Understanding the Personal, Socio-

Cultural and Physical Dimensions of

Learning John H. Falk, Ph.D.

Lynn D. Dierking, Ph.D.

Institute for Learning InnovationAnnapolis, MD

Macro View:

• We live in a Learning Society; Learning is 24/7

• Less than 3% of our lives are spent participating in formal instruction.

• Children spend 85% of their waking hours outside of school.

• Most of what we learn, we learn through free-choice learning.

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LIFE SPAN

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Learning Infrastructure

Science Centres & Museums

InternetPrint Media

(Books, Magazines, Newspapers

WorkplaceCommunity Organizatio

ns

Friends & Family

Electronic Media (TV, radio,

film)

Schools &Universities

Faith-based Organizatio

nsLibraries

Micro View:

• We currently know quite a bit about the nature of learning; learning not the way we used to think it was.

• We also currently know quite a bit about the factors that significantly contribute to learning.

• We are just beginning to understand how these multiple factors individually and collectively interact to determine the course and nature of learning.

Changing Models

• Behaviorist-Positivist Model– Known Learner + Known Intervention =

Known Learning Outcome (Learning Passive Process of Responding to

a Stimulus in a Controlled Environment)

• Constructivist-Relativist Model– Unique Learner + Constructs Meaning from

Interventions = Multiple Learning Outcomes (Learning Active Process of Making Meaning

in a Complex Real World)

What is the nature of LEARNING?

• Learning begins with the individual.

• Learning involves others. • Learning takes place somewhere.

• Learning occurs over time.

The Contextual Model of Learning

Personal Context

• Prior Knowledge and Experience

• Prior Interest

• Expectations and Motivations

• Perceived Choice and Control

Socio-Cultural Context

• Cultural Values

• Within group social interactions

• Interactions with others outside of social group (e.g., teachers, guides, other visitors)

Physical Context

• Orientation

• Advance Organizers

• Nature of Physical Environment

• Design of Educational Intervention

Time

Don’t underestimate the importance of subsequent reinforcing (and non-reinforcing) experiences!

Brain, Body & World

“Intelligence and understanding are rooted not in the presence and manipulation of explicit, language-like data structures, but in something more earthy: the tuning of basic responses to a real world that enables an embodied organism to sense, act and survive.”

Andy Clark, 1997, Being There: Putting brain, body and world together again.