Understanding Learning (JiTL)-What is Learning and How Do People Learn?

Pdf Summary

This document summarizes five key contemporary works on learning science and workplace learning practice to inform the design and operation of Singapore’s Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) Academy. The Academy aims to support continuous competency development and the transition to a learning organization.

1. <strong>How We Learn</strong> by Stanislas Dehaene emphasizes four neural “pillars” crucial for learning: attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation (including sleep). Learning forms internal mental models adjusted through hypotheses testing and error correction. Emotional safety and curiosity are vital, and unlike AI, humans excel at data-efficient, abstract, social, and one-trial learning.

2. <strong>How People Learn II</strong> (US National Academies) stresses that learning is culturally influenced and active. Motivation depends on learners feeling a sense of belonging, agency, and value. Effective workplace learning involves spaced practice, retrieval, and connecting knowledge to organizational goals, with a culture that tolerates mistakes and encourages accountability for development.

3. <strong>How Learning Works</strong> by Ambrose et al. defines learning as a process leading to lasting change in knowledge or behavior, driven by prior knowledge, motivation, mastery through practice, feedback, and metacognition. Learning climate matters emotionally and socially. Self-directed learners monitor and adjust their approach.

4. <strong>How People Learn</strong> by Shackleton-Jones presents learning not as knowledge transfer but a change in behavior driven by affective context—learners remember emotional reactions. Effective design connects with learners’ concerns (‘pull’) or creates concerns (‘push’). Resources should be practical, accessible, and task-focused. Organizational learning succeeds by aligning performance outcomes with learners’ real tasks and contexts, fostering a positive learning culture and integrating learning with work.

5. <strong>Experimentation Works</strong> by Stefan Thomke advocates building an "experimental organization" where experimentation is part of the culture at all levels, encouraging controlled testing with intellectual humility and a learning mindset. Experimentation drives innovation and decision-making and becomes essential with rising AI and digital transformation, requiring leadership commitment and cultural change.

Together, these perspectives highlight that learning is an active, socially and emotionally embedded process requiring motivation, error correction, practice, and cultural support. For IHiS Academy, this means designing learning experiences focused on performance outcomes, learner engagement, supportive feedback, accessible resources, integration with work, and fostering a culture that embraces experimentation and continuous improvement.

Asset Subtitle

A concise summary of 5 commonly used texts/references on the application of learning research to teaching and learning design.

Keywords

learning science

workplace learning

IHiS Academy

competency development

neural pillars of learning

learning organization

experimentation culture

emotional safety in learning

self-directed learning

continuous improvement