My philosophy of learning

I do not subscribe to the 'science' of learning. My own understanding comes directly from a phenomenological self-encounter with the nature of understanding as it is for me. For others, it will be different.

Personally, I hold that I am always in a state of be-coming towards myself, perpetually in a possibility-state for self-encounter. My awareness draws me now and then... and I might notice that I am not the same as before, that something has shifted, perhaps within my innermost unnameable self: in the way I feel and think about things; in my actions; or in my relations with others. Perchance that awareness brings about a change in the way I 'am'. To summarise my rambling notion: when there is a shift, and when I see the shift, and when that shift brings change, there is 'learning', for me.

The university can be a place where learning happens. Using my own notion as a window, the university might set up opportunities for encounter. It might provide the conditions for bringing to bear an awareness of the encounter, and it might make spaces where shifts can be brought into action.

I learned about learning from an experience of my own. I remember racing through an assignment to meet the deadline, and thinking 'it's OK, I'll learn it later'. There was no time for me to even notice what I was writing. It must have been good: I got a high distinction. But nothing changed. Learning did not occur - and no, I never did go back.... the moment for learning had passed.

So what does it take to bring learning into the moment? Perhaps the following 'learn-ful' elements will help:

time: finding and going along at a natural pace
dialogue: meaningful conversation between human beings
meaningfulness: locating what matters and staying with it
spaces: leaving some breathing room in the curriculum
rituals of belonging: affirming a sense of connectedness
creative tension: finding paradox, dialectics, and contradiction
valuing effort as well as outcomes
play: letting the joint swing a bit
trust: allowing oneself to be taken along in strangeness
reciprocity: knowing that the teachers are learning too
witnessing individuals: being seen for who you are
enjoyment: loving the process for what it is

Perhaps Maxine Greene says it best when she calls for wide-awakeness: for what is learning if not an opening of the existential eye?

Greene, M. (1977). Toward wide-awakeness: An argument for the arts and humanities in education. The Teachers College Record, 79(1), 119-125.

Personal philosophy of education, teaching and learning | Nicola Parkin This page is part of the collection 'I teach who I am - but who am I? A collection of personal philosophies of teaching from Flinders University staff'.

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