Contemporary theories of learning : learning theorists... in their own words

276 Pages·2018·2.67 MB·English

by  Illeris, Knud

Contemporary Theories of
Learning
This tenth anniversary edition of Knud Illeris’s classic 2008 text is an updated
and definitive collection of today’s most influential learning theorists, now
containing additional chapters from John Hattie and Gregory Donoghue,
Sharan Merriam, Gert Biesta and Carolyn Jackson. This book brings together
world-renowned experts, who each present their understanding of what learning
is and how human learning takes place, addressing the social, psychological and
emotional contexts of learning.
In this clear and coherent overview, Professor Knud Illeris has collated
chapters that explain both the complex frameworks in which learning takes
place and the specific facets of learning. Each international expert provides
either a seminal text or an entirely new précis of the conceptual framework they
have developed over a lifetime of study, such as adult learning theory, learning
strategies, and the cultural and social nature of learning processes.
Elucidating the key concepts of learning, Contemporary Theories of Learning
provides both the perfect desk reference and an ideal introduction for students; it
is an invaluable resource for all researchers and academics involved in the study
of learning, and provides a detailed synthesis of current learning theories … all in
the words of the theorists themselves.
Knud Illeris is Professor Emeritus of Lifelong Learning at Aarhus University,
Denmark, and founder of Simonsen & Illeris Educational Consultancy. He is
internationally acknowledged as an innovative contributor to learning theory
and adult education. He has been an honorary professor at Colombia University
in New York and is a member of The International Adult Education Hall of
Fame. He is the author of numerous books, including Understanding Learning
and Motivation in Youth (2018); How We Learn, 2nd edition (2017); Learning,
Development and Education (2016); Transformative Learning and Identity (2014);
and The Fundamentals of Workplace Learning (2011).

