Should Lecturers Know How Learning Works?
Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #138
I recently read an article by Steiner and Hakala (2021) which focused on knowledge of learning among university lecturers. It’s titled, "What Do SoTL Practitioners Need to Know about Learning?”. SoTL stands for scholarship of teaching and learning, a term widely used in the Higher Education sector to refer to pedagogical research.
As you can imagine, I’m very interested in the question of how much educators should know about learning! That is, after all, the purpose of these updates – sharing more about the nuts and bolts of how learning works.
I agreed with this point that the authors make at the outset:
“The primary goal of many faculty engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning is simply to improve the classroom environment for students so that learning is more effective … These faculty, however, are often not experts in the field of learning, and, pressed for time, may rely on strategies that contradict recent research on teaching and learning …” (p. 79).
They follow this with an argument about the complexity and extent of learning research, highlighting a practical problem that practitioners face in terms of where to start (and stop). How much you need to know before you are ready to do T&L research of your own is a complex question, and one that mirrors debates around teacher action research in schools.
I was a little concerned by the position they land on, however:
“ … we argue that SoTL practitioners do not need to be fluent in all areas of the science of learning. Rather, they need to be good consumers of the literature and be aware of how to translate this work into classroom behavior.” (p. 80).
I am not convinced by the argument that educators can be consumers of research without knowledge. This implies that they can figure things out as they go along, using their intuition. It’s a skills-over-knowledge argument.
Granted, it does depend on what the authors mean by terms such as ‘fluent’. It’s notable that they don’t say ‘experts’ in the quote above (which I might have been more inclined to agree with).
I can also accept a pragmatic argument that it’s impossible for all educators (most very busy with their own specialist areas of knowledge and practice) to become experts in the learning sciences – something that’s a big ask even for a PhD student in the field.
All the same, there is a value in knowing enough that you recognise your own errors and have an awareness of key pitfalls.
We know from other research that many university instructors have misconceptions about learning (e.g. Fragkaki et al., 2022), and that learning myths are widespread in published research to which they may be exposed (Newton, 2015).
I’d therefore argue that it is well worthwhile for SoTL practitioners and other educators to become equipped with the fundamentals of learning phenomena and methodology, and that it’s feasible to become at least a well-informed generalist, if not an expert.
Doing so will help them to engage as critical consumers of research literature, in line with Steiner and Hakala (2021)’s proposal, as well as helping advance the research by engaging in scholarly debates about how findings can be applied in local settings.
It could also discourage lecturers from wasting time investigating discredited fads and learning myths.
Learning basics?
What are your thoughts – to what extent is it necessary for educators to understand learning? Could we see teachers, lecturers and other professional educators as well-informed generalists? What is your own experience of this issue?
Steiner, H. H., & Hakala, C. M. (2012). What do SoTL practitioners need to know about learning? Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 9(1), 79–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.9.1.7
You might also be interested in this post that I wrote, which has a short list of things I suggest that every educator should know.
All the best for the coming week,
Jonathan
Last time: Does Retrieval Classroom Work in Real Classrooms?
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