3. The effects of learning: general outcomes
3.1 Classifying effects
We begin with a simple matrix (see Figure 2 below). One dimension represents
effects of learning running from those that pertain very much to the individual alone,
to those that benefit the wider community. In many cases learning has both kinds of
effect, but for the purposes of this exercise this is a useful distinction. The second
dimension distinguishes learning that brings about transformation in people’s lives
from learning that enables individuals and communities to sustain what they are
doing. The former type of effect is most commonly reported and celebrated, quite
reasonably, for example in the accounts gathered across the country during Adult
Learners Week (ALW). But we point to a very important conservation effect, where
education prevents decay or collapse (at individual or community level), in addition to
those instances where it brings about change of a more or less dramatic kind.
By definition the sustaining effect is less visible than the transforming. Indeed, it is
from one angle always hypothetical, since it refers to the avoidance of a negative
development that would otherwise have occurred, and is largely untestable in a strict
positivist sense. A further difficulty is the time lag that is often involved: if education
were not available, it would in most (but by no means all) cases be some time before
the consequences were really felt, for example in terms of increased levels of
depression and therefore pressure on mental health services. But we have no problem
in including such benefits, and in attributing them to learning. We go further: this
sustaining effect is a hugely important benefit of learning, which has gone largely
unrecognised - partly because of the measurement problem, but also because of the
taken-for-grantedness of learning. Any estimate of the benefits, or general effects, of
learning should at least try to come to grips with the way it acts to sustain and nurture
some of the most fundamental aspects of social life.
Figure 2: Matrix classifying the effects of learning
|
A |
Indiv |
idual |
B |
|
Personal change |
Self-maintenance | ||
|
Tfq ∏ CTΛI∙IT1 Ilin _____________ |
Li -і ρfnι ∏i n cr | ||
|
± raɪɪsɪorɪɪɪɪɪɪg |
---------Sustaining | ||
|
C Community activism |
Collective/ |
community |
D Social fabric |
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