ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme

Phase 1 Network Project: consulting pupils about teaching and learning

Meta seminar, 10 May 2001
Invited paper

Developing a language for talking about learning

Toward a narrative view: what you say is what you get
Chris Watkins
Im very pleased to have been invited: any group of people which creates a set of guiding
questions like those you have created for today is a group of people I want to work with.
While preparing this paper I sometimes feared I would have little to say, since I have my
own clear and simple answers to the three guiding questions:
What evidence do we have about how pupils talk about their learning? lots.
Should we be encouraging teachers to model a more reflective language for thinking and
talking about learning? Yes (but dont overemphasise modelling)
Is the acquisition of such a language a precondition for pupils becoming more
autonomous learners? Yes.
So am I saying its all plain and simple? Certainly not, for the biggest problem in the
guiding questions is the smallest word: we. Who are the we that have evidence, that
should encourage teachers, and so on? My quick answer is that we are precious few and
that our privileged knowledge and attempts at change have to work against the grain of
dominant discourses regarding learning and unhelpful practices of schooling. We are not
quite as badly off as the state of affairs which led Gardner, Perkins and colleagues to call
their Harvard project Project Zero (i.e. that the starting point for the study of arts learning
was zero), but were probably at about 2%.
So I will want to consider as much about what hinders generative talk about learning, as
what supports it. One of the main culprits is the (increasingly?)common practice of NOT
talking about learning while claiming to do so. And I will propose a resolution which excites
me as a way forward.
Talking about learning is tough. But when it happens it is empowering and liberating.

A.(1) So how do pupils talk about their learning?

As with all forms of talk, context is crucial. So if the context for talking about learning is
one of an open-ended enquiry with a researcher or an experimental teacher, we can find
some inspiring accounts and transformational results. But if the context is everyday life in
everyday classrooms, a very different picture of talk emerges,
I particularly enjoy the work of Ingrid Pramling with 3 to 8 year olds. She first showed that
their conceptions of learning develop over time. Conceptions of what they learn developed
from (a) to do something, (b) to know something, to (c) to understand something;
conceptions of how they learn developed from (a) learning as doing (b) learning as growing
older, to (c) learning through experience, either passive with the passing of time or active
with practice1. She later showed that this development could be accelerated with teaching
practices designed to promote childrens greater awareness of their own learning2. Through
what were called metacognitive dialogues (i.e. meta-learning dialogues) the children were

asked to reflect and ponder about what they were doing and why they were doing certain
things which are normally taken for granted, for example:
How come that we [did X] yesterday?
Did you find out anything that you didnt know before?
How did you go about finding out?
Can you find out some more on that by tomorrow?
How would you go about teaching other people all you have learnt about this?
Finally it was shown that children who have been involved in this form of educational
activity [including meta-learning] are better prepared for learning (understanding new
content). Six year olds showed greater understanding in three real-life learning
experiments than did their peers in parallel groups3. Children also showed a richer
conception of learning: when asked If you were the one who had to decide what the children
will have to learn next, what would you suggest?, their answers were more about learning
to know than about learning to do. When asked Imagine you are as old as your teacher,
and have to teach children in another pre-school all that you have learned [about X], how
would you go about that?, their answers were more about teaching by planning experience,
rather than teaching by telling.
So young children, in an enquiring climate about what is usually taken for granted can be
sophisticated. Perhaps they can also be strategic. I find rather endearing that evidence
which suggests that children who learn something new then say they always knew it4.
Simple prompts of an open enquiry type can promote illuminating conversations with young
children. In connection with a Learning about Learning project, Juliet Bodger at Fox school
has been developing a range of class discussions. In one with her class of 8 year olds, the
theme was What does it feel like when youre learning?, to which one reply was I feel
dizzy! A recent discussion focused on "What helps us with our learning?". As the class'
responses were heard, four broad categories emerged:
Doing things (practising, sharing, )
Feelings (own and others', positive feelings, )
People (family, friends, not much mention of teachers, )
Things/resources (objects, materials, , fingers!)
When asked which of these areas was most contributory to their learning, the reply came
"feelings" - especially connected to support and encouragement, feeling safe and other
aspects of the group climate. This later became part of a whole-school assembly which the
class gave for 300 pupils and parents! And in St Thomas school Jess Finer has been
helping the whole school (teachers and pupils) have conversations about their learning, and
display their views on Learning about Learning in the school hall - including the teachers
responses. The reception teacher has tried having a chat with her class about learning.
She was very surprised at how much pupils could say about their views (and in some cases
the sophistication of what they said).
Some learners enjoy talking about learning even though they may be deemed not very good
at it: some key researchers in the field write: Involvement and enthusiasm have generally
been high. Students who have not liked writing have nonetheless seemed to like analysing
the task and the process5.
But if we were to go beyond about 8 years and seek a positive developmental pattern for all,
I fear we will be disappointed. This is where surveys paint a rather different picture of
classroom life and the later years. In this, a very important distinction emerges, both in how
young people talk about learning, and also in associated beliefs and actions: the distinction
between learning and performance. Three decades of major studies in a number of
countries6 have shown that different learners approach achievement-related tasks with
different goals, orientations or motivations, and that the distinction between learning and

