Week 24 – A4: Design for Learning

Posted on by Keith Aquilina

Reading: Beetham and Sharpe (2007) ‘An introduction to rethinking pedagogy for a digital age’.
(a) How do Beetham and Sharpe view the relationship between learning and teaching?

The authors acknowledge that teaching and learning are complimentary, where teaching is an activity in which students are being helped to learn. Learning naturally (informally) or through social interactions (more formal).

(b) Why do Beetham and Sharpe use the term ‘design for learning’ rather than learning design?

The term Learning design seems to imply that this happens ‘intentionally and systematically’. I agree with the authors when saying that ‘learners and learning situations are unpredicatable’. Therefore the practitioner and learners should be able to tweak the design if and when necesseray – therefore ‘Design for learning’.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Keith Aquilina

Currently my professional role is that of Education Officer (Quality Assurance) within the Directorate for Quality & Standards in Education in the Ministry of Education, Malta. After eight years teaching Computing and ICT within a state secondary school, I moved to the Department of eLearning where my role focused on the organisation of national educational events of which the national eLearning awards and conference, Malta Robotics Olympiad and student competitions. In addition to the work within the Department of eLearning, as from 2011 I have taken the role of ICT coordinator within the Directorate for Lifelong Learning where for 5 years, I was involved in the development and organisation of ICT related courses within the directorate’s adult education centres and collaborating entities. In 2012, I completed my Masters studies in Online and Distance Education from the Open University. This blog started off as an online reflective diary for my studies in the Masters in Online and Distance Education with the Open Univeristy. As may be easily deduced, my main interest is in technology, learning and anything in between. Linkedin; mt.linkedin.com/in/keithaquilina/