Chapter 1. Conditions for Powerful Learning

Much learning takes place in other ways, of course. Young children learn to walk and talk through a natural process of trial and error. Some accomplished artists and musicians are described as self-taught. People solve problems and make scientific discoveries—clearly a form of learning—without being directed by a teacher.

Educators are sometimes intrigued by the contrast between traditional school practices and the way learning takes place in other settings. The respected cognitive researcher Lauren Resnick talked about it in her 1987 presidential address to the American Educational Research Association (Resnick 1987). And before her, generations of teachers undoubtedly looked for ways to somehow make better use of their students' natural learning abilities. Now, with new information from cognitive psychology and brain research, educators have more authoritative knowledge on the subject of learning than ever before.

When I began working on this book I found that several new statements on learning were in preparation or already had been produced. My colleagues at ASCD and I decided not to duplicate these works here, but to build upon them for a slightly different purpose. First, I quote insights about various aspects of learning from three of these documents, revealing an impressive consensus among rather different sources. Next, I propose conditions under which people seem to learn best, also based on the three works. Then I offer examples from recent articles in Educational Leadership that I think illustrate how these conditions can be created in schools. Finally, I speculate about how knowledge about learning may apply to organizations as well as to individuals.

The major sources for this book are the newest version of “Learner-Centered Psychological Principles” prepared by a work group of the American Psychological Association (APA), a document called Teaching for Effective Learning by the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum (Scottish CCC), and a book by Renate and Geoffrey Caine, Education on the Edge of Possibility. I will also mention “Principles of Learning: Challenging Fundamental Assumptions” from the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL), Menlo Park, California. According to these documents, the following can be said about human learning:

People learn what is personally meaningful to them. Researchers say that learning is most effective when it is “active, goal-directed,” and “personally relevant” (APA 1997). Because “the search for meaning is innate” (Caine and Caine 1997), learners concentrate most on the learning tasks that are personally meaningful to them. Those who want to influence the learning of others should try to create as much correspondence as possible between institutional goals and learners' goals. For example, with the approach called problem-based learning, students acquire valuable knowledge and skills as they investigate real, important problems, such as how to reduce water pollution in a nearby stream.

In other words, people learn when they want to learn. Because “acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires extended learner effort and guided practice” and because “what and how much is learned is influenced by the learner's motivation” (APA 1997), those who wish to encourage learning must be concerned with what learners feel a need to learn.

Everybody knows the importance of motivation, but teachers are often troubled by the apparent mismatch between student interests and what the teacher is obliged to teach. Sometimes part of the answer may be found in the way a topic is handled. “Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks of optimal novelty and difficulty” (APA 1997). For example, students may learn about a topic and develop new skills by preparing a report in an unusual way, such as writing a magazine article or producing a video program.

People learn more when they accept challenging but achievable goals. Because “there is no limit to growth and to the capacities of humans to learn more” (Caine and Caine 1997), educators must not underestimate what students can do. “We all have much greater potential for learning than is commonly recognized” (Scottish CCC 1996). “Effective learning takes place when learners feel challenged to work toward appropriately high goals” (APA 1997). Learners learn more effectively when teachers demonstrate confidence in their students' abilities and provide “scaffolding” to enable them to perform well on complex tasks. For example, a choral group is more likely to present an outstanding performance when the conductor chooses a technically difficult selection for them to sing, convinces them they can do it, and provides expert coaching.

Learning is developmental. Because “there are predetermined sequences of [mental] development in childhood” (Caine and Caine 1997), education is most effective, especially for young children, “when differential development . . . is taken into account” (APA 1997). Similarly, adults who have relatively little experience with a topic (novices) typically approach it differently from those who know more about it (experts). For example, a person with no technical training or experience would probably need more concrete, step-by-step instruction as he learned to make a simple engine repair than someone who had more training and experience but was not familiar with the particular engine involved.

Individuals learn differently. Because “every brain is uniquely organized” (Caine and Caine 1997), individuals use “different strategies, approaches, and capabilities,” some of which result from “differences in learners' linguistic, cultural, and social backgrounds” (APA 1997). As Howard Gardner contends in his theory of multiple intelligences, “there is no such thing as a single general intelligence” (Scottish CCC 1996). “Self-awareness . . . helps us . . . use our preferred styles . . . to learn more effectively” (Scottish CCC 1996). Schools and other organizations can aid student learning by providing for different ways of learning.