performance is key. It relates to different beliefs about success, motivations in learning, and
responses to difficult tasks.

learning orientation

performance orientation

concern for improving

one's competence

concern for proving

one's competence

belief that effort leads

to success

belief that ability leads

to success

belief in ones ability

to improve and learn

concern to be judged as
able, concern to perform

preference for
challenging tasks

satisfaction from doing

better than others

derives satisfaction
from personal success
at difficult tasks

emphasis on normative
standards, competition
and public evaluation

uses self-instructions
when engaged in task

helplessness: evaluate
self negatively when
task is difficult

So learners with a learning orientation talk to themselves more about their learning, while
those with a performance orientation say I cant do it when the going gets tough. This
difference has also recently been shown in learners talk with their peers: those with a
learning orientation engage in on-line theorising, ask questions which focus on
explanations or discrepancies, use personal experiences, and give more elaborate
explanations7. Verbatim comments in class included:
- self-evaluating their ideas: Ive figured out what I want to say,
- recognising blocks No, I dont get it,
- maintaining commentary I didnt draw that right: Im getting confused, and
- self-questioning when problems arose What am I going to do? Have I come
across this before? and What do I know about this?
Some evidence suggest that children demonstrate difference in learning orientation as
young as 6 years8. And survey evidence of the everyday classroom suggests that by the later
primary years pupils become less learning-oriented, culminating in a fourth grade slump
probably associated with teaching isolated skills for state-mandated tests9. By the age of 10
children show significantly differences in their orientations to learning10, These results are
replicated at the age of 1111, at which age the different orientations are associated with
differing beliefs about intelligence, whether it is fixed or malleable. By the time students are
14 to 15, some researchers in England and Finland have concluded that they have no clear
understanding of how they learn12.
Rather than view these results as showing that this aspect of development is difficult to
achieve, I feel it says much about the learning climate of current-day classrooms. Many
learners, through the dominant discourses of their homes, schools and neighbourhoods,
are saddled with the common simplifications surrounding learning, those which view it as a
quantifiable product and a performance with high stakes attached. Such learners have
much less to say when asked about their learning by a researcher or curious teacher.
Indeed their conversations confirm that their performance orientation leaves them cold
about the focus on learning which excites us, since they have noticed so little about their
own learning. The challenge of helping a learner with strong performance orientation take
steps towards being a more proactive learner is one which many teachers recognise. The
resolution is to help that learner to talk differently about their learning and themselves, to
themselves and to others.
That is the challenge which also applies to our teachers and our schools (and ourselves): to
continue talking about learning when the pressure is to talk about performance. In our

