What do we mean by learning?
What do we mean by learning?
That is a big question! Let's start by exploring what you believe we mean by learning.
Activity: Click HERE to add to the Menti below answering the question, "What do we mean when we say that somebody has learnt something?"
Explore the range of answers from your colleagues. Do they align with your answer?
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Now read the following passage from John Caldwell Holt (1976):
... not many years ago, I began to play the cello. I love the instrument, spend many hours a day playing at it …Most people would say that what I am doing is ‘learning to play the cello’…
But these words carry into our minds the strange idea that there exist two very different processes: (1) learning to play the cello; and (2) playing the cello. They imply that I will do the first until I have completed it, at which point I will stop the first process to begin the second…
Holt critiques the notion that learning is a preparatory phase distinct from doing. The example of playing the cello illustrates how society often frames learning as something that must be "completed" before one can begin the real work. Yet, as Holt implies, learning and doing are inseparable in practice.
Apprenticeships aim to dismantle the artificial divide between learning and doing by embedding education directly within the context of work. Rather than treating learning as something separate from practical activity, apprenticeships position it as an integral part of everyday experience. Teaching and learning are understood as a single, continuous process in which practitioners are not merely passive trainees, but active contributors who develop through real-world practice.
Success in an apprenticeship is not defined by the completion of a course followed by the start of a job; instead, it is achieved by becoming competent through the job itself. To be successful on this programme, you should use your working practice to show evidence of your developing skills as an educator.
Activity: Reflective questions for you to consider (you may wish to write these down as part of your OTJ evidence):
In what ways does your current practice already integrate learning and doing?
Are there moments when you feel "not ready"—even though you're already performing the role?
How can you capture and present your everyday practice as evidence of learning?
