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Everyone who teaches wants their students to have a good expe-
rience of learning, because that's what will drive their future learn-
ing. In this video, we look at what it takes to learn in the context of
formal education, and then we can think about how to make that
happen.
The conversational framework is intended to help teachers think
about teaching and learning from the student's point of view. Basi-
cally, it's a distillation of the main educational literature on the key
ndings and principles about learning. This is the full framework.
It's complex, but it has to be. The process of teaching and learning
is a highly complex activity. And this diagram is about as simple as
it could possibly be
It starts with the learner at the centre. Learning is an activity that
develops both concepts and practises. It's what we all do through-
out life. We develop a concept, which generates an action, and the
feedback on that action then modi es the concept to generate a
better action that then gets better feedback. So concept and prac-
tise each assist the other to develop over time.
But that fundamental process of developing and integrating con-
cepts and practises is what we try to use for learning in formal ed-
ucation. So here the learner can get help from the teacher on the
one hand and from other learners on the other hand. At the upper
level of the framework, teacher and learner communicate about
concepts. And the learners do the same with each other. And every
interaction is an opportunity for concepts to develop.
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At the lower level, the teachers and students model and share their
practise through actions and feedback in a special learning envi-
ronment. And again, all those interactions are an opportunity for
practises to develop. If the learning environment is quite challeng-
ing, then to get the best feedback, the learner has to integrate
concepts and practises. And that's when the learning process real-
ly begins to bene t the learner for the long term.
Now, with that framework in mind, we can identify some recognis-
able learning activities, which together cover all of it. If the learner
is listening to the teacher, or watching a video, or demo, or reading
a book or website, that's learning through acquisition. It's very
common in education. It creates the opportunity for the learner to
develop concepts, but it doesn't require them to do anything. All
the other types of learning activity do.
If the learner is going to the teacher, or the library, or the internet to
nd out something, that's learning through inquiry. It's a different
way of reading a book, more under the control of the learner. And
they have to come up with the question, evaluate what comes
back, search again. It's a more active learning process, enabling
that conceptual process to keep developing.
If the learner is asking questions of other learners or answering
their questions, exchanging ideas, challenging each other's argu-
ments, that's learning through discussion. Listening, and respond-
ing, articulating, and arguing, they're all opportunities for the con-
cept to develop.
And if the teacher sets up a learning environment with a task goal,
the learner then has to generate an action, interpret the feedback,
and maybe think about a relevant concept and try again to get
nearer the goal. This is learning through practise
And suppose you get the students working together on a project
where they have to produce a shared output, maybe a diagram, or
a de nition, or a design, or a report, this is learning through collab-
oration. It's different from discussion. Having to produce a shared
output means they have to negotiate their ideas in practise until
they agree. So in the process they're challenging each other and
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providing peer feedback to develop the best output they can, even
more opportunities for integrating and developing concepts in prac-
tise.
And nally, when students are producing something for the teacher
to evaluate, that's learning through production. Again, it may be a
plan, a website, a performance, a theory, an analysis. But having
to produce a public presentation of what they've learned is as im-
portant as getting feedback from the teacher, many opportunities
for integrating and developing concepts in practise.
Together all six types of learning activity cover most of what you're
ever likely to ask of students, and together they cover the whole
conversational framework. So to summarise, the best possible
learning experience comes from using all those types of interac-
tion. A rich mix of learning activities is likely to be the most effec-
tive.
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