schools today much of the talk which claims to be about learning is on closer examination
about performance. The same can be said about many government initiatives and research
projects which rather too easily use phrases such as assessment for learning. The
dominant view of learning in our schools is one which mystifies the role of the learner: it is
a transmission view, as encapsulated in the National Curriculum mantra pupils will be
taught that .
From this contextual perspective I find those stances which claim that particular add-on
teaching methods can trigger an irreversible change in pupils thinking 13 less than
convincing. I also have the hunch that Piaget would not have enjoyed his interest in genetic
epistemology being hijacked for instrumental educational programmes. Although the claims
for accelerated learning and improved performance which are associated with interventions
based on this approach may be welcome, I am interested to note that the latest version for
explaining these effects invokes the concept of metacognition (of which more later), even
though the focus of the intervention as I understand it has not been on the learners view of
learning.
How learners talk about learning may also be associated with how they view knowledge (as
fixed or constructed) and an interesting strand of research is developing here14.

A (ii) And what can teachers do?

The learning environment which teachers and pupils co-create in their classrooms is a
major (though not the only) influence on learners ways of talking about learning.
Classrooms may differ significantly on learning orientation, but pupils orientations are not
simply defined by this: some pupils perceive teachers expectations as predominantly about
competition and performance but nevertheless maintain a learning orientation for
themselves15.
And the role that peers play should not be underestimated: when peers adopt a practice of
structured question-asking and explaining16, 12 year-olds can enhance each others
learning whether or not they are more knowledgeable about the matter in hand (a condition
which most stances on peer tutoring seem to take for granted and therefore carry as a
hierarchical assumption).
In considering what teachers can do, I hope to avoid the dominant hostile witness
perspective on classrooms, which focuses only on the teacher and on what the teacher is
failing to do. So rather than say that teachers should model a more reflective language for
talking about learning I would like to say that classrooms should be fostering a spirit of
inquiry, including inquiry about learning. Seeing it that way, we do not load everything on
the teacher, but also have to consider the very many other things which influence
classroom life (including teachers lives) curriculum, testing regimes, school structure and
climate, and the wider discourses about learning. This helps us realise that classrooms
which focus on learning may be working against the grain, and this is probably a more
comprehensive (albeit more challenging) way of proceeding than just the teacher modelling
reflective language about learning. Modelling seems to connote possession of a correct
answer or approach, which is then learned by imitation.
For it would be unwise to assume that teachers have the reflective language about learning.
On a Masters course for teachers. Guiding Effective Learning, which Eileen Carnell and I
lead, we have found it essential to give significant time to activities where teachers examine
in detail their own learning without this, the concepts and accounts from elsewhere
remain exactly that elsewhere. So I am implying that teachers need to be helped to learn
about learning, and that it will have a significant effect17. I was confirmed in this view when
told that Chris Woodhead was asked at a Society of Education Officers conference whether
he believed teachers needed to learn more about learning: he answered No so the answer
is clearly Yes.

