1. Senior Academic Staff Development Officer (part-time),
Making Learning Happen
Phil Race
BSc PhD PGCE FCIPD ILTM
Senior Academic Staff Development Officer (part-time),
University of Leeds
Monday, 14 January 2019
Monday, January 14, 2019

2. Intended learning outcomes…
In this interactive plenary, and the group exercises which follow, I hope you will become able to:
Take a fresh look at learning, based on your own life’s experience;
Leave behind some out-of-date (and downright ‘wrong’) ideas about learning!
Identify five factors which underpin successful learning;
Address these factors towards the cause of ‘making learning happen in post-compulsory education’ and beyond;
Move that diamond down and right – even better success for LSBU.
Monday, January 14, 2019

3. Origins of these ideas
Asking questions to tens of thousands of people about how they learn (and didn’t learn)…for the last 20 years or so;
All ages – 16 to over-80s;
All levels - PVCs upwards;
Learners, teachers, trainers; professionals, doctors, lawyers, soldiers, clergypersons…
All across UK and Ireland;
Singapore, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, several parts of Europe.
The common factor: human beings.
Monday, January 14, 2019

4. Well worth a read…
Knight, P and Yorke, M (2003) Assessment, learning and employability Maidenhead, UK SRHE/Open University Press.
Bowl, M (2003) Non-traditional entrants to higher education ‘they talk about people like me’ Stoke on Trent, UK, Trentham Books.
Peelo, M and Wareham, T (eds.) (2002) Failing Students in higher education Buckingham, UK, SRHE/Open University Press.
Northedge, A (2003) Enabling participation in academic discourse Teaching in higher education 8, (Carfax)
Monday, January 14, 2019

5. Telling the story…
‘The open learning handbook’ Kogan Page, 1989 and 1995;
‘Who Learns Wins’ Penguin, 1995;
Various journal articles in the training field 1990 to 2004;
Chapter 1 of ‘The Lecturer’s Toolkit’ 2001;
‘Effective Online Learning – the Trainers’ Toolkit (with David Anderson), Fenman, 2002.
‘Making learning happen in post-compulsory education’ (Sage, 2005, in press, due out November).
Monday, January 14, 2019

6. Context
Too many of the models we use to think about learning have been designed in ivory towers, and relate to people who aren't just ordinary learners on education and training programmes.
The real problem, I believe, is that we tend to end up using complex sophisticated language about learning, and yet learning is something that everyone does every day. In this mini workshop, I'll get you thinking about how YOU learn best - and how you don't learn well too.
This helps us to keep thinking about how our learners are learning in our own workshops and teaching sessions.
Monday, January 14, 2019

7. Mind our language?
Everyone learns. Not just students, not just trainees, or trainers, or teachers, not just professors, not just writers…
And we talk of 50% participation in higher education alone – students are no longer just an elite cross section of the population.
Yet the language we use to describe learning has got silly in the last fifty years or so.
It’s become remote, cold, psychological, exclusive, elitist – not a sensible way of talking about something everyone does.
My mission is to get back to using language about learning which everyone can relate to.
Monday, January 14, 2019

8. Time to change - radically
The Tomlinson Report has highlighted that traditional unseen written exams are no longer fit for purpose – ‘exams fail a generation of pupils’ (Feb.2004).
The Burgess Committee Report (‘Measuring and Recording Achievement, Nov. 2004, download from SCOP or UUK) shows that the present UK Degree classification system is no longer fit for purpose – e.g. 90% of Oxbridge graduates have 1st or 2.1s – and 50% nationally.
So we’re (at last) going to have to change assessment, and link it productively to learning.
But we’re going to have to think again about how learning happens best.
Monday, January 14, 2019

9. And another problem…
Too much of the literature on learning has been based on flimsy – indeed ‘slippery’ theories or models, not underpinned by relevant research or validated by widespread piloting, testing and debate.
The Education curriculum has held on to some old approaches till well after their ‘use before date’.
The climate has changed irreversibly, there’s been ‘global warming’ among learners, and the time has come to take a fresh look at how learning really happens – and at what we can do to cause it to happen.
Monday, January 14, 2019

10. Three landmarks…
Task: jot down who you think (guess) is the source of the following quotation:
‘Everything should be made as simple as possible,
but not simpler’.
(Albert Einstein, ).
Also:
‘Knowledge is experience, everything else is just information’.
And…
‘Never stop asking questions’.

