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We all know how to learn – it’s built into our genetic makeup- but we struggle to articulate and explain how we do it. Piaget developed his constructionist theory of learning by watching and studying how children learn. In his theory, children acquire information and then, by testing it with experience, add to it. If for any reason the higher level of learning cannot be used, they revert to lower levels. I believe this is the way we all learn at every stage of maturity. It is by a mixing observation, experience, facts, procedures and other knowledge that we move up a learning hierarchy.
Our traditional school and corporate training systems primarily impart facts, information and procedures in an attempt to build these higher levels of learning. But, this is an incomplete model for fostering learning, yet it has become our framework for thinking about it. Learning is always personal and can only be learner-centered by that definition. To think we can impart learning to others is mistaken. We can only create learning environments and frameworks.
Our current teacher-centered framework is hard to challenge because it is familiar and because we are all products of what it delivers. But it prevents change and inhibits new architectures. I believe we need to deliberately create frameworks where experimentation, non-verbal communication systems, social networks, learn-by-doing, and other tools and concepts enhance our learning.
This is happening in some places. The Idea Lab and other innovation centers practice much of what I am talking about. The corporate university has an opportunity to resist the “develop a curriculum” challenge and to break the habits and frameworks of traditional learning.