Learning Stages

*I found a very interesting classification of learning stages by Hubert Dreyfus through this article  that sets his classification against online learning.  Although learning is not linear , I think it is worth considering at least for the sake of confronting personal experience in teaching with others’ perspectives. 

Stage 1: Novice
The novice typically gets instruction in the basics of a subject. In the Humanities lectures are still the most popular means to deliver this instruction. Students at this stage are principally consumers being taught simple rules and being provided with some factual content.

Stage 2: Advanced Beginner
Students need to understand relevant contexts for the rules and facts they learn. At this stage students learn to make some sense of what was mere information. The instructor typically becomes a kind of coach, ‘who helps the student pick out and recognise the relevant aspects that organize and make sense of the material’ (p.35). Ideally the instructor explains and picks out important features of cases as they come up in the course of learning.

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