Learning
Terms
Transfer
In our program, transfer refers to the application of prior/antecedent knowledge from one context to new learning situations. Transfer can be visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious, and it can either help or hinder new learning.
Learning as explicit
When we describe learning as explicit, we mean that learners can consciously and deliberately acquire knowledge, skills, or information in a new subject or activity. This kind of learning can be traceable when we try to document our deliberate efforts to describe what we learned and how we (think we) learned it.
Learning as implicit
A lot of learning happens implicitly, tacitly, or unintentionally, because learners draw from our prior knowledge and skills to learn something new in ways that we are not always consciously aware of. This kind of learning can be traceable but is often challenging to document and describe because it happens often unconsciously without explicit awareness of what we have learned and how.
Learning as social
When we describe learning as social, we mean that learning is an activity that is never done in isolation from other people, social structures, and the institutions and tools that are always already socialized. Learning happens for all of us through interaction with objects, tools, systems, people, and other knowledges–all in ways that influence our individuated learning activity.
Learning as situational
As a program, we describe learning as situational because learning is always happening within very specific contexts that shape what and how we learn. Our complex embodied situations and identities influence everything, from the kinds of knowledge we have access to our motivation to learn across different spaces and moments in time.