Instruction does not cause learning

Nuts and Bolts: The 10-Minute Instructional Design Degree (Learning Solutions Magazine, 9/6/2011)

Etienne Wenger: “Instruction does not cause learning; it creates a context in which learning takes place, as do other contexts. Learning and teaching are not inherently linked. Much learning takes place without teaching, and indeed much teaching takes place without learning.” In other words, knowledge acquisition doesn’t cause behavior change. People learn through experience, through making mistakes, through trying things out, through talking things through with others. Don’t just deliver facts and “content,” but provide meaningful exercises and activities that can help to “cause” learning. Provide performance support tools. Insinuate the learning into the social spaces in which the workers operate. Help the instruction become part of that context in which the learner can learn.

The article is about instructional design, but has broader applicability for our endeavors.