Teachers can promote learning about learning18 by using classroom activities which:
- make learning an object of attention
- make learning an object of conversation
- make learning an object of reflection
- make learning an object of learning
Each successive one probably needs some of its predecessors to have been in place, so the
foundation is noticing things about ones learning, an element which cannot be assumed
and has to be returned to regularly. Overall these activities promote meta-learning where
pupils build up a richer more complex language for describing and thinking about their
learning. But there is not a fixed repertoire, nor even an agreed vocabulary for addressing
aspects of learning. In a recent resource collection19 we found that much could be covered
under five headings:
the why
purposes in learning
the how
strategies in learning
the result
effects in learning
the how feel
feelings in learning
the when, who with, where
context of learning
But overall what is being built up in learning about learning is built up piece by piece. We
are assuming, that metacognitive knowledge must be constructed like any other kind of
knowledge. Insight into ones own mental processes does not occur because of a window
opening on the mind but because in the course of long experience one manages to piece
together some kind of coherent knowledge on the basis of fragmentary data (page 61)20.
Alongside the building up of a richer language, teachers can help learners to build up
greater understanding of how their learning works. Making learning an object of learning is
supported through a process of plan-monitor-review, in other words through a metalearning process. In this way students not only add language and add strategies, they also
build the crucial conditional knowledge of how to monitor and review whether their learning
is working. The combination of strategies together with meta-learning is what is needed21.
This is necessarily the approach, since attempts to teach knowledge-processing strategies
as rules regularly fail, whether they operate at the algorithmic level or the heuristic22.
The stance I am taking also contrasts with a language of learning which is informed by
fixed categorical views such as are embedded in talk of learning styles. Some of these have
little to do with a conception of learning as the process whereby knowledge is created
through the transformation of experience. Some are reception channel-processing
preferences (Visual/ Auditory/ Kinaesthetic) and others are preferences for particular
phases in a cycle (Activist/ Reflector/ Theorist/ Pragmatist).
In developing learning-centred classrooms, where learning becomes an object of learning,
teachers can (and do) play a major part. However, survey research can again prove
dispiriting here, suggesting that in many classrooms teachers rarely propose approaches to
learning23, although there is hope to be gained from the same surveys, which demonstrate
that small differences (for example the difference between 0% and 2% of time spent on
learning strategies) can make a significant difference for learners.
We should not expect such classroom development to be easy, working as it is against the
dominant discourses and the dominant practices of schooling. Pupils may be seen to
resist, since old orientations sometimes die hard. For example, after 8 months of a project
promoting meta-learning in science24, two students came to their teacher.
One said: We see what all this is about. You are trying to get us to think and learn for
ourselves
Yes, yes replied the teacher, heartened by this long-delayed breakthrough, Thats it
exactly
Well, said the student, We dont want to do that.

Teachers too will embrace a meta-learning agenda to greater or lesser degree, given the
general and specific contexts in which they work. In a Learning about Learning project I
started with teachers from seven primary schools, a number dropped out after one term,
and it seemed to me no coincidence that they were the ones with the highest Instruction
scores on a views of learning scale. I do not view this as something essential about those
persons, but a reflection of the particular combination of forces which currently
characterise them and their context.

A (iii) And is more reflective language about learning a precondition in promoting autonomous
learners?
Some words seem to bring with them strong connotations, and I often find that the word
autonomous carries individualist connotations, in a similar way that the phrase
independent learners seems to, in many minds. I also find that some of the phrases in the
literature, such as self-regulated learner, call up a very rationalist, controlling image of
what the effective learner is like25. The effective learner is collaborative: they have come to
know that their learning is enhanced, indeed created, through various social processes
such as dialogue, trying out ideas and constructing new meaning with others. They are selfdirected but not with any connotation of being asocial. And they can engage this strand of
their learning repertoire in different ways in different contexts. So I am currently using the
term versatile learner which I hope invokes/invites the sense of variation across situations
and contexts, and does not have too pre-set a sense of goals to it.
Whichever of these terms we come to use, the evidence is that the autonomous learner or
the self-regulated learner or the versatile learner has developed (and is still developing) a
rich language about their own learning. How this language is best conceived and developed
will be addressed in the next section.
Suffice it to say here, that even within the limited conceptualisations of self-regulated
learner (self-controlling learner), there is evidence which suggests that such processes as
goal-setting, and questioning play a key part26, with an extra link to students selfverbalisation27. The sort of goals which are described as a learning orientation are
associated with self-regulation/autonomy28. Again the context of the classroom plays a
significant part29. Writing activities in classrooms which support self-regulated learning
helped 7- and 8-year olds monitor and evaluate their writing in productive ways, use peers
effectively, and see teachers as collaborators30. In the secondary school, similarities across
subjects outweigh differences31. So just as a learning orientation reflects in part what
learners say to themselves, and believe they can do, so for involvement in self-regulated
learning.
In UK some evidence suggests that the National Curriculum did nothing to increase the
likelihood of schools promoting student autonomy or strategies for enhancing students
self-regulated learning.32 While in work with Dutch university students, it seems that a
process-oriented programme which integrates and makes usable students metacognitive
knowledge already present is effective in promoting self-regulation (and in this case, better
exam results).33 The authors explain that the programme turned out to be a powerful way
to activate students to reflect on their learning and to develop their mental models of
learning. Others34 describe this as a bootstrapping process which develops newer forms
of self-regulated learning from prior forms. In this there is a need for sufficient practice,
remembering how learning was enacted, and reasoning about factors that affect learning.

