We all live in and are surrounded by natural cycles. The cycle of the day, the spinning of the earth around the sun each year, the cycle of the plants and trees that sprout, grow, develop seeds and then decay in our gardens, parks and wild places. Our own human life.
Life is not linear, learning is not linear.
In this post, we experiment with mapping LearnJam’s Learning Design Principles (LDPs) to nature’s cycle, and specifically Jon Young’s (and others’) 8 Shields Model in the hope that our LDPs can be more useful for anyone working for social and environmental change.
If the primary goal of the 8 Shields model is “to help people better connect with nature (as a foundation for personal peace), other people and themselves” and the LDPs were created as a tool to improve the effectiveness of learning experiences. Could bringing these together better support learning designers and change-makers to create and facilitate experiences that help connect us with nature, each other and ourselves as a route to positive change?
The limitations of our LDPs
The original LDPs were born out of a desire to codify best practice in learning design, to ensure we were following what the evidence said about how people learn best. We were aware that different team members might be making different or contradictory learning design decisions and we wanted a way to refer to what the academic evidence told us about best practice. We were less concerned with what people were learning, or how the overall experience flowed; these were considerations for specific project teams and problems we were working on.
Looking back at the principles now, they seem very rooted in a transactional approach to learning. There is an implied expert who is sharing or giving their knowledge to learners. Yes there is mention of collaboration and intrinsic motivation, but the focus is on helping people retain a set of knowledge, to be able to use it again elsewhere, most likely at work, with the aim of personal or economic ‘growth’, fundamentally (implicitly if not explicitly) to support the current economic system and our standing within it.
In the change work we do now at LearnJam, we see that knowledge is only one element of the kind of learning experience we need. Just as important are mindset, feeling, awareness. And these come from listening, sensing, experiencing, unlearning, imagining, reflecting, connecting. It is clearer to us now that the linear, knowledge-based approach to learning doesn’t match with the work that we really want to do. We notice this tension in different ways:
- Maybe a learning experience calls for a slower pace.
- Maybe lots of reflection is needed to help us move through our biases.
- Maybe we need to put in place the right conditions to help us be creative and imagine something better and then feel empowered to take action for change.
The outcomes of these experiences, the ways in which learners have changed, may be totally at odds with what capitalism asks of us, what commercial organisations need from us and what we have been socialised to want for ourselves.
Taking inspiration from natural cycles
So what would it look like to map LearnJam’s LDPs to a natural cycle? To soften the knowledge acquisition element and strengthen the emotional, the interconnected, the experiential? This intention has been swirling around for a while, since conversations with Lucy Williams following Slow Work Garden’s cyclical organising action inquiry. But the specific idea to map the LDPs to the 8 Shields came to me (Jo) during a residency day on the wonderful Change Collective programme run by Change in Nature.
We closed our eyes and listened to a description of the stages in natural cycles of the day, the year and the human life, as set out in Jon Young’s 8 Shields Model. The exercise was set to music corresponding to the compass points of the cycle, and felt totally immersive.
The main premise of the 8 Shields model is that many natural cycles move through the same phases, which can be mapped to eight compass points. The features and characteristics of these points are similar whether the cycle in question is that of a day, a year, a human life, or the life cycle of a plant. For example, the East is a time of sunrise, the energy of Spring, and the excitement of birth and new life; and the West is a time where the sun begins to set, we celebrate the harvest of Autumn and move into the energy of our later midlife. As it says on the 8 Shields website: “Our bodies are hard-wired to know these times and seasons. Our nervous system is synchronised with these expectations of flowing cycles.” (ref 8 Shields Design Principles).
Afterwards I was left with a feeling of clarity, that these cycles do dominate our lives and are so powerful, but I also felt sadness at how far away from that we are in the way we are forced to live in modern society. Our modern lives leave little time for sensing this knowledge let alone acting on it. We have (temporarily) lost so much of the natural wisdom that has dominated human lives for millenia, and now we live in a constant state of heightened anxiety and productivity.
I was interested in how this natural wisdom might map to what the academic evidence says about how we learn and specifically our interpretation of that academic evidence – our LDPs. My instinct was that by combining and mapping the LDPs and the 8 Shields model, we may be able to address some of the gaps between how the principles were created, and how we would now like to use them in the work we do.
