Back to the Future: Rethinking Learning in the 21st Century
For 10s if not 100s of thousands of years, learning was largely driven by each individual’s interests and need to know – free-choice learning. Most people learned most of what they needed to know through active observing, doing & practicing; mentored by skilled practitioners as individuals or in small groups. Determination of “successful” learning was based on competent performance within an appropriate context; primarily by the learner him/herself.
About 150 years ago that changed. Learning became institutionalized & “professionalized” with learning goals determined by experts, not the learner. Most people learned passively, taught by academics using lectures and textbooks. Success in learning came to be determined by others, based on often arbitrary, written, or oral tests given totally outside of any life-appropriate context.
In this talk, world-famous free-choice learning researcher, Dr. John H. Falk will talk about :
how people learn
why people learn
and ultimately what, where, when, and how people learn will increasingly come to, once again, more closely resemble the roots of human learning
Nature of human learning
Importance of Learning Beyond School
How to promote students’ learning
Free-choice learning in the covid era
About Speaker
Dr. John H. Falk is Director of the Institute for Learning Innovation and Sea Grant Professor Emeritus of Free-Choice Learning at Oregon State University. He is a leading expert on free-choice learning; the learning that occurs when people have significant choice and control over what, where, and when they learn.