What sort of language and what sort of processes are most likely to do this on a wider
basis?

B. Developing a language for talking about learning

If we are to make a contribution to the development of this language, there are strategic
choices and challenges to be faced, and the way that we resolve each of these may crucial in
terms of whether anything valuable about learning is honestly advanced in the process.
Some starting issues in developing a language for talking about learning may be highlighted
under the headings which have been used to decompose language at large - vocabulary,
syntax, use - I will briefly consider each of these and then propose a move beyond them.

B (i) what is the vocabulary in a language for talking about learning?

Here it might be fruitful to wonder whether the vocabulary we seek is any different from the
human vocabulary for talking about other activities? I guess the answer is Yes and No: Yes
in the sense that theres something special to be captured in learning as knowledgecreation. But the simultaneous answer is No, in that the vocabulary for talking about
learning is that of an activity, and composed of similar ingredients to other aspects of
human activity. Indeed, when trying to specify the way in which learning is delimited as a
sub-set of human activity, there are inspiring accounts which propose no boundary learning as a way of being35. A smaller illustration comes from the fact that five headings Purposes, Strategies, Effects, Feelings and Context - have proved useful for us36 in
highlighting very many important aspects of learning, and that these five could equally
apply to the description of many other human activities. So if we hold on to the idea that
learning is and emanates from activity, we may avoid inadvertently slipping into a specialist
vocabulary: there are a number of these on offer, and often their pseudo-scientific appeal
makes them somewhat seductive, but many readers (learners and teachers) find such
specialist literature on learning distinctly unappealing.
A sub-set of these considerations applies to the vocabulary for talking about oneself as a
learner. Recent experiments in this area confirm for me that (given a good enough context
for believing that there is reason to describe oneself as a learner) people call on similar
resources of experience to describe themselves as learners as they might to describe
themselves in any other domains. These include history, biography and key experiences,
followed by various references to contexts, preferences and activities. This confirms for me
that the (again seductive) sets of categories for describing oneself as a learner which are
promulgated through current discourse of learning style are not a vocabulary which
effective learners would freely choose. The disadvantages of putting learners into sets of
categories such as this are legion: self-description becomes self-labelling in these terms,
and the ultimate challenge of helping learners become competent in all styles is
downgraded to the suggestion that those in charge of learning environments should tune
their planning to learners preferences, an altogether more passive proposition. While I am
not surprised that categorical forms of description circulate widely in our current society, I
am increasingly convinced that they call out actions which do not move us on.

B (ii) what is the syntax in a language for talking about learning?

Perhaps the Subject-Verb-Object syntax which is so dominant in English and other
languages leads to one of the dominant constructions of learning: He taught me. The low
level of responsibility for the learner in this construction is a major problem. As in the area
of behaviour He hit me, this punctuation of the stream soon supports a particular
attribution of responsibility (or blame). But try the verb learn in this syntax and we get
He learned me, demonstrating what could be one of the most valuable recognitions in the
language for talking about learning: the verb to learn is transitive, but not in respect to
another person, only in respect to whatever is being learned. Pupils in a reception class of a
primary school recently showed that they already have picked up this dominance in their

syntax of learning, when they focused on learning from the teacher, and the teacher as
doing the learning for them.
Bruner37 has highlighted that the dominant syntax for learning in our society is that we
learn by being told : This is probably the most adhered to line of folk pedagogy in practice
today. Its principal appeal is that it purports to offer a clear specification of just what it is
that is to be learned and, equally questionable, that it suggests standards for assessing its
achievement. More than any other folk theory it has spawned objective testing in its myriad
guises. (page 55)
I find a learning as construction syntax essential for moving beyond that of learning as
instruction, and use the simple Do-> Review-> Learn-> Apply in many ways, adding two
further elements: meta and social.
Adding a meta-cycle is what makes learning an object of learning,
Do

