The Place of Learning

Abstract

This paper argues that the economic tum that increasingly has dominated educational policy, too often to its detriment, has been facilitated by common but wrong-headed assumptions about learning. These assumptions centre on viewing learning as something (i.e. some thing) located in the heads of learners. These assumptions and their consequences will be outlined and criticised. An alternative way of thinking about learning, one that views it as a changing relational web, will be recommended. It will be argued that any productive refurbishing of educational policy will require a rethink along these lines of the nature of learning and, even, of the aims of education.