1 Learning to learn

This course is about developing your effectiveness as a learner. For example, there are activities which invite you to apply theories to practice and also to criticise theories in the light of practical experience. In these and other ways you will be encouraged to bring your own experience into the study of the course. The idea of asking you to use ideas, not just to remember them, and to bring your own experience into studying, is that they are all ways of developing your ability to learn – as well as being good ways of learning.

There are two main reasons for this emphasis on learning in this course. First, paying attention to how we are learning is an essential basis for learning more effectively. And second, being able to learn independently – setting our own goals, resolving difficulties and monitoring progress – is of growing importance for learning in the workplace as well as in course study. In other words, it is an essential part of putting the thinking into practice.