Stephen Downes

Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning
Lisa Marie Blaschke , International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, February 1, 2012.

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One thing I've learned over the years in education and social science generally: for anything you can think of, someone has created a 'theory' of that thing. Thus we have heutagogy, which is "a form of self-determined learning with practices and principles rooted in andragogy." A key concept in heutagogy is 'double-loop learning' "In double-loop learning, learners consider the problem and the resulting action and outcomes, in addition to reflecting upon the problem-solving process and how it influences the learner’s own beliefs and actions." Or as I would say (without the academic mantra), "practice and reflection".



That said, the discussion around heutagogy is important. It is an explicit recognition of the importance of self-directed learning, and explicitly described the move from competences to capabilities. As such, it explains much of the appeal of web 2.0, e-learning 2.0, informal learning (as described volumously by people like Jay Cross) and (dare I say) connectivism. Indeed, most of the work cited in this paper comes only a couple of years after e-learning 2.0 - from 2007-2010. The work from Kenyon and Hase stands on its own, but the rest of it, I think, really ought to be read in this wider context. (Hits Today: 2 Total: 843) [Direct Link] [Tags: Connectivism, Adult Learning, E-Learning 2.0, Online Learning, Academia]

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Comments

Re: Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning

Anymouse, February 1, 2012

I have only read the paper quickly (so far); but, it's interesting that it does not make reference to Chris Argyris on double loop learning. (Argyris, C., Schön. D. (1978) Organizational Learning: A theory of action perspective. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley). Am I missing something? [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning

Stephen Downes, February 2, 2012

I don't think so. I think the purpose of the paper is to rebrand a lot of the newer work around online self-directed learning as 'heutagogy' and deeper references would not support that. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Heutagogy and Lifelong Learning: A Review of Heutagogical Practice and Self-Determined Learning

Lisa Marie Blaschke, February 5, 2012

Hi Anymouse, Thank you for your comment on my paper on heutagogy and lifelong learning. Please check out page 59 of the article, which includes a couple of references to Argyris & Schön (1978, as cited in Hase & Kenyon, 2000 and Hase, 2009). Stephen is correct that the purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the theory and to summarize the research into heutagogy practice to date. I also hope that it will generate further discussion on the theory's potential as a learning theory in DE. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

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