At Leasowes Community College in Dudley, outside Birmingham, the
absolute antithesis of the eight-minute lesson is being hailed as the way
forward. Here, classes can last up to five or six days.
Students are immersed in a single subject, allowing them to complete practice,
theory and coursework in a single block, and – so the theory goes – gain a
deeper, more fundamental understanding of the topic. The corridors of this
1,200-roll school are papered with signs bearing stirring mottos such as
success is a journey, not a destination, and Albert Camus's dictum you
cannot create experience, you must undergo it.
Florence Dujardin on 12 Jul 11This article discusses shopping, especially critical shopping, as a process of informal and incidental adult learning about the intersecting politics of globalization and consumption. The author uses academic skills and disciplines as a metaphor to respond to an emerging conceptual question: To what extent can formality, informality, and incidentalism be seen as aspects of adult learning? The author conceptualizes learning as a holistic process, with emotional, spiritual, and intellectual dimensions, and identifies five themes that illustrate how the multidimensional learning in an everyday process such as shopping incorporates all three aspects. These themes are referred to as learning to learn, learning to do research, learning to develop a philosophy of shopping, learning to build a shopping-related literacy, and learning to construct a shopper's geography. This metaphor helps convey the depth and breadth of everyday learning and blur the conceptual distinction between formal and informal or incidental learning.
