Teachers and learners

The second triangle -- teacher-student-material -- continued to occupy my attention this week. Actually, the material wasn't the focal point. In fact, I wasn't thinking much of it at all, but the other two legs of this triangle, the teachers and students, were very present. Tangentially, of course, the notions of the last triangle from the last time -- types of learning -- were present as well.

What struck me, particularly while reading Price, et al. (2007) and Richardson (2005, 2009) was the degree to which attitudes play such an important role in the process. While the teachers' attitudes are relevant, the real key is the students' attitudes toward their learning. This, though it was not the focus of the articles themselves, appears to be more important than we often think. I remember finding out while working on a paper on reading and reading comprehension that the key factor in children learning to read is not so much the method (e.g. phonetic vs. whole-word) involved, but rather the students' relationship to the teacher. That's what makes the real difference.

In certain regards, this is a point that Brown, et al. (1989) makes when they write of "learning and enculturation". What takes in this apprenticeship-like situation is not merely a transfer of knowledge, rather it is an object lesson and gathering of experience in relation to the attitudes of the tutor/teacher in regarding the work being done. It is a highly affective situation, and this affective dimension is playing a much greater role than our cognitive, objective theories of learning account for.

My own experience in the classroom has shown me that whoever does not want to learn will not learn, regardless of what you as teacher/tutor do. The best you can do, the best you can hope for is to change the potential learner's attitude toward learning, and one of the more effective ways of doing this is by setting a good learning example.

Of course, these thoughts lead us immediately to reflections upon surface and deep learning, subject that Richardson (2005) in particular raises. Things may not be as simple as he suspects, but that's a topic for another time.

References
[1] Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, Paul (1989) "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning", Educational Researcher, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 1989), pp. 32-42.

[2] Price, L., Richardson, J.T.E. and Jelfs, A. (2007) "Face-to-face versus online tutoring support in distance education", Studies in Higher Education, vol.32, pp.1–20.

[3] Richardson, J.T.E. (2005) "Students' approaches to learning and teachers' approaches to teaching in higher education", Educational Psychology, vol.25, pp.673–80.

[4] Richardson, J.T.E. (2009) "Face-to-face versus online tutoring support in humanities courses in distance education", Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, vol.8, no.1, pp.69–85.