IV International Conference on Multimedia and Information & Communication Technologies

 in Education (m­ICTE2006)

Learning that grows
Russell T. Osguthorpe1, 
 Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, 
1

USA russ_osguthorpe@byu.edu (801) 368­6908

Teachers and instructional designers universally seek to help learners go beyond simple mastery of an
educational objective. Remembering a newly learned fact or developing a new skill are laudable goals, but
all good educators seek for more. They hope that the newly acquired skill or knowledge do not lay
dormant inside the learner but continue to grow. This kind of growth leads to changes in the ways learners
see themselves. One type of competence leads to another type and yet another. The learning grows, and in
the process of this growth, the identity of the learner expands. In this paper a model is presented that
explains this type of identity formation. Those involved in the development of e-learning and other
technology-driven delivery systems are encouraged to consider the principles described in the model.

Keywords: Learning theory, identity formation

1. What is learning?

Commonly accepted definitions of learning usually focus on

a change in behavior that endures over time (see Gagné,
Wager, Keller, & Golas, 2004). In other words a child
learns how to ride a bicycle one day and can still ride it a
day, a week, or a month later. Figure 1 shows how such
learning might be depicted graphically.

One might say that this type of learning is learning that lasts. It endures beyond the time of initial
mastery. This type of learning usually makes teachers, designers, and technologists happy. “Our efforts
were not wasted,” they might say. “We delivered instruction, the student mastered the intended learning
outcomes, and the level of mastery endured.”

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 2 R. T. Osguthorpe, Learning that grows

1
2 In contrast to learning that lasts is learning that decays over
3 time. Imagine a student who is taking an online course in
4 American History, a course that requires the student to
5 match important events with shifts in the culture. The stu-
6 dent may master the intended content, take the test and per-
7 form quite admirably and then gradually forget most of what
8 was learned. Figure 2 depicts this type of learning.
9
10
11
12
13
14 No one involved in the American History course feels good about this type of learning. Teachers feel
15 unfulfilled, students feel empty, and administrators wonder if the funds devoted to the online course
16 could have been better spent elsewhere. In fact, learning that decays does not even qualify as learning at
17 all because it did not meet both parts of the original definition. Students may have mastered some
18 content they did not previously understand, but the change in their understanding did not endure over
19 time.
20
21 Now let us examine a third type of learning. Figure 3 shows
22 a form of learning that never goes beyond the first two
23 types. Rather than decaying or staying steady over time, it
24 keeps changing in a positive direction. This is learning that
25 grows. An example of such learning might be a student who
26 learns how to ride a bicycle and then starts asking questions
27 about how the gears on the bicycle work. With continued
28 instructional help the student dismantles the gear assembly
29 and replaces it with a better gear assembly. Even at a young
30 age, the student acquires the characteristic of someone who
31 is mechanically inclined and eventually becomes a
32 mechanical engineer.
33
34 Even if the student had not chosen to become an engineer, the interest in mechanical things might have
35 become a life-long hobby. The point is that the learning kept evolving long after the initial lessons were
36 taught. Skill development led to questions, and the questions led to more skill development until the
37 identity of the learner changed. This type of learning goes well beyond the original “acceptable” form of
38 learning that lasts. The end goal of such learning is not mastery of facts or skills, it’s acquiring a new
39 identity, an expanded view of oneself. How does an instructional designer or teacher plan for such
40 learning? What are the factors that contribute to learning that grows?
41
42
43 2. A model for learning that grows
44
45 I suggest that there are three primary factors that contribute to learning that grows: Expectations, Effort,
46 and Identity. Each of these factors are focused on the learner. In other words I am talking about the
47 expectations of the learner, the effort the learner puts forth to learn, and the changes in the learner’s
48 identity that accrue from the learning experience. Let us first examine learner expectations.
49
50 People seldom exceed their own expectations. And if they do, one might argue that their expectations
51 were too low. Without expectations, the airline pilot may never fly a plane or reach the desired
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© FORMATEX 2006
IV International Conference on Multimedia and Information & Communication Technologies
 in Education (m­ICTE2006)

3
destination. Without expectations, a student may never open a book to study. Expectations are thoughts
that lead to actions. Without them, there would be no human action at all. When I enter my car, I insert
the key and turn it because I expect that the car engine will start. When I ask the cashier if the store
accepts credit cards, I expect a response. Everything we do grows out of expectations.

But there is a critical difference between expecting something because one has already experienced it,
and expecting something that one has never experienced. The reason I expect the car engine to start when
I insert the key is because I have done it many times before, and it has always worked. Consider,
however, learners approaching a new task, one that they have never before experienced. Now
expectations take on a whole new meaning. If someone wants to teach me to hang glide—and I have
never done it before—where do my expectations come from? They come from my own view of who I
am in relation to the task to be learned. They come from my identity. Do I see myself as someone who is
quick to learn new physical skills? Do I see myself as a risk taker?