Contemporary Theories of
Learning
Learning Theorists… In Their Own Words
Second edition
Edited by Knud Illeris
Second edition published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Knud Illeris; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of the Knud Illeris to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
First edition published by Routledge 2009.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book.
ISBN: 978-1-138-55048-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-55049-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-14727-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
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Contents
List of figures vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
1 A comprehensive understanding of human learning 1
KNUD ILLERIS
2 Learning to be a person in society: learning to be me 15
PETER JARVIS
3 What “form” transforms?: a constructive-developmental
approach to transformative learning 29
ROBERT KEGAN
4 Expansive learning: towards an activity-theoretical
reconceptualization 46
YRJÖ ENGESTRÖM
5 Pragmatism: learning as creative imagination 66
BENTE ELKJAER
6 Adult learning theory: evolution and future directions 83
SHARAN B. MERRIAM
7 A model of learning: optimizing the effectiveness of learning
strategies 97
JOHN A. T. HATTIE AND GREGORY M. DONOGHUE
vi Contents
8 Transformative learning theory 114
JACK MEZIROW
9 Multiple approaches to understanding 129
HOWARD GARDNER
10 Affective dimensions of learning 139
CAROLYN JACKSON
11 Biographical learning – within the lifelong learning discourse 153
PETER ALHEIT
12 The life history of the self 166
MARK TENNANT
13 Culture, mind and education 179
JEROME BRUNER
14 Experience, pedagogy and social practices 189
ROBIN USHER
15 ‘Normal learning problems’ in youth: in the context of
underlying cultural convictions 204
THOMAS ZIEHE
16 A social theory of learning 219
ETIENNE WENGER
17 Transitional learning and reflexive facilitation: the case of
learning for work 229
DANNY WILDEMEERSCH AND VEERLE STROOBANTS
18 Interrupting the politics of learning 243
GERT BIESTA
Index 260
Figures
1.1 The main areas of the understanding of learning 2
1.2 The fundamental processes of learning 3
1.3 The three dimensions of learning and competence
development 4
2.1 Kolb’s learning cycle 17
2.2 Jarvis’ 1987 model of learning 18
2.3 The transformation of sensations: learning from
primary experience 20
2.4 The transformation of the person through learning 23
2.5 The internalisation and externalisation of culture 26
3.1 Two kinds of learning: informative and transformative 36
3.2 Five increasingly complex epistemologies 41
4.1 Vygotsky’s model of mediated act and its common
reformulation 47
4.2 The structure of a human activity system 48
4.3 Two interacting activity systems as minimal model
for the third generation of activity theory 49
4.4 Contradictions in children’s health care in the Helsinki area 57
4.5 Conceptual model of the care agreement practice 61
4.6 Strategic learning actions and corresponding contradictions
in the cycle of expansive learning 63
4.7 Expanded view of directionalities in concept formation 64
7.1 The learning schema 100
7.2 A model of learning 101
14.1 A ‘map’ of experiential learning in the social practices of
postmodernity 190
16.1 Components of a social theory of learning: an initial inventory 221
17.1 Transitional learning 233
Acknowledgements
Our thanks are due to the following publishers and authors for permission to
include materials in the text:
Cambridge University Press, for material printed from Wenger, E. (2013), Com-
munities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, © Cambridge Univer-
sity Press 1998, reproduced with permission.
Harvard University Press, for material printed from The Culture of Education by
Jerome Bruner, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Copyright ©
1996 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Nature, for material printed from npj Science of Learning (No. 1), Hattie, J. and
Donoghue, G. (2016), Learning Strategies: A Synthesis and Conceptual
Model.
Pennsylvania Association for Adult Continuing Education for material printed
from PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, Vol. 26, Merriam, S., Adult
Learning Theory: Evolution and Future Directions, pp. 21–37.
Sage Publications Inc., for material printed from Scott, D. and Hargreaves, E.
(eds) (2015), The SAGE Handbook of Learning, pp. 353–362; Biesta, G.
Power and Education Journal (Vol. 5, No. 1), Interrupting the Politics of
Learning, pp. 4–15, copyright © 2013 by SAGE Publications. Reprinted by
Permission of SAGE Publications.
Wiley, for material printed from Mezirow, J. & Associates (2000), Learning as
Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress, pp. 35–70; Mezi-
row, J., Taylor, E. W. & Associates (2009), Transformative Learning in Prac-
tice: Insights from Community, Workplace and Higher Education, pp. 18–32;
Tennant, M. (2012), The Learning Self: Understanding the Potential for Trans-
formation, pp. 17–34.
Introduction
The first edition of this book was published in 2008. The immediate background
for this was that for almost 20 years, I had worked my way through a very broad
and international selection of learning theories with a view to writing my books
on The Three Dimensions of Learning, which was published in Danish in 1999 and
in English in 2002, and How We Learn from 2006/2007. In this connection, I had
also published two edited books in Danish with articles by, in my opinion, the
most important learning theorists. So it was an obvious idea to create a similar
book in English.
However, I thought that an international book of this kind should be both
more exclusive and more selectively concentrate on the most important and con-
temporary theorists. So whereas the two Danish books included about 50 authors
altogether, the English version only had 16 contributors, whom I regarded as the
most representative and up-to-date learning theorists at that time. In order to
maintain this, I have in this second edition made the following alterations.
First, in order that the selection can still be regarded as contemporary, I have
changed the time limit for the contributions to be accepted from 1990 to 1995,
which has led me to leave out the chapters by John Heron (1992) and Jean
Lave (1993), as I have not been able to find more recent relevant writings from
these two authors. Immediately, it might perhaps seem more natural to choose
the start of the new millennium in 2000 as the boundary, but actually, during the
last five years of the 1990s, some (in my opinion) very important contributions
were made, especially by Jerome Bruner (1996), Robin Usher (1997) and Etienne
Wenger (1998), and these can certainly still be regarded as contemporary.
Second, two contributors, Bente Elkjaer and Mark Tennant, have wished to
replace their chapters from the first edition with newer writing. And finally,
I have chosen to invite four new authors to be represented. One of these, Sharan
Merriam, is certainly not a new name in the field of learning as she has been
publishing since the early 1980s, and the first edition of her and Rosemary Caf-
farella’s well-known volume of Learning in Adulthood – A Comprehensive Guide
is from 1991. So her presence in this edition can rather be regarded as making
good a deficiency in the first edition by a brand new chapter from 2017. In con-
trast to this, the three other new contributions by Carolyn Jackson, Gert Biesta,