Preface

Preface

This collection of learning strategies has been developed by learning specialists to help instructors in higher education ensure that their students will effectively learn the course content that they teach. Arleigh Trail conceived of producing this material, and it was initially developed during a workshop attended by members of the Learning Specialists Association of British Columbia, facilitated by Arleigh and myself (David Palmer-Stone).

Arleigh, through her work as a learning specialist, and through her involvement with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, realized that material such as this would meet a rather pressing need in higher education, and that learning specialists were uniquely qualified to create such material. This preface is intended to explain why this is the case.

Learning specialists are a loosely amalgamated group of professionals who bring a wide range of qualifications to an equally broadly-defined set of roles and functions in institutions of higher education. Under various capacities, we are typically involved with helping students learn effectively in institutions of post secondary education, such as colleges, technical schools, and universities. Most of us meet individually with students to discuss and address their learning concerns; we also conduct workshops on specific topics related to learning, and many of us teach learning skills or similar courses, often using curricula and materials that we develop ourselves to meet specific student needs at our institutions. We may also be involved with offices or resource centres for students with disabilities; orientation; tutor training and coordination; wellness programs; various counselling activities; "help centers" of all sorts (math assistance, writing clinics, etc.); as well, we may be involved in development, administration, and staffing of "learning commons," information technology, and other areas. We typically develop, collect, and make available various forms of learning resources for students; and many of us "wear numerous hats" in our institutions, functioning also as faculty and as administrators.

We are a diverse group: even academically. Many of us hold graduate degrees; but our areas of specialization may be in the humanities, education, sciences, social sciences, or one of the helping professions. Many of us are also artistically inclined in one way or another.

So, in the face of such diversity, how can I argue that there indeed exists a commonality amongst us, such that we are uniquely able to contribute, on the basis of that commonality, to higher education in the way embodied in these strategies? I think that the following features (which I must admit I have created off the top of my head, with no empirical support) explain, to a large degree, how it is that we can identify ourselves as learning specialists, and qualify us to put forward this contribution. (The following comments are borrowed from notes for my introduction to the session in which we took on the task of developing these strategies):

1. We identify ourselves as "learning specialists" because, aside from the work we do, we are interested in learning, as such, wherever, whenever, and however it may occur. In my opinion, this shifts our consciousness in profound ways when we engage in our work: It seems natural for us to turn learning in on itself -- as well as seeing it as something students do, we also see it as something we do ourselves – we engage in "learning about learning" – we discuss our own learning processes as a matter of interest and consider the experience of learning – learning from the learner's point of view. So, we, as a group, are naturally self reflective with relation to the learning process.

2. A portion of our work involves dealing with students individually. In this way we meet with students holistically, and acknowledge with them the impact on their learning of such issues as career concerns, social and family expectations, divergent academic interests, learning difficulties, nonacademic passions and interests, deeply held personal values and commitments, personal life history and circumstances, and so on.

3. By meeting with students individually to help address their learning issues, we are uniquely able to see them engaging, moment by moment, in their learning challenges. In this way, we are privileged among university professionals in being privy to the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of learning from the learner's point of view.

The idea of being a learning specialist also seems to me to be a little at odds with the general approach of our educational institutions. Most people at colleges and universities are specialists in particular areas of knowledge – and even in those areas of knowledge, they may not be particularly interested in, or attentive to, the learning processes by which that knowledge is acquired or emerges.

So I am saying that to the extent that we see learning as a process that can and should be self-aware and that can and should range across all areas of human endeavor, I would suggest that our way of engaging with learning changes, also in a way that might be at odds with the rest of higher education. For me, sometimes the interest in learning may seem at odds with the valuing of knowledge since if one already knows something, one doesn't have to learn it; and if one doesn't know it, then one has no business teaching it. In a sense, we could be said to be defining ourselves as perennial novices. This has great appeal for me. As a learning specialist, I value the quest that moves through areas of what is not yet formulated as knowledge…and I hold that this stance is complementary – I would not say "opposed" – to the valuing of expertise that is the standard currency at institutions of higher education. As academics, we value what is already known; and as learning specialists, we know that we may approach the unknown, the inchoate, through the already-known.

I think that our conversations with one another and with students are characterized by features that are congruent with these observations, and that they are more associated with the attitude of the novice, primed to learn, than with the expert, ready to teach or profess. Again, I don't have any empirical evidence to back this up, but I like to think that our ways of engaging involve the following:

• we tend to have a variety of interests -- everything is "grist for the mill" when it comes to learning
• we are able to hold a wide range of possibilities in mind, provisionally
• we are open to others' thoughts, feelings, and experiences
  we do not attempt to avoid ambiguity, tension, the unknown
• we are willing to say that we don't know, or to admit we were wrong
• we are comfortable with intricacies and divergent implications
• we hold positions tentatively, not rigidly
• we tend toward being pragmatic, because our work is grounded in application, not abstraction
• we value theories to the extent they can be used; we value functionality and evidence for it
• we tend to be cooperative and facilitative
• we listen and explore, and we hold our judgments and conclusions and recommendations provisionally or as hypotheses to be tested
• we value integration: the formation of meaningful connections among divergent topic areas
• and so on…

I see us now as participating in a brilliant and newly emerging opportunity for collaboration between learning specialists—who are passionate about learning in its own right, regardless of other factors—and faculty, who have demonstrated their ability to learn successfully, but who, from my point of view, tend to see learning as a means to an end.

I see an opportunity for us to engage in this work by joining the conversation that has developed in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Our contribution will be collaborative; grounded in our appreciation of learning in its own right; in our valuing of learning as a potentially self reflective activity; and in our consideration of learning as an experience of the learner: after all, primarily (I believe) we come to learning from the point of view of the learner. And we respect that point of view.

I see our possibility for contribution as profound. Presumably everyone, every person in every discipline, is a learner, from the first-year student to the tenured professor. Everyone in a discipline is engaged in learning (at various levels) within the discipline. This is the observation of a learning specialist. In this way, I see a shift in focus to learning in the various disciplines as providing one possible source of a sense of community within the disciplines; and also a basis for interdisciplinary discussion.

Now, as I mentioned, there is one other feature for conversations that I value above all others, and I hope that today that feature will be evoked and fostered. I don't think we have a standard term for this feature. An artist friend of mine calls it, "following your nose." I believe that our conversations are a sort of quest for insight -- and we are often successful.... There is a sense, when things are going well, of being on the trail of something rich, profound, intriguing, valuable... and new. We are not looking for you to apply a bunch of stuff that you already know. We hope that you will bring that to bear -- but we also hope that you will draw on your own vast wealth – breadth, depth, and intricacy – of experience, in new ways, moving to the problematic areas, the questions, tensions, indeterminate relationships, areas of intrigue... follow your gut responses, that vague sense of "What's that about…?"; "What's going on there...?", "How do these things fit...?" Our conversations are a sort of quest for insight, an attempt to enable the emergence of something new and good—we hope that we have set up an environment, a task, which will foster this quest...

I have written this preface not only for faculty who might be interested in familiarizing themselves with these strategies. I have also taken this opportunity to articulate my vision of the "identity" of learning specialists, for those of us to identify ourselves as such, and for all participants in the community of higher education. I hope that this contribution will reveal something of our capacity, such that we, as learning specialists, will come to be identified as a designated and recognizable group of participants in higher education, with our unique commitment, vision, sense of value, and areas of expertise.