Learning Philosophy at CATLAN
The foundations of our (T)houghts, (L)earning & (A)ctivities
The Ontology of Learning
Successful learning — and therefore the support of that process through teaching — is a political act. It promotes an ability to experience and contribute to a more sustainable, lived-reality, which individuals and collectives have reason, themselves, to value.
A constructivist, critical realist perspective frames learning as the process of actively building knowledge through (T)hought. More specifically, when we learn, we actively reconstruct and rework information, assimilating it within existing understandings and normative frameworks, to create personalised, knowledge, through a process of meaning-making, as mediated by cultural experience, emotional landscapes and social and physical contexts.
All learning requires the transposition of knowledge from one context into another. It is for this reason that all learning requires active (T)hought. Such transposition is possible while thinking alone. For example, we might reflect on our past actions using a moral framework that we did not use at the time. In spite of there being no additional information, I might think about “what I did” in the moment, and conclude that this was not appropriate. I now wished I had acted differently and I have therefore started a process of learning how to respond preferably in the future. This does not mean that I will necessarily live these thoughts in the same situation, but my understanding has been ammended by transposing my action from the moment through a framework of evaluaton, and conclusing that changes are preferable.
Alternatively, and more commonly, learning involves the active and conscious transposition of knowledge that is new to us and from sources outside of ourselves, assimilated through, listening, seeing, feeling and touching etc. Here, we might learn by hearing from another a different perspective on our actions. Therefore through this information we can obtain new knowledge about “what we have done”. In other situations, we are exposed to new knowledge of a subject through reading. However, this is never a case of topping up our knowledge, as we must make sense, or create meaning out of these inputs always through the lens of our existing understanding. Therefore, more accurately, we rework our existing understanding to assimilate the new information.
Knowledge — which we can develop through processes of transposition — is usefully broken into two categories: 1) that of/about a subject and 2) that which supports a process of doing something. As an example, you can know about the subject of walking (how it happens), but you might not be able to perform the activity yourself. Alternatively, you might not know about a subject, but you are able to learn about it for yourself, because you have a good standard of knowledge about how to be an effective learner. Separating “knowings” and “doings” is of value in further building our understanding of the opportunities for learning and teaching.
The Praxis of Teaching & Learning: Transposition is key
Where knowledge creation requires active thinking by the learner, the teachers’ primary objective must be to facilitate and promote such active thought. This perspective, therefore, directly contrasts with a more traditional interpretation in which a teacher’s primary objective is to provide new information. The language shift is subtle, but the practice reorientation is pedagogically transformative.
One way to create this focus is the create learning experiences that require the transposition of knowledge, from external sources of information (teaching inputs), to other context and ideally material outputs.
The centrality of transposition to the process of learning can be understood by considering the longstanding and traditional learning practice of taking notes from a lecture or written text as it is read. Learners read a text or listen to a lecture, and transpose that information into their own words as notes in the hope that this process will help them assimilate and create new knowledge for themselves. Creating notes also allows us to revise at a later stage, when we might revisit them to again transpose the information into Q-cards for an exam.
This transposition process also manifests the reworking so central to effective learning as the new information needs to be considered in the context of existing knowledge and can be assimilated from external information to knowledge. Reimagine the matrix on the right side of the image above, with more squares and numbers intermingled with those from the left. These represent existing the existing knowledge into which the new information has been assimilated.
Teaching Quality: The centrality of intellectual and emotional intensity
The example of taking notes from a lecture as a learning experience naturally also opens up essential evaluation of how effective such an experience might be. Here the concept of transposition can aid our reflections and it’s useful to ask questions about level of intellectual intensity and emotional entanglement we can expect from any given teaching activity.
To continue the example, making notes likely has a low intellectual intensity, and, therefore, likely makes only a limited impact on learning. This is why good learners then undertake further transpositional work: for example, such as creating Q-cards to use in further task of writing a practice essay for an exam.
By contrast, lectures can support more effective learning by stimulating more intensive intellectual engagement and provoking more emotional entanglements. for example, speakers exhibiting emotive passion, that draw listeners in, are likely more effective than disinterested monotones. More transformative, didactic and one way talks can be replaced by the facilitation of “guided conversations”. Here, the planned narrative is constantly punctuated with active and none-rhetorical calls on the audience to respond and participate. Such a practice upgrade intellectual intensity required of the learner through creating more work by audience-participants. The social regulation of participation can also add a further bonus of emotional toil, and hence, generate motivation to engage; although, it’s always most important to ensure new information is of authentic value to the learners, beyond the basic realities of the current session.
The CATALN Signature Pedegogy
Overall, CATALN’s learning philosophy focuses on the reworking/transposition of knowledge in (T)hought, through intellectually intensive process, via exposure to information embedded with emotional resonance, culturally connected and situated in place.
From this combination emerges a series of radical and highly effective, transformation learning and teaching experiences to support morally grounded and influential intellectual leadership in (N)ature.
We hope you will read more to discover our work, and as such, become part of what we are.
