Theoretical Perspectives on Learning

Skills:
Soft skills: Social competences, Creativity
Communication: Oral communication, Self-presentation techniques
Group working: Teamworking

Description:
Learning, including higher education, is a central aspect of human existence and activity. Despite millennia of thinking and debating, no grand theory of learning has been successfully formulated. Today, multiple competing and complementary theoretical perspectives exist; actually a good thing, due to the great range of possible learning experiences and situations. This course explores a selection of theoretical perspectives on learning from the last century, with emphasis on their implications for teaching practice in the context of supporting student learning. The course uses an inverted format. Participants prepare for each session by individual reading, with mutual time in the classroom spent trying to grasp the various theoretical perspectives on learning. This is achieved via discussion seminars and by trialling the perspectives in practice through roleplay. Reading will involve a mixture of texts focusing on the general nature and central ideas of each theoretical perspective, plus texts focused on specific ideas and/or tools derived from the corresponding perspectives. Theoretical perspectives covered in the course will include behaviourism, cognitive perspectives on learning (such as constructivism and especially conceptual change) and metacognition and sociocultural perspectives on learning (such as situated learning).