App ly
th e cont ent

Apply to
future l earning

Review
th e con tent

Learn abou t
the co nten t

R evi ew the
lea r ning

L ear n a bout
l earni ng

and adding the social and collaborative dimension ensures the shift from construction to
co-construction.
B (iii) what is the use of a language for talking about learning?
The language use perspective reminds us that whatever the component parts of an
utterance, the purpose and intention of language is a crucial element. So we need a focus
on the purpose of talking about learning. Again, there may well be important and
challenging patterns in when people do this. People tell me that, although it usefully makes
a non-threatening scenario, the idea that a friend or peer asks you to tell them about
yourself as a learner, is rare in their lives. Conversations with young people about
occasions when someone else helped with their learning, highlight major differences
between contexts (home and school), each with its own syntax, and probably each with its
own use38. The danger in school contexts is that the use becomes performance-oriented and
problem-saturated39.

C. A language for talking about learning must be a narrative language

Not all experiences and ways of processing experience are equal in their ability to provide
data for the process of meta-learning. I propose that a narrative approach to the language
for talking about learning would not only resolve some of the issues discussed above, it
would also best capture the higher qualities of learning and of human beings, and reflect
recent experiences in the area.
A social constructionist approach on social life asserts that peoples patterns of behaviour
and life expressions reflect the sense they make of their lives and their selves. A narrative
approach proposes they do this through the stories they have for their lives. We give
meaning to our experience by storying our lives. Applying this to learning, I take the
stance that peoples patterns of learning and learning expressions reflect the stories they
tell themselves about learning. Sure enough, many people tell themselves precious few

stories, reflecting the lack of notice which has been brought to bear on their learning. So we
may say that in this society we expect to find the majority of narratives which people have
available to make sense of their learning are underdeveloped. They are thin descriptions,
and are likely to use categorical forms of language.
For a rich description, something different is needed, and (while there is no fixed vocabulary
or syntax) narrative offers elements such as Players, Events, Sequences, Scripts, and Plot.
Note that I am not talking about narrative as an after-the-fact description given by someone
who later constructs an account - that is more akin to biography - but as the very process
of constructing life and living it by living the narrative we give ourselves. The meanings from
our stories are not neutral but have real effects on what we do: life expressions are
constituted through narrative40.
I am finding that when people exchange their narratives of learning, it seems easy for real
dialogue to ensue. Differences do not seem to be a problem; competition and conflict are
rarer than in other exchanges. This finding has also been reported to me (unprompted ) by
teachers of 8 year olds. Its as though when people exchange what they have noticed about
their experience there is no hint of correct answer (as in debate or discussion). When
supported by some of the practices of Appreciative Inquiry41 which move away from deficit
discourse, such dialogue is not only likely to be a learning dialogue it is also likely to be
expansive and proactive learning dialogue.
I have found that when people are given an open framework and a relational invitation to
talk about themselves as learners, they soon include key moments in their learning careers,
each with its heroes and villains, stories, scripts and key episodes, alongside some
generalisations about themselves which usually cut across the given categories. In that
sense I consider that narratives of the self in the domain of learning relate closely to
narratives of the self elsewhere42.
Note that some other writers who seem to be adopting this stance 43 are actually focusing
on the place of narrative in learning, rather than the stance I adopt which is learning as
narrative. This stronger position is nearer to Bruners life as narrative 44, and the stance of
narrative therapists for whom narrative is not a construction of life, living is living a
narrative. Perhaps a good illustrative example of this stance is the captivating analysis of
intelligence which has been cast in these terms45.
Narratives about learning seem easily available to people, even when they question the
taken-for -granted nature in which learning is usually held. For example, if you ask people
in the corridor How do you know when you are learning?, I find they have an immediate
answer. The immediacy seems to make one point, and the content of their response
another, ranging from those with an internal noticing A green light goes on, those with an
external noticing someone tells you, and those with a transfer to action noticing when I
find myself doing something differently some time later.
A narrative perspective would possibly promote a better connectedness between the various
areas of research findings in learning. The position of the performance -oriented learner
when faced with difficulty - I cant - can be seen as a disqualifying and pathologising
narrative. The learning-orientation is characterised by a rich descriptions of learning
experiences which leads to promoting competence, and to a wider range of options for
engaging in learning at any one time. Considerations of learner agency, the different ways to
create learning goals, and the important issue of self-efficacy can be handled though
thinking about the different scripts in different learners heads.
that learners narratives about their own learning are often simple and unhelpful
(for example Im no good at maths, Computers arent for me)
that narratives about learning will have real effects on approach to learning
(what you say is what you get, for example I could try something like last time
encourages action, I wonder what will happen if encourages experimentation)