People construct new knowledge by building on their current knowledge. Researchers have found that people learn by “link[ing] new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways” (APA 1997). Building on what they already know, learners “search for meaning . . . through `patterning'” (Caine and Caine 1997). Because “learning is messy” (Scottish CCC 1996), an orderly presentation is not necessarily bad, but by itself it may be insufficient. As learners encounter a topic in a variety of ways, they “construct” what they come to know about it.

For example, a person who has attended a class about a new computer program needs to try the program out within a short time. If she has never used a computer but has used a typewriter, she will begin using what she knows about typing, which in some cases will be helpful but in other cases will not. If she has worked with computers before, she will probably be able to use knowledge about them to learn features of the new program more easily. As she uses the program to do a task, she will probably make mistakes and have to correct them. She also may consult an instruction manual or a friend who knows the program. Getting one thing clear at a time, she eventually will become comfortable with the program as a whole—or at least those parts she needs to know.

Much learning occurs through social interaction. For years, researchers studied learning as experienced by individual learners, but in recent years they have come to see it as inherently social. In 1992, Gaea Leinhardt called this “the most radical” of all the “new ideas” about learning. “The brain is a social brain” (Caine and Caine 1997), so “most learning involves other people” (Scottish CCC 1996). Because “learning is influenced by social interactions [and] interpersonal relations” (APA 1997), teachers and others who want to promote learning need to pay close attention to the social setting. Students should sometimes work in pairs or learning teams. When teaching the classroom group as a whole, the teacher should strive to develop “a community of inquiry.” This means that some teacher-student interaction should go beyond recitation, in which there is a correct answer the teacher expects to hear, and become real discussion, in which students offer conjectures and respond to others' ideas.

The idea that “learning is fundamentally social” is at the heart of a tightly integrated set of principles published by the Institute for Research on Learning (n.d.). The Institute sees learning as “inseparable from engagement in the world.” Its seven principles of learning imply that schools should strive to be constellations of small “communities of practice” in which members are continually “negotiating meaning.” This idea is elaborated in Etienne Wenger's Communities of Practice (1998).

People need feedback to learn. One explanation for the power of social interaction is that, among other things, it provides feedback to learners. Feedback—information from outside regarding the accuracy and relevance of our thoughts and actions—is essential to learning. “Ongoing assessment . . . can provide valuable feedback” (APA 1997). “The entire system [body, mind, and brain] interacts with and exchanges information with its environment” (Caine and Caine 1997). This suggests that educators must try to make sure that learners receive accurate, useful, and timely feedback. For example, writers need to know from readers whether their message is clearly understood and, if not, what changes would help.

Successful learning involves use of strategies—which themselves are learned. “Learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes” (Caine and Caine 1997), including “thinking and reasoning strategies” (APA 1997). For example, people frequently “can learn how to learn” by “sharing aims, planning targets, and reviewing achievement” (Scottish CCC 1996). This critical aspect of self-management is sometimes called metacognition or executive control. To help develop it, young people should be coached to think ahead to make sure they have the time and necessary tools for a project and that they have envisioned the steps they will follow to complete it. Then they should be reminded to monitor their own progress as they proceed with the project.

A positive emotional climate strengthens learning. Research evidence also suggests that “our ability to think and to learn effectively . . . are closely linked to our physical and emotional well being” (Scottish CCC 1996). “Motivation to learn . . . is influenced by the individual's emotional states” (APA 1997). Thus “an appropriate emotional climate is indispensable to sound education” (Caine and Caine 1997). The relationship between emotions and learning is complex. Strong emotions actually enhance memory, but in general, people learn poorly in stressful environments—and schools by their very nature can be stressful. Schools and other organizations can foster learning by stimulating positive emotions: curiosity, excitement, laughter, enjoyment, and appreciation.

Learning is influenced by the total environment. Because “learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception” (Caine and Caine 1997), it “is influenced by environmental factors” (APA 1997). This means that educators need to attend to all aspects of the setting—physical, social, and psychological— where learning is supposed to take place. For example, students are probably more likely to remember a play if they act it out, complete with simple costumes, than if they only read it.

These general principles summarizing what is known about how people learn (Figure 1) suggest conditions under which students will learn especially well. These conditions are summarized in Figure 2. They encompass the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn, how they go about learning, and the setting in which the learning takes place.

Figure 1: Summary Statements About Learning

Figure 2: Conditions for Powerful Learning