Three types of expectations affect learning: (1) expectations of oneself, (2) expectations of others, and
(3) expectations of the learning situation. For example, if I choose to learn how to hang glide, I have
certain expectations about how I will perform, perhaps even about the kinds of help I will need to
succeed. I have expectations about others and their ability to provide that kind of help. And I have
expectations about the situation itself. Even though I may never have attempted to hang glide, I see the
hang glider, I feel the wind, I watch others perform the task, and I form expectations about what hang
gliding is like, how it might feel, and how proficient I will be at mastering the skill. Figure 4 shows the
relationship between expectations, effort, and identity with the components of each contributing factor.

As the figure shows, agency

plays a role in the formation of
expectations and the exertion
of effort. One chooses—albeit
subconsciously at times—to
expect certain things and to put
forth certain types of effort.
What if, for example, my hang
gliding teacher explains to me
that she has taught over 1,000
students to hang glide without
any experiencing serious
injury. I may choose to take
that information and still
expect to be injured myself, or
I may choose to expect that I
will be like the other 1,000 and
learn in safety.

As the learning situation unfolds, learners must exert effort if they want to master the new skill. And the
kind and amount of effort they exert will be directly related to their expectations. If they expect to fail at
the task, they will be loath to try. If they expect to succeed, they will be eager to try. So expectations fuel
the learning experience at every turn. If learners expect to gain little from listening to the teacher, reading
the text, or completing the online instructions, they will likely expend little effort to those ends. If they
expect to gain much from instructional help, they will exert themselves both physically and mentally to

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 4 R. T. Osguthorpe, Learning that grows

1 master whatever help they can get. Their efforts will sometimes be individual and at other times
2 collaborative. In each case, expectations are again at the base of their efforts. They have expectations
3 about how well they work together with others and expectations about how effective they are on their
4 own.
5
6 If expectations are low and effort is lax, little learning will occur, but the learner’s identity will still be
7 affected—for the negative. With low expectations and half-hearted effort success is highly unlikely, and
8 the learner may draw many conclusions—again often subconsciously—from the experience. However, if
9 the learner has high expectations and exerts whole-hearted effort, success will be likely, and the learner
10 will draw very different conclusions from the experience. Returning to the hang gliding example, if I
11 decide that I will not be very good at it and then arrive late to my first lesson and tell the teacher that I
12 don’t think I’m cut out to be a hang glider, I might talk myself into not trying at all. Whereas if I get up
13 my courage, envision myself being lifted by the wind over the next hill, and do the requested exercises
14 before arriving at my lesson, everything will be different. My effort will be whole-hearted, my desire to
15 learn will be strong, and my ability to achieve my goal will increase quickly.
16
17 Figure 4 shows that the ultimate aim of learning is the transformation of one’s identity. Even though
18 learners seldom think about this, it is in learning that we become new people. We discard the old and
19 embrace the new. At times we doubt our own ability to grow into this new identity, but as we keep trying,
20 keep exerting whole-hearted effort, change comes. Wenger (1998) discusses how all learning can
21 eventually be viewed as transformative—helping forge a new identity:
22
23 Because learning transforms who we are and what we can do, it is an experience of identity. It
24 is not just an accumulation of skills and information, but a process of becoming—to become a
25 certain person or, conversely, to avoid becoming a certain person. Even the learning that we do
26 entirely by ourselves eventually contributes to making us into a specific kind of person. We
27 accumulate skills and information, not in the abstract as ends in themselves, but in the service of
28 an identity. It is in that formation of an identity that learning can become a source of
29 meaningfulness and of personal and social energy. (p. 215)
30
31 But identity change does not come all at once. And identity is not a single-dimension characteristic.
32 Figure 4 shows that there are at least five types of identity that can be affected by learning situations: (1)
33 professional identity, (2) personal identity, (3) talent identity, (4) character identity, and (5) learner
34 identity. Professional identity relates to the way I view myself in my chosen occupation. In the hang
35 gliding example, I may never choose to make it my profession, but then again, I just might decide to
36 retire from what I am now doing and become a hang gliding instructor.
37
38 Personal identity relates to personality traits. I remember a young man who wanted to develop his social
39 skills. He was socially reticent, uncomfortable in front of groups, and at times almost inaudible even
40 when speaking to just one other person. He set out to acquire social skills and in the process gained a
41 new identity as one who was socially comfortable and able to address large groups without hesitation.
42 His learning—although it focused on more than just conversational skills—was in the “service of an
43 identity.” He was trying to improve in his ability to succeed at his chosen profession, and in the process
44 was attempting tasks he had never attempted before so that he could discard the old and embrace the
45 new.
46
47 Talent identity is the development of one’s gifts. Rather than starting from scratch, learning that leads to
48 improved talent usually has some inborn seeds or gifts. Someone might say, “She is a talented basketball
49 player,” or “he is an exceptional artist.” It is not uncommon to describe people by their talents: “Which
50 friend are you talking about, the tennis player or the drummer?” Talents are part of one’s identity, and
51 talents are often the object of one’s learning.
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© FORMATEX 2006
IV International Conference on Multimedia and Information & Communication Technologies
 in Education (m­ICTE2006)

