SLA RESEARCH ON SELF-DIRECTION: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES

With regards to this issue, I find it particularly useful to refer to what A. Little
calls a learning arena:

In a learning arena there are learners and educators who engage in joint
activity with a sense of expectation about the content of learning, the manner
of learning, the motivation of learning and the outcome of learning (ibid, 9)

One of the fundamental features of learning arenas, according to A. Little, is the
encounter of two sets ofbeliefs systems. There are two factors to take into account. First,
the sets ofbeliefs about the “learning content, learning method, learning motivation and
learning outcomes^,,(ibid.) are -or better- should be, different in some way. Second, this
encounter necessarily involves the confrontation of the two sets of beliefs in question. I
highlighted the words ‘different’ and ‘confrontation’ because these are essential
conditions for a learning arena to act as such. A. Little expresses these features in terms
of familiarity:

The learner brings to the arena familiar knowledge, familiar reasons for
learning and familiar ways of assessing learning. The educator offers the
learner unfamiliar knowledge, unfamiliar methods of learning, unfamiliar
reasons for learning and unfamiliar outcomes of learning - or some
combination of these four (ibid.).

As I see it, the term “familiar” is relative. For each individual, the
familiarity∕unfamiliarity issue depends upon her particular background, specific
experiences, and personal needs and interests. Nevertheless, in any case, the difference in
sets ofbeliefs represents a gap between them, and the confrontation I mentioned above is
the attempt to bridge that gap. This is the way A. Little understands learning within the
concept of learning arena:

Once the gap has been brigded the learner possesses new knowledge, a new
method of learning, a new reason for learning, and/or a new outcome of
learning (ibid.).

Thus, to elaborate on Riley’s definition, drawing on A. Little, a learning culture is
an arena for learning in which two (the learner’s and the educator’s) different sets of
representations, beliefs and values are confronted in order for learning to take place. The
descriptive features of a learning arena or culture are, according to A. Little, multiple
outcomes, social interaction, challenge and dynamism. The outcome of learning can be
knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and behaviours, either all of them or any combination
of some. Generally speaking, a learning arena implies social contact, face-to-face
interaction and joint activity between the learner (or learners) and the educator.

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