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Types of learning outcomes expanded

Surface knowledge (memorization)

Human beings can be programmed to change behavior by the manipulation of rewards and punishments. In education, this is found in the rote memorization of facts and procedures, even when accompanied by teacher or textbook based explanations. Examples include memorizing the names of all the presidents, the procedures for solving equations, the causes of world war ll, the structure of a letter seeking an employment interview, and so on. This sort of knowledge consists of facts “about” things. It can be recalled in different contexts. It can be copious. But much of what is remembered in this way tends to be only shallowly understood. So a student may have quite a good storehouse of facts about, say, how a democracy functions or the procedures for solving complex equations without actually understanding much in any depth.

Technical/scholastic knowledge (understanding and basic skills)

Almost everyone is familiar with and appreciates the “aha” of insight. That “aha” might be large or small, unconscious or conscious, and it may be instantaneous or emerge over time. It is, however, absolutely crucial to grasping new concepts and coming to understand things in new ways. There is, then, a fundamental difference between knowing a fact and understanding a concept.

Among other things, for understanding to develop, students need many opportunities to:

Work on issues of personal interest to which they relate;

Solve adequately difficult problems using the material

in question;

Experience material in alternative ways (e.g. physiologically,

metaphorically);

Talk and work things through with others;

Experiment and try things out; and

Make mistakes and process them without fear of failure.

There is a corollary. In the course of learning for understanding by working through complex material, there will still be a significant degree of practice and rehearsal, but it will be much more meaningful - and more powerful - then rote memorization devoid of purpose or meaning .

Dynamical knowledge (real world competence)

Even when there is a substantial degree of intellectual understanding, research confirms what everyone knows from their own lives, and that is that intellectual understanding and skills mastered in a classroom tend not to naturally transfer in major ways into real world competence (See e.g. Bransford and Schwarz). The reason is that real world performance calls for the ability to use new knowledge and skills in order to see - to read - what is actually happening in a situation and to respond appropriately in real time. This is fundamentally different from having a theoretical understanding.

Dynamical knowledge, therefore, depends on their being a perceptual shift so that a person can see in new ways. The knowledge becomes a lens with which a person can “read” the context. He or she acquires what Goethe called “a new organ of cognition.” A student moves from understanding math to thinking like a mathematician, or from understanding history to having a feel for history such that he or she can actually learn from the mistakes of others.

For this capacity to be developed, continuous experience is necessary. The reason is that it is only through ongoing complex experience that all of the underlying capacities of natural learning can be engaged in recurring ways, such that material is mastered in context and new cognitive lenses can be developed

Maturity and self knowledge (the capacity to self-regulate)

The ability to plan ahead, regulate one's emotions, work well with others and take charge of one's own learning are being called 21st century skills. They are essential for the coming century but there is absolutely nothing 21st century about them. They are all aspects of the executive functions of the brain, the brain that humans have had for thousands of years! The learning process that is critical to the development of these skills and capacities calls for the engagement of the higher order aspects of natural learning. These include what neuroscientist Elkhonen Goldberg ( ) calls learner centered adaptive decision making. In essence, students need multiple opportunities - in the course of their projects and activities - to ask real questions, make real decisions, get real world feedback, and deal with real consequences.

Creativity and the capacity to deal with change (innovation)

Creativity is often characterized as a skill. That is partly true. It is also contingent on the actual knowledge base that a person has. But creativity is also the byproduct of a state of mind. This is the message, for instance, of cognitive psychologist Guy Claxton who wrote Hare brain/tortoise mind. In essence, the sort of learning that produces creativity requires the occasional unrushed, enthusiastic exploration of possibility (sometimes called “play”!) in such a way that new insights or ways of seeing can emerge. And there is more. Real creativity includes a capacity to resist being attached to a point of view (another way of saying that a person can think outside the box). I call this open minded expertise. For this capacity to be real, a person must have a substantial degree of inner strength and the capacity to withstand the pressure of peers and context.

Types of learning outcomes

From the perspective of natural learning, the core outcome is real world competence, which we also call dynamical knowledge. This is the combination of changes in how an individual perceives the world and how that individual acts on the world, and is generated by the constant operation of the perception/action cycle.

Other sorts of outcome are generated according to which aspects of the perception/action cycle are involved. Some are the result of a more limited degree of engagement; others are the result of taking more charge of the way the cycle functions.

Here, in slightly artificial form (because things are not really as neat and clean as this) are five different sorts of outcome.

Dynamical knowledge (real world competence)

Surface knowledge (memorization)

Technical/scholastic knowledge (understanding and basic skills)

Maturity and self knowledge (the capacity to self-regulate)

Creativity and the capacity to deal with change (innovation)

There are more, but these are sufficient to illustrate the relationship between different aspects of natural learning and the development of different sorts of human capacity. The key to making education more productive is to teach with the perception/action cycle in mind.