11. Training… Other people’s knowledge is just information.
Teaching is helping people to turn information into knowledge…
…by getting them to do things with the information…
…and giving them feedback about their attempts.
Monday, January 14, 2019

12. Information and communication?
Information can be communicated, in large amounts, in books and articles,
or right to our computers, and downloaded onto our hard discs.
But it’s not knowledge till we do things with it…
Apply it, extend it, interrogate it, analyse it, disagree with it, compare and contrast it, and so on.
Monday, January 14, 2019

13. Learning – a natural human process
You can download a version of the slides which follow from my website:

14. Please take four post-its
Monday, January 14, 2019

15. Four straightforward questions about how you learn(ed)…
Each question is in two parts.
Just think about part 1.
Then jot down your headline response to part 2 in no more than half-a-dozen words or so.
Monday, January 14, 2019

16. 1: How do you learn well?
Think (don’t write anything yet) of something that you’re good at, something that you know you do well.
How did you become good at it? Write a few words on the yellow post-it.
Monday, January 14, 2019

17. Most people’s views... Practice. Trial and error. Having a go.
Repetition.
Experimenting.
Monday, January 14, 2019

18. A world famous view...
“One must learn by doing the thing; though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try”.
Monday, January 14, 2019

19. A world famous view...
“One must learn by doing the thing; though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try”.
(Sophocles, BC)
Monday, January 14, 2019

20. Another... An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes,
which can be made,
in a very narrow field.
(Niels Bohr, )
Therefore we need to allow trainees to make mistakes, and help them to gain feedback in a constructive environment, to help them towards becoming experts.
Monday, January 14, 2019

21. But sometimes we really need trainers…
Someone who already knows;
Someone who already understands;
Someone who has already learned by getting it wrong at first;
And can help us to do the same…
Sometimes without saying a word…
Monday, January 14, 2019

22. 2: What makes you feel good?
Think of something about yourself that you feel good about.
How you can tell that you feel good about this? What’s your evidence to support this feeling? Write a few words on your green post-it.
Monday, January 14, 2019

23. Most people’s views... Feedback. Other people’s reactions. Praise.
Seeing the results.
Monday, January 14, 2019

24. 3: What can go wrong?
Think of something that you’re not good at, perhaps as a result of a bad learning experience.
What went wrong, and whose (if anyone’s) fault may it have been? Write a few words on your blue post-it.
Monday, January 14, 2019

25. Most people’s views... Did not really want to learn it.
Could not see the point.
It ‘did my head in’.
Bad teaching.
Could not make sense of it.
Monday, January 14, 2019

26. 4: What kept you going?
Think of something that you did learn successfully, but at the time you didn’t want to learn it.
What kept you going, so that you did indeed succeed in learning it? Write a few words on your pink post-it.
Monday, January 14, 2019

27. Most people’s views... Strong support and encouragement.
Did not want to be seen not able to do it.
Needed to do it for what I wanted next.
Monday, January 14, 2019

28. Five factors underpinning successful learning
learning by doing
learning from feedback
wanting to learn
needing to learn
making sense - ‘digesting’
Monday, January 14, 2019

29. active experimentation concrete experience reflective observation
Traditional views...
active experimentation
concrete experience
reflective observation
abstract conceptualisation
Monday, January 14, 2019

30. Is it a cycle? Active Experimentation Abstract Conceptualisation
Concrete
Experience
Reflective
Observation
Monday, January 14, 2019

31. Coffield et al on Kolb (2004)
‘Finally, it may be asked if too much is being expected of a relatively simple test which consists of nine (1976) or 12 (1985 and 1999) sets of four words to choose from. What is indisputable is that such simplicity has generated complexity, controversy and an enduring and frustrating lack of clarity’.
‘Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: a systematic and critical review’ Frank Coffield, David Moseley, Elaine Hall and Kathryn Ecclestone,
Monday, January 14, 2019

