In this blog I will be exploring one of the four recognised learning styles: learning preferences. Bartlet and Burton (2012, p.234) describe learning preferences as: the “environmental preferences for learning, such as place, light and atmosphere”. Of course, all the aspects of the learning preferences cannot be covered in a single piece of writing. However, emphasis is going to be put on the external environment, more precisely, the place in which learning happens. When dealing with learning techniques, there are two basic factors which are generally given most importance: What is learned and how it is learned. This article is going to look at a third, less covered factor, learning contexts. Learning contexts refers to the psychological conditions in which learning happens.

       “I sometimes talk of the context as being the learner's environment, and online, the digital environment. If we want to be complete, we can talk about three major environments: the learner's external environment (classroom, working space, in-person coaches, etc.), internal environment (previous beliefs, thoughts, hopes, etc.) and digital environment.” (Downes)

     Research suggests that there is a strong relation between the context of learning (information acquisition) and the context of evocation of those conditions. In a study, it was identified that information acquired inside water, with a diving suit, was more easily evoked inside the sea than outside the sea. Thorndike (1911, cited in Hayes, 1995, p.852) argues that "a given behaviour is likely to be repeated if it produces a pleasant effect". Suggesting that people learn better in a pleasant context. Therefore, according to the "law of effect", what is learned in such a determined context, will be evoked more precisely in a similar context than in a completely different context. In a way, during learning, the context triggers the learning information. It is like going to the library and finding none or just a few books or, getting there and it is too noisy. Contextual triggers for learning will not be prone to happen in such an environment.    

     The diving suit analogy provided would not be the most practical one. However, that study can bring important applications to the creation of a study routine: students learn easily when tested in the same environment in which they have studied. With the purpose of identifying the power of context in learning, a different form of research was undertaken. In this study, students were divided in two groups. The first group memorized several lists of words, each list in different rooms. The second group memorized the same lists of words, but all in the same room. When both groups were tested in completely different rooms, the first group obtained a most satisfactory result. The hypothesis created to explain this phenomenon was that the first group, after studying in several different rooms, created a greater variety of contextual triggers, promoting a greater flexibility during the evocation of learning. Thus, when studying in different and diverse contexts, these students became less dependent on the learning context.

       How can the effect of the context be used in study sessions? Some possibilities are listed below.

a) Practise in the same environment in which the test will occur. That way during the test, there will be the same triggers created during the learning sessions. For instance, is recommended that students have some sessions of study in the same environment that the test will occur. These recommendations can also be valid to other learning contexts. Imagine that you need to do a public presentation (i.e., poetry, discourses, a theatre play...). In these cases, when practising in the same place for the realization of the presentation, the process of learning will be optimized.

b) When not possible to use the first strategy, try to practise in the most similar environment possible. For instance, if you need to give a lecture, try a room with the same similarities of the lecture room. That way similar contextual triggers are going to be present on the day of the real lecture.

c) Use the contextual effect during the test. If a blank occurs in a determined question, close your eyes and imagine that you are in the same environment as the information you are searching was studied. Thus, greater are the chances of some trigger to surge and solve the problem.

d) When the environmental conditions are different from the ones you are used to, try to immunise against the contextual changes, When practising in many different and diverse contexts, the dependence to the learning context would be much less.

References

Hayes, N., 1995. Foundations of Psychology: An Introduction Text. London: Routledge.

Bartlett, S. and Burton, D., 2012. Introduction to Education Studies. 3rd ed.  London:Sage Publications Ltd.

Downes, Stephen, 2004. What is a Learning Context? Downes.ca, [blog] 11 November. Available at: <http://www.downes.ca/post/18> [Accessed 3 January 2014].