Diana Laurillard - six learning types summary

Below is taken from Diana Laurillards summary of the six learning types as well as UCL's definition from their workshop (Creative Commons attribution).

Think about: Which learning type would be most benefited by the use of technology in your own module or teaching? Remember you don't use all 6 learning types in a teaching session (that would be a little over whelming!)

Acquisition: Learning through acquisition is what learners are doing when they are listening to a lecture or podcast, reading from books or websites, and watching demos or videos (the teacher controls the narrative of learning).

Collaboration: Learning through collaboration embraces mainly discussion, practice, and production. Building on investigations and acquisition is about taking part in the process of knowledge building itself. Collaboration is tougher than discussion because of the need to produce something together – “the externalized fruit of the negotiated discussion”. It is about taking part in the process of knowledge building itself through participation, not acquisition. Participation and negotiation with peers. The fact that the students have to agree on the outcome drives iterations and the process of working together.

Discussion: Learning through discussion requires the learner to articulate their ideas and questions, and to challenge and respond to the ideas and questions from the teacher, and/or from their peers. The pedagogic focus is the value of reciprocal critique of ideas and how this leads to the development of a more conceptual understanding.

Inquiry: Learning through investigation/Inquiry guides the learner to explore, compare and critique the texts, documents and resources that reflect the concepts and ideas being taught (learner in control of his own learning, and skills development. They navigate through the resources themselves. No intrinsic feedback from the resources, a student cannot tell if their learning is improving. The essence of inquiry learning is that the learner develops their knowledge and understanding through activities that are as close as possible to the authentic practice of the discipline.

Practice: Learning through practice enables the learner to adapt their actions to the task goal, and use the feedback to improve their next action. Mostly done on an individual basis it is an essential part of the learning process. Feedback may come from self-reflection, from peers, from the teacher, or from the activity itself, if it shows them how to improve the result of their action in relation to the goal.

Production: Learning through production is the way the teacher motivates the learner to consolidate what they have learned by articulating their current conceptual understanding and how they used it in practice.