Describing and Improving Learning

Any description of differences between people in how they learn and any attempt to improve their ways of learning is contingent by logical necessity on what counts as learning. In both cases, what we mean by learning in terms of the description of outcome is frequently taken for granted. An alternative way of thinking about learning is to realize that what is learned (the outcome or the result) and how it is learned (the act or the process) are two inseparable aspects of learning. In the first part of this chapter, one sense of this relational nature of learning is illuminated. By means of some examples it is shown that the description of certain differences in how people learn corresponds to a given, in this case explicit, meaning of learning, reflected in the way in which differences in the outcome of learning are characterized. When it comes to the question of how learning is or should be described, the relational character of learning has, however, implications not only for the researcher but also for the educators who want to go about improving learning in real-life educational settings. In the second part of the chapter, another sense of the relational nature of learning is commented on. It is argued that as people’s ways of learning represent relations between them and certain aspects of the world around them, any attempt to improve learning has to focus on the relationships as a whole and not on the individuals alone.