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The Development of a Comprehensive and Coherent Theory of Learning
Author(s) -
Illeris Knud
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
european journal of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1465-3435
pISSN - 0141-8211
DOI - 10.1111/ejed.12103
Subject(s) - matriculation , learning theory , social learning theory , mathematics education , experiential learning , adult education , psychology , learning sciences , social learning , cooperative learning , point (geometry) , educational technology , pedagogy , sociology , teaching method , social psychology , mathematics , geometry
This article is an account of how the author developed a comprehensive understanding of human learning over a period of almost 50 years. The learning theory includes the structure of learning, different types of learning, barriers of learning as well as how individual dispositions, age, the learning environment and general social and societal conditions influence learning possibilities. All this started when the author, aged 27, broke off his career as a travel agent and joined a course for matriculation at the university. He found this course extremely ineffective and got the idea that a firm knowledge about how human learning takes place might be a starting point for the development of more engaging and effective learning, teaching, schooling and education. Over the years, he gathered inspiration from a broad range of learning theorists such as P iaget, R ogers, A usuble, L eithäuser, S chön, K olb, F urth, M ezirow, K egan and his own D anish instructor, T homas N issen. But the theory was built up as his own structure by critically adding new elements from the examination of other theories and carefully analysing experience from teaching, supervising and observing learning courses at all levels from primary school to adult education and university studies.