Mapping
Below is an initial draft of this mapping.
I have mapped our LDPs to the eight compass points and I have outlined in italics how that principle might manifest in a Shields-informed experience. For some compass points I have added a summary of how the principles map (or don’t).
The first two compass points (E and SE) connect to the idea that we need to set the scene for effective learning. While the principles focus more on removing distraction and helping learners to care about the topic, it feels like the Shields call for the creation of a space where learners can connect with and follow their own energy.
East: Excitement and inspiration
- Promote a positive mental state (LDP 1.2) – Create a space where people feel relaxed, welcome and excited
- Identify and avoid barriers to access (LDP 1.6) – Pay attention to how we can make an experience inclusive and accessible
South East: Role model and Motivation
- Develop intrinsic motivation (LDP 1.1) – Help learners connect the experience to their own interest, energy and purpose
- Establish a strong foundation (LDP 2.1 a) – By bringing to mind what we already know and are aware of, what we are interested in, we are setting the scene to focus on the things we feel most connected to
- Respect the limits of working memory (LDP 1.4 ) – We will naturally focus on what we have energy for. Make space for this flow by removing distractions
South: Focus and Perspiration
The principles were created with this mode in mind: How do we get learners to be able to focus, and put in effort so that they learn. Combined with the Shields, this feels more like a flow of energy than a state that learners are coerced into.
- Focus attention (LDP 1.5 ) – Make space for learners to get into their flow
- Provide challenge and support (LDP 2.2 ) – If attention is being guided in a certain direction, consider the level of cognitive challenge and the support people may need in order to stay focused
South West: Relaxation and Internalisation | Embodying and nurturing
While the principles do encourage rest and sleep (LDP 3.1) this is in the context of practice, as a way to help us retain more. When applied to change work, this rest and relaxation is a time for letting go and feeling embodied in this state of learning. At this time we can connect this new experience to our own sense of self.
- Establish a strong foundation (LDP 2.1 b) – Provide opportunities for learners to integrate new experience with the foundation they had before
West: Harvest and Celebration
While ‘celebration’ wasn’t a term we used, the principles connect the idea of acknowledging achievement with improved motivation. The principles also highlight how collaboration can lead to social cooperation and a sense of shared responsibility.
- Develop intrinsic motivation (LDP 1.1) – Celebrating what we have achieved is a wonderful way to deepen our own motivation to learn
- Provide opportunities for collaboration (LDP 1.3 ) – Encourage learners to identify and celebrate what they are harvesting and share this with others. Are there ways these individual harvests could be connected?
The next two points (NW and N) link to principles around feedback and reflection. While the principles focus is at time more on feedback from an expert, the Shields invite more personal reflection and integration. This can lead to gratitude and love, rather than to pushing learners back into focus (see North East).
North West: Release and Reflection
- Provide timely and specific feedback (LDP 3.4 )- How might we offer the support and guidance that others need to help them reflect in a way that is meaningful to them?
North: Distillation and integration | Guidance and Design
- Raise self-awareness (LDP 2.3 ) – Foster self awareness and reflection as a way to integrate learning into our lives and help us to understand what serves us well and what serves us less well
North East: End and Beginning | Creativity and Awareness
Much of principle 3 seems to try to keep us more in the focused and productive state. It’s saying “Don’t forget, whatever you do: Test yourself, practise more, stick at it (but make sure you rest).”
- 3.1 Use spaced repetition and massed practice
- 3.2 Use testing to strengthen memory
- 3.3 Make practice focused and deliberate
Maybe what is missing from the current version of the principles is the space to really reflect honestly on what has happened in that learning. How might we integrate what serves us? How might we identify what in fact we do not need? How can this be both the end of something and beginning of something new.
Next steps
Our hope is that this is the first step on a journey to an updated set of Learning Design Principles (or maybe it’s called something very different) that is more aligned with what learning designers need in order to support social and environmental change.
I’m left with the following questions:
- What have we learned from this mapping? How might that learning serve us?
- How might the mapping evolve? What form might it take?
- How might we explore whether this mapping is helpful?
But for now, I’m going to relax and internalise after this period of focus!
