The approach to learning of conventional teaching and training is that what is to be learnt, how it is to be learnt and whether it has been learnt are specified and decided by people other than the learner(s); this we call ‘other-organised learning’.
“At best, this results in learners who know how to ‘submit successfully to being taught, instructed or trained’.”
– Sheila Harri-Augstein and Laurie Thomas
In contrast, in Self-Organised Learning it is the learner(s) who decide what is to be learnt, how it is to be learnt and whether it has been learnt.
“Self- Organised Learning genuinely focuses on the learner and is the supreme expression of an individual’s freedom to learn. It is based on the fundamental notion that no one can ‘cause’ learning in someone else. It helps learners to take responsibility for their own learning and to more effectively learn how to learn. It empowers learners to make a shift from a dependent mode of learning, i.e. ‘other organised’, towards a self-organised mode of learning.”
– Sheila Harri-Augstein
Self-Organised Learning is an iterative, learning methodology developed by Professors Laurie Thomas and Sheila Harri Augstein of the Centre for the Study of Human Learning and which is based on the premises that:
- learning is itself a skill that can be learnt.
- humans are natural learners but that they need learning support to develop their capacity to learn.
- responsibility for learning rests with the learner
- learning is not just the acquisition of knowledge or skills
- learning needs to be relevant to and work for the learner
“By reflectively reviewing their direct personal experience Self-Organised Learners can better regulate the direction, quality and content of what they choose to learn.”
– Sheila Harri-Augstein and Laurie Thomas
Self-Organised Learning is a practical, conversation-based coaching model that enables individuals and groups to develop new skills and capabilities, in particular that of learning to learn, and which is based on over 50 years research and practice.
“Personally significant and valued learning through experience … is achieved by exercising the freedom to learn in ‘conversational encounters’ which are valued by using criteria which arise from within the experience itself. Thus, we do not necessarily learn from life’s experiences, only through awareness, reflection and review of such encounters from within a conscious system of personal beliefs, values, needs and purposes.”
– Sheila Harri-Augstein and Laurie Thomas
At the heart of Self-Organised Learning are the Learning Conversation and the Personal Learning Contract.
