LSRI: Representations of Learning, Acts of Learning

Dr Charles Crook
University of Nottingham

Talk of “learning” is everywhere (mobile, continuing, just-in-time, informal, e-, and so on). Indeed it may flourish in contexts where once the talk was more about “education”. The form of discourse that dominates the “learning sciences” tends to be cognitive in nature. Yet the currently pervasive interest in learning reminds us that there is a political and institutional discourse that also needs to be addressed by this new learning science. The present seminar will pursue such matters through discussing a comparative investigation (historical and cultural) of popular images of learning and learners. Some tensions in the vision that emerges will be explored through other empirical material arising from the observation of new “learning spaces”. All of this foregrounds learning as cultural practice. The latter part of the seminar will consider a practice taxonomy of learning based around the organising notion of “mediation”

This seminar will take place in Room 35a, Flexible Learning Room, LSRI, The Exchange, Jubilee Campus