 that classrooms and classroom practices embody specific narratives about learning
(sometimes hidden to learners, and occasionally even to teachers)
that schools as organisations differ in their predominant narratives of learning
(for example well learn from any mistakes contrasted with these kids just cant
learn)
that narratives may become more complex through externalisation and dialogue
(some learners have not yet developed the plot of learning, let alone lost it)
that learners with complex narratives on learning will be more free to respond to a
greater range of learning opportunities (multi-story learning)
that working with teachers to enhance and create more shared narratives could
enhance the learning orientation of the school
Bruner46 argues that narrative is irreconcilable with a categorical language, indeed that
these are irreconcilable modes of thought. This has many implications, one of which is to
signal a shift from measurement of learning (with its assumption of quantitative and goal of
correctness) to mapping of learning (with its qualitative concpetion and goal of enriching) .
A narrative approach also supports better connectedness in studying the individual and
their context (in its proximal and distal sense) Contexts for learning may be investigated for
the stories they carry about learning: in any story the influence of individual, organisational
and cultural narratives may be identified. Already discourses about learning at the
organisational level are shown to vary47.
On a wider scale in current education, a narrative form would contribute to the muchneeded move away from the current discourses of deficit and failure, standards, and
compliance to a better discourse of honouring, of human agency. and of interaction and
construction48.
Yet wider still, following Geertz49, it would be helpful to consider the Culture of Learning as
the ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about our learning. And the story-lines, plots and
outcomes would likely ensure that a narrative perspective could not escape considerations
of and implications of power and language in our society.

So what?
The stance which views learning as the construction of meaning, occurring through social
interactional processes, is enhanced by a narrative perspective. Elements of the personal,
social, and emotional dimensions are embedded directly (rather than having to be added
back together again as in traditional psychology), and there is a key role for the concept of
purpose. In that sense development may occur reasonably unaided, if a narrative approach
is encouraged.
In the more proactive sense of development, where one person aims to aid another,
conversations can shape new realities and new lives, re-authoring the experience to date.
The Vygotskian principles may inform this construction of new meaning , in that the act of
producing a narrative, of verbalising itself, may bring on new understanding:
"Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social
level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (inter-psychological) and
then inside the child (intra-psychological). All the higher functions originate as actual
relationships between individuals." (page 57)50
so the fact that talking about what one notices in ones learning is difficult at first is both
understandable and constructive.
Seen from a narrative point of view, meta-learning comes from engaging in the construction
of narratives about learning, and the richer the descriptions of learning which are created,
the more able the person is to engage in a range of learning in a range of life contexts. But
we know that meta-learning is rare enough, and the triggers to take the meta-perspective