32. Is it a cycle? Wanting/Needing Digesting Doing Feedback
Monday, January 14, 2019

33. Ripples on a pond…
Wanting/
Needing

34. Ripples on a pond…
Wanting/
Needing
Doing
Monday, January 14, 2019

35. Ripples on a pond… Doing Digesting Wanting/ Needing
Monday, January 14, 2019

36. Ripples on a pond… Doing Digesting Feedback Wanting/ Needing
Monday, January 14, 2019

37. But what if there’s no ‘want’
– or not even a ‘need’?
Monday, January 14, 2019

38. But what if there’s no ‘want’
– or not even a ‘need’?
Doing
Digesting
Feedback
Monday, January 14, 2019

39. Ripples on a pond…. Assessing? Understanding? Doing Digesting Feedback
Teaching?
Assessing?
Wanting/
Needing
Understanding?
Doing
Digesting
Feedback
Monday, January 14, 2019

40. Designing teaching and training to maximise learning…butterfly wing to tornado…
We can each address these five factors in our teaching.
We can try to get our learners to want to learn.
We can help them see the point, and take ownership of the need to learn.
We can keep them busy, learning by doing, practice, trial and error, repetition.
We can help them to make sense of what they are learning…
…particularly by making sure that they get feedback on what they are doing and thinking.
Monday, January 14, 2019

41. Beyond learning styles
Coffield et al (2004) were very critical of most of what’s been written about learning styles.
I have long been worried that most of the instruments ‘pigeon-hole’ learners, rather than liberate them.
I hate the idea of a ‘hidden agenda’ with scores revealing something mystical about people’s minds.
I believe in getting people to think about what drives their learning.
Monday, January 14, 2019

42. Worries about questionnaires
I am concerned that some of the learning styles stuff has never really been published, but marketed by its owners.
I believe that ‘yes/no’ or ‘true/false’ are too simplistic.
That’s why I’m publishing later this year a questionnaire with no hidden agendas, and with four choices for each statement – not two.
It’s in your pack.
Monday, January 14, 2019

43. Making learning happen in particular contexts…
Lectures with large groups (>100)
Whole-class sessions with smaller groups (<30)
Tutorials
Practical work
Online learning
Self- and peer-assessment
Through formative feedback
Other?
Monday, January 14, 2019

44. Finding out what makes learning happen
Let’s explore how we can use small-group teaching to maximise the learning payoff for our students in each of the learning contexts.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Making learning happen

45. What do students actually do in your chosen learning context?
Privately, please jot down a list of things which your students do in your chosen learning context.
Make them all ‘…ing’ words or phrases.
Then write each of the main ‘…ing’ words or phrases on separate post-its.
Next, please stick your post-its onto a flipchart, in order of ‘learning payoff’ for students, in ‘diamond-9’ formation (but you can have more than 9).
Monday, January 14, 2019
Making learning happen

46. What students do, in order of learning payoff …
Most productive in
students’ learning 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Less productive 9
Monday, January 14, 2019
Making learning happen

47. Making learning happen
What students do to make learning happen, and factors underpinning successful learning…
Wanting
Needing
Doing
Feedback
Making sense
Enthusing learners, empowering them, giving them things they enjoy doing.
Please annotate your post-its showing which factors underpinning successful learning are involved in each of the activities you’ve chosen.
Some activities will have more than one of D ,F, W, N, M.
Use a 3-point scale, e.g. ‘WWW’ for a great deal of ‘wanting’ effect, ‘WW’ and ‘W’.
Giving learners ownership of the need, showing them what they need to become able to achieve, helping them to ‘see the point of it all’.
Getting them going and keeping them going, giving learners practice, learning through mistakes, repetition, avoiding logjams or blocks.
Making sure that learners get feedback on-line, and from us, and from each other, and from all the rest of their learning environment. Making the feedback friendly.
Helping learners to get their heads round ideas and concepts, ‘digesting’ information to add to their knowledge, increasing their understanding.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Making learning happen

48. Back to our intended outcomes…
How well do you now feel enabled to:
(2 hands = very much better, one hand = somewhat better, no hands = no better)
Take a fresh look at learning, based on your own life’s experience;
Leave behind some out-of-date (and downright ‘wrong’) ideas about learning!
Identify five factors which underpin successful learning;
Address these factors towards the cause of ‘making learning happen in post-compulsory education’ and beyond.
Move that diamond down and right – even better success for LSBU.
Monday, January 14, 2019