Why I *heart* Illeris (2007)

Illeris, K. (2007). How we learn: Learning and non-learning in school and beyond (M. Malone, Trans.). London and New York: Routledge.

Introductory Review
I first encountered this book in a class on Adult Learning.  I loved it.  Most of my colleagues did not.  As with the writings of many European intellectuals, Illeris is not an easy read.  Phraseology and sentence structures will feel foreign to most American readers, and it is sometimes difficult to identify the common thread that ties the various sections of a chapter together, especially at the beginning of a chapter.  However, readers who stick with Illeris will find that seemingly disparate thoughts come together in creative and convention-challenging ways. 

Critics could argue that this book simply re-presents and repackages findings and theories that have been published elsewhere, but that's what I find so beautiful about the book.  The array of disciplines, perspectives, and topics that Illeris engages is dizzying:  adult education, educational psychology, teaching & learning, economics, neuroscience, policy studies, philosophy, curriculum development, critical theory, business & management, social psychology, psychotherapy, developmental psychology, to name a few.  Furthermore, even though Illeris hails from Denmark, he is just as likely to cite a North American as he is a person from the continent.  But even more important is what Illeris does with this far-flung input.  He reports it.  He dissects it.  He critiques it and sometimes dismisses it.  He takes what he thinks is best from it and repurposes it.  The result is a more complete, better nuanced, well integrated, and often graphically illustrated explanation of how learning takes place and how it can and should be fostered.

 Along the way, Illeris clarifies and more fully fleshes out his multi-process, multidimensional model of learning; melds Piaget, Nissen, and Mezirow into a new typology of learning; creates and defines terms to describe barriers to learning; considers how things such as heredity, human development, and context impact learning; critiques society's approach to formal education; and makes reform recommendations that he believes will reverse the downward spiral being experienced in schools across the modern world.  This is an amazing feat for such a compact volume (289 pp.). That's why I heartily recommend it to serious learners as a first primer on human learning.

Chapter Notes
I recently posted notes for two chapters of this book that I thought might have something to teach me about program planning.  The notes for Chapter 12, Learning in Different Learning Spaces, can be found here.  Similarly, the notes for Chapter 13, Learning, Education, and Society, can be found here.  If I ever have the opportunity to go back and create posts for the rest of the chapters, I'll list them below.