are not well understood, so are not well facilitated. Here the structuring of social situations
as developed in narrative therapy may have much to offer.
Learners can be helped to develop richer descriptions of their learning by:
1. describing learning experiences
2. engaging in dialogue with other learners about learning experiences
3. listening to others re-telling of their narratives re learning
People who experience learning difficulty are sometime those who have predominantly
problem-saturated narratives, and here the technique of externalisation of can really help51.
Through being able to say I get in a mess with my learning when Mr. Guessing comes
along a space is created for the learner to learn again about how to cope with the
predominant pattern which had been built up.
The course of development is that of increasing complexity, which fits well with those
analyses which conclude that the outcome of learning is variation52. Complexity is indicated
by higher levels of both differentiation and integration, and this can well apply to our
understandings of our learning, realised through richer descriptions. It also relates to
versatility, since the learner who has a rich description of their learning has greater range
for engaging with learning.
In the social domain, studies of the development of narrative have already been undertaken,
indicating that there are age- specific patterns of interpretive thinking and characteristic
forms of talk. 10 year-olds interpret stories through seeing a plot, whereas adolescents see
a plight, and adults a dramatistic pattern53. Is there a parallel for the learning domain? Or,
while the language of learning is as under-developed as it is, are young people to find
themselves aware of addressing the drama of relationships, while missing out on the drama
of learning?
For teachers, the idea that their focus could include developing richer narratives would
doubtless soon mean the engagement of their own narratives. Perhaps this would be one
element in achieving the redefinition of their professionalism which is needed for the 21st
century. this is said to imply three primary features54
recognising oneself as a learner;
using that learning-centred spirit to transform schools into learning organisations;
and
reasserting one's own moral autonomy to provide space and time for serious,
reflective thought and study.
In the process, teachers might once again take on a role in enhancing the discourses which
circulate in our society, rather than fall prey to them as at present. In doing so they need a
meta perspective to stand outside the very narratives which can have such a selfperpetuating impact: Culturally prevalent narratives lead us not only to interpret facts in a
particular way, but also to generate those very facts through the acts we perform in
consonance with these narratives (page 17)55.

C. So what shall we do now?

We who are privileged to consider these matters might:

Treat learning as a literacy, which is currently not that well taught in our schools or
supported in society.

Continue to focus on learning, not performance, as a proper educational goal. The

performance discourse makes a fundamental confusion in substituting for learning
itself some of the products and indicators of learning. Similarly the standards
movement is a twentieth century approach

Meta-learning is an entitlement in a fast-changing knowledge-producing world, and

should therefore be a goal of twenty-first century education systems. Versatile learners
should be supported and encouraged.

Continue to gather evidence that a focus on learning can enhance performance,

whereas a focus on performance can depress performance.

Help teachers to buffer themselves from the performance agenda and regain their
professional agency through a learning agenda, recognising that policy-makers and
politicians have a short-term low complexity narrative56
This will also entail keeping at bay the other discourses which take the place and
space of a proper learning discourse. A dominant displacing metaphor here is the
discourse of work (homework, schemes of work, get on with your work). A primary
teacher Naheeda Maharasi, has banned the word work from her classroom, and
proposed that whenever people feel about to use it they try substituting the word
learning. The effects have been electrifying: higher pupil engagement, greater fun in
learning, more talk about learning, and now colleagues in the school asking whats
happening in her class.

The idea of consulting pupils over teaching and learning would be relieved of some of its
power dynamics if this approach were adopted. In a learning-centred classroom where
narratives of learning are exchanged and accepted, the power relations change so that there
is less need for the teacher to have extra mechanisms to inform their planning. Instead
these processes would form a core process for building classrooms and schools as learning
communities57.
I am now unsurprised that the state of affairs where learning is so little talked about should
be the case. The whole of the twentieth century, its advances, lines of thinking and beliefs
are embedded in our current metaphors, through which we treat ourselves, each other, and
our organisations as machines. It is difficult to side-step this discourse and its associated
constructs of effectiveness and efficiency. Those who do (e.g. the narrative therapists such
as Michael White) help me realise the extent to which the structuralist project has taken
over our lives.
Human beings, thanks to their gift of consciousness and their orientation towards language
and interaction, are the only species to live in such a richly symbolic meaning-saturated
world. Sometimes they demonstrate considerable ability to learn, and sometimes not. What
is most puzzling is how so few human beings recognise their major part in the coconstruction of their lives. Its as though a twenty-first century version of Marxs false
consciousness pervades, and I wouldnt doubt that it serves similar functions in
maintaining power relations.
A final implication of this approach would be possible in an everyday outside school sense. I
have never been excited about a society which asked its young What did you learn today58
(page 304), but I would be excited about a society where people asked What did you notice
about your learning today? or even Tell me some stories about your learning.

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