Character identity is always forming. This is the kind of identity that marks someone as a person of
integrity, an honest person, or a caring person. The ways in which one’s character develops are not
completely understood. But the centrality of character to one’s identity is beyond argument. No one
would claim that honesty or caring are unimportant characteristics of human beings. These
characteristics determine the degree to which one can be trusted, respected, and loved. And they are
forming in every learning experience. Some argue that character traits can be taught, others argue that
they must be “caught not taught” (Osguthorpe, 2005). But regardless of how such traits become part of
one’s identity, their importance is unassailable.

The fifth type of identity in Figure 4 is learner identity. I believe that this identity is key to one’s ability
to live a full life. Do I see myself as one who can learn anything that I need to learn at anytime in any
way? Or do I see myself as one who struggles to learn new things? In either case each new learning
experience adds to or changes learner identity. And all other forms of identity hinge on this one type.
How can I develop a character trait if I don’t feel that I can learn anything effectively? How can I
develop a new talent if I am a poor learner? How can I acquire a new characteristic in my personality or
become more skilled in my profession if I view myself as a problem learner?

3. Implications
Several years ago I observed my wife as she taught singing lessons. One of her pupils (we will call him
Jared) had a strong desire to learn to sing. At the age of 18 his inborn musical gifts were not very
apparent, and he also had a severe reading disability. At first he could hardly match pitch when my wife
asked him to sing a note she played on the piano. I asked her one day why she was working with him—if
she really thought he could learn to sing. She responded, “I just feel like he’s got something in there, and
I’m going to help him bring it out.” They kept working together week after week. After not hearing him
for a number of months, I entered our home one day and was astounded to hear how much improvement
he had made. My wife and I heard him sing a solo in front of about 600 people. He sang well. And most
who listened to him believed that he had always sounded that good. But we knew something they did not
know. We had witnessed the learning and the personal changes the learning brought.

Jared’s success was certainly due in part to his mastering interim instructional goals. He learned how to
maximize his personal gifts. And he improved in reading at the same time he improved in singing. All of
these achievements were impressive. But more impressive yet were the effects of his experience on his
own identity. He came to see himself as a capable learner, more capable than he had ever been in school.
He saw himself as a “singer.” And he saw his own personality expand, being comfortable to sing in front
of a large audience. He expected to learn to sing. And he exerted whole-hearted effort. And in the process
he became someone he had never imagined. This is learning that grows. It is a type of learning that is
available for all.

Jared’s story, and many more like it, call out to instructional designers and teachers to focus more on the
ultimate outcomes of learning rather than dwelling so much on the interim outcomes. The ultimate
outcomes focus on the identity formation of the learner. The interim outcomes focus on mastering
instructional objectives. How will such a shift be possible? It will happen in collaboration with others. It
will occur in communities of practice of designers and teachers. What this means is that designers and
teachers themselves must experience identity change. If designers see themselves as those who produce
products to effect a certain set of restrictive interim learning outcomes, then that is what will be
accomplished. If teachers see themselves as slaves to state-imposed instructional goals, then we will
never move beyond where we are right now. If, on the other hand, educators come to see themselves as

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 6 R. T. Osguthorpe, Learning that grows

1 fostering identity change in the learners, they will raise their sights and focus more on helping learners
2 raise their expectations and exert whole-hearted effort. This change, and it will not come quickly, will
3 lead to learning that transforms learners and fuels their expectations for greater future success.
4
5 4. Further information
6
7 For additional information contact the author at the following email address: russ_osguthorpe@byu.edu
8
9
10 References
11
12  [1] R.   M.   Gagné,   W.  W.Wager,  K.  C.  Golas,  and   J.   M.   Keller.  Principles  of  instructional design,  Ft.  Worth: 
13 Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich (2004).
14  [2] E. Wenger, Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 
15 (1998).
16  [3] Osguthorpe, R.D. On the possible forms a relationship might take between the moral character of a teacher and 
17 the   moral   development   of   a   student.   Paper   presented   at   the   annual   meeting  of   the   American   Educational 
18 Research Association, San Francisco, CA, 2006.
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