Thirty-some years ago as a teacher studying to gain a professional qualification in a single year on a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education course, I spent the majority of my time developing the craft of teaching. Scant time was devoted to how my students might learn and with little more than a passing nod to Vygotsky and Pavlov, my understanding of learning was underdeveloped to say the least. Perhaps students following a BEd route might have fared better, but had you asked me 'What is learning?' for the majority of my career, my response would have been brief, rather ill-informed and doubtless somewhat naive, perhaps along the lines of 'increasing one's knowledge and understanding.'
Since the early days of my career, there has been a noticeable shift to place 'learning' at the heart of education. Consider the proliferation of terms we now commonly encounter: student-centred learning, learning to learn, collaborative learning, lifelong learning, e-learning. If learning is gaining in importance, then perhaps it's time for a closer examination. Unfortunately (or fortunately) different people bring different ontological perspectives to the table; learning is different when viewed through different lenses: teacher, psychologist, philosopher, Secretary of State for Education. The aforementioned tweet helped me see that whilst theories of learning might be all well and good for teachers to consider how they address the challenges of their working lives, perhaps we ought to be paying more attention to the way that the people to whom it matters most view their learning. What do students think?