Social learning? Yes, it exists

An article about the scientific basis for social learning which appeared in the New Scientist recently was quite timely.The Trinity accredited course which I moderate for The Consultants-E, the Certificate in teaching language with technology, tends to immerse participants in the various online tools available to enhance language teaching both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. 

The Web 2.0 tools in particular tend to put the group at the heart of everything since they are about the exchange of digital artifacts be they blog posts, flickr photos or YouTube videos and this ties in very neatly with the dominant social constructivist paradigm which says that we learn only by interaction with others. As we progress through the 20 week course we begin to take a broader view about integrating ICT into our everyday practice, when and how it is appropriate and at this point one of my participants began to have doubts especially after reading the following in an article by Dieu:

 ” Students can only learn if they put to work the knowledge and skills they already have, put to work their creativity and inventiveness, learn from one another, work efficiently together and reach out for new knowledge and skills.”

Isn’t there a place for individual learning, she asked? Isn’t it difficult to get learners to work together most of the time? Do real world tasks always have to include technology? Doesn’t language learning involve a great deal of drilling?

I must say that when I was first introduced to the social constructivist paradigm I did have my doubts that this was so universally applicable. The phrase ‘the blind leading the blind’ quickly came to mind. But recent experience has demonstrated the importance of social learning. The Cert ICT itself is a prime example. It consists of a set of tasks which we expect participants to complete but the richness always comes from the pooling of experiences by the participants and the to and fro of discussion between them. In tasks where the participants simply leave their answer to the task and no more, not much is gained. 

But the blind are not all equally blind so there is indeed benefit to be had in the blind leading the blind. In the Cert ICT course for example we always experience differing levels of experience with regard to Interactive Whiteboards and some of the richest exchanges occur when those who are used to working with these tools are able to give those who aren’t, the benefit of their experience. So I am coming round to the idea of social learning much more enthusiastically than when I was first introduced to the idea. Certainly where languages are concerned your mother tongue is learned in a completely social way and so second language learning should probably try to replicate this together with as many shortcuts as possible which are proven to be effective. So if drilling is effective then it becomes a part of the armoury for learning a new language but language learning should probably be learned mainly in a social way. And the fact that it has not been taught in a social way up to now may account for the chronic lack of motivation in many language classes.

The New Scientist article stated that the majority of our learning is done in a social way and that the majority of this social learning probably happens outside of formal classes. The article described findings which indicate that we should spend between a tenth and a fifth of our lives in social learning. More than that and we forget to have a life, less than that and we don’t know enough to be able to function effectively. The article also talked about the balance between social learning which is essentially copying, and innovation. Innovation is necessary for adapting to changing circumstances, such as climate change maybe, but too much innovation will be disruptive and not based on sound experience. The article also re-iterated the benefit of staggered practice which suggests that it is not a brilliant strategy to pack all your learning into an intensive period, as we do with compulsory schooling. Back at the Cert ICT course, I am convinced that this works because of the social dynamic created by the group and that the course tasks on their own are not sufficient. That is why we include a great deal of pair and group activity and why the course is served up in strict weekly chunks so that everybody is thinking about the same topic at the same time. I know that this is demanding but in the end it is successful. I am glad to have confirmation of this approach.