knowledge can be mapped across all six of Bloom’s levels of understanding. So, there are 24 distinct combinations of knowledge type and level of understanding. In Learning to Think: Disciplinary Perspectives, Donald points out that different disciplines involve different and specifics kinds of thinking and information. This, according to Donald explains why students gravitate toward one field or another. It is also the single most important predictor for success in a given field. Wow, our concepts of learning and understanding have already gotten a lot more complicated, and we’re not finished yet!

3. Different Kinds of Thinking and Learning: the Affective Domain

Krathwohl et al. (1964) wrote the seminal book describing what Bloom and others called the affective domain. The affective domain includes all things that limit or enhance learning in addition to basic thinking. The affective domain describes learning objectives that emphasize a feeling, an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection. Affective characteristics vary from simply paying attention, to complex qualities of character and conscience.

The affective domain involves many things that at first seem unconnected, but Krathwohl et al. arranged them in a hierarchical order (Figure 1) related to an individual's level of commitment to learning. From lowest to highest they are:

Receiving – a willingness to receive information; directly related to motivation (verbs: accept, attend, develop, recognize)

Responding – showing some new thinking or behavior as a result of an experience (verbs: discuss, examine, respond)

Valuing – finding worth or value in a subject, activity, assignment, etc. (verbs: accept, defend, devote, seek)

Organizing – integrating new information and values into one's set of values (verbs: order, discriminate, weight, codify)

Acting – acting consistently with the new value; having a value set (verbs: internalize, verify)

The Science Education Resource Center website has a good summary of the affective domain ( The key idea is this: receiving information is the first and easiest part of learning. More important is that you respond to what you learn, you value it and organize it and eventually use it to guide your lives. A key part of this process is developing good attitudes toward learning and what you learn. Motivation and values are important. In fact, a recent study by Dweck and others demonstrates that student views of learning often have significant effects on student grades.