Learning to learn

Let me deal with the most important question first: 'How can we help learners learn to learn?'

Of course, behind this question is a question to myself: 'How can I improve the relevance and accelerate the pace of my own learning?'

When I refer to learning, I am not referring to work-related knowledge and skills in isolation. I see career and profession as strokes and splashes in the painting of my life. Without these the painting wouldn't be made; but these alone do not make the painting.

I assume that everyone learns throughout life. It is only a question of what each person learns, and how fast he or she learns. This is what I would refer to as the relevance and pace of learning.
Let us look at relevance and pace as two dimensions of learning.




To creatively adapt ourselves throughout our lifespan, we have to learn relevant things at a fast pace. In this sense I would define learning as the process of creative adaptation.

Adaptation is not submission to the environment, but a process of evolution through dialogue with the environment. The adapting organism does not stand in isolation from the environment, but works as its constituent and influences the shaping of the environment.

I see from close quarters that the concepts of relevance and pace of learning, and learning as the process of creative adaptation are so much relevant to a domain such as Information Technology. Technology changes very fast. Almost overnight you see a new concept, a new framework, a new technology emerging from some corner of the world and threatening to replace old knowledge and skill-sets. We could say it is the same in every field -- medical sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts and every other pursuit of the human mind.