Why Focus on Learning?

• Learning is central to our human essence, our wellspring (Pr. 4.23), the source from which our life develops.
• Learning challenges us, surrounds us, encompasses us, engages us, and defines us.
• Learning is the purpose of the academy.

“Teachers tend to focus on teaching activities and tend to ignore learning activities.  They center attention on how to teach a given topic, rather than on what is required for a learner to learn the topic. This stems, in part, from teachers’ limited knowledge of the learning process.”

(Novak, J (1998). Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools. NJ: Erlbaum, 120).

Bean and Eaton state that the factors affecting retention are ultimately individual, and include attitude, coping, self-efficacy, and locus of control. (Bean, J., & Eaton, S. B. (2001-2002). The psychology underlying successful retention practices. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, and Practice, 3(1),73).

The Theoretical Basis

The LML Process® is an advanced learning system that provides learners with the means to articulate who they are as a learner, and then guides teachers in developing the learning environment necessary for students to employ their personal learning strategies with intention. Learners who are a part of this advanced learning system learn to intensify, modify, or forge the use of their learning processes into a working partnership with their teachers and peers (Johnston, 2002).

The theoretical basis of the Let Me Learn Process® is the brain-mind connection and the Interactive Learning Model© (Johnston, 1994). The Interactive Learning Model depicts the simultaneous interactions of cognition, conation, and affectation (Snow, 1992) within our mental processing as four synchronous patterns (Sequence, Precision, Technical reasoning, and Confluence). These patterns represent how the learner sees the world, takes in stimuli, integrates the stimuli and formulates a response to it. The Interactive Learning Model is based upon research conducted in cognitive science, brain science, and multiple intelligences (Allport, 1961; Bruer, 1997; Gardner, 1983; Johnston, 1996; Keefe & Ferrell, 1990; McClean, 1978; Pay, 1981; Perkins, 1993; Philip, 1936; Snow & Jackson, 1992; Sternberg, 1996).

You can check out the theory of the Let Me Learn System, through it’s research bibliography.