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2007:40 R

Five teachers on learning

The year is 1950. The place is Lappstan, Lottefors Mill in Hälsingland. The time is ten o´clock at night. A seven-year-old on his first summer holiday is lying in the pull-out bed in the kitchen. A bust of Hjalmar Branting watches over him from atop the escritoire, or rather frightens him. The local branch of the Wood Industry Workers´ Union has just finished its meeting. Grandfather is seated at the kitchen table, reading. Grandmother is already asleep. He drifts off to sleep. Dreams. Wakes again, sees grandfather still reading.

Grandfather was always reading. Grandfather was often at trade union meetings. Grandfather was educated. He was educated because he had spent four years at school and knowledge was precious. He was educated because you had to be if you were going to do union work on the social issues surrounding class society and the building of welfare in Sweden. He was educated because it gave him power in debates and negotiations. Education without a purpose is an interest, praiseworthy but without force.

Education today has the same force. The social issues aren´t simpler. They require knowledge gained through education and learning. Perhaps the information revolution has changed the logic of education and learning. The availability of information means that education and learning do not provide knowledge intended to answer questions. Instead knowledge should provide the basis for asking the questions, to reflect from a broader perspective and to put the questions in context. Or, expressed in the technical jargon, we should be good systems thinkers.
 
In this brochure from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education five teachers give examples of how education and learning in concord gives students new knowledge and the ability to use it. The teachers´ examples also show how students´ personalities can develop, making them educated people who are well aware of the force of education.

Last updated: 2008-02-08
Contact person: Åsa Klevard, e-mail: forename.surname@hsv.se
Swedish National Agency for Higher Education  Visting address: Luntmakargatan 13  Box 7851, 103 99 Stockholm
Phone: 08-563 085 00  Fax: 08-563 085 50  Email: hsv@hsv.se