Musings for My Research

Learning can be facilitated by instructions as well as discussions, explorations, debates, reflections etc. Thus, to believe that learning only happens by instruction is inaccurate! (Great idea!) Perhaps, instructions are suited for particular context like training and certain field of academic studies and even military exercises. Definitely, learning does not happen merely by instructions or the design of it. Perhaps the best approach is to have a holistic mixture of instructions, reflections, discussions etc. (I think this is a great understanding coming from reading this paper!)

"In this essay, the key terms that I adopt are ‘instruction’, ‘learning’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘philosophy’ and I use
them in the following way. Instruction is that which supports or facilitates learning. This implies that the kind of
learning that is of interest is planned or intentional learning, which involves a goal of some kind. Learning
essentially involves a change in abilities, attitudes, beliefs, capabilities, knowledge, mental models, patterns of
interaction or skills. These changes may be localized within an individual, a group of individuals, an organization, or perhaps even a society. To be properly called learning, such changes should tend to persist over
time and across a variety of distractions. The fact that changes have occurred should be either directly or
indirectly observable. I shall call this definition the Learning Principle (L), since it might be challenged by some,
and it is possible to investigate its implications for the design of instruction. "

Towards a Philosophy of Instruction
J. Michael Spector
Educational Technology & Society 3(3) 2000
ISSN 1436-4522