School Didactics And Learning: a school Didactic Model Framing An Analysis of Pedagogical Implication of Learning Theory

was
made; in conscious, deliberate
learning, progress is 
always
made. In this case progress covers a result which implies that an individual
found a task too difficult under certain conditions, i.e. that the learner learned that the task was too difficult,
or learned what 
kind
of task it was etc. We may thus conclude that the reaching of the intended competence
is not necessary in order to identify learning.
MATURATION, EXPERIENCE AND LEARNING
Now, can one possess some type of competence or knowledge that is reached by other means than learning?
In answering this question we can approach the problem from two perspectives. Firstly, we must decide if
competence can be identified with innate abilities or reached through maturation. Secondly, we must deal
with the problem concerning the relation between experience and learning.
It is often claimed that individual changes caused by maturation are not counted as learning (Carey &
Gelman, 1991; Gibson & Peterson, 1991). The relation between maturation and learning is, however,
complex.
In discussing the relation between genetically based development and learning, we must remember that a
part of the genetically determined maturation (which develops differently under different conditions), opens
possibilities to reach a certain degree of experientially based competence. For example, in considering the
example of walking we may say that a child must have reached a certain level of biological maturity in
order to succeed; the level of maturity does not however lead to the competence of walking by itself. In a
sense biology sets a limit to what can be learned. Our biological constitution provides us with certain
capabilities which allow us to develop (learn) different types of culturally based competence. The nativist
theory of language learning and cognitive development also argues along these lines, i.e. that individuals are
born with a rudimentary innate system which forms the basis for learning a natural language. Then, having
learned culturally determined concepts, these gradually become the instruments of reflection (Leontjev,
1977).
Experience and Learning
The term experience has very different meanings. Usually it refers to immediate experience or
experiencing, i.e. to the kind of experience that every moment of life is full of, i.e. immediate, engaged
beingness or life as lived through. This meaning of experience is close to the German 
Erlebnis
(Swedish
20
SCHOOL DIDACTICS AND LEARNING

---

upplevelse
). One could say that reflection upon immediate experience, 
Erlebnis,
results in experience in the
second sense of the word, reflected experience, expressed by the German 
Erfahrung
(Swedish 
erfarenhet
).
Acknowledging the difference between these two senses of experience affects our understanding of what it
means to say that learning “must result from some sort of…experience” (Shuell, 1986). It can only mean
that one refers to the first sense of experience, i.e. immediate experience, since the second sense of
experience is a result of reflecting upon the first. We can also identify the difference by saying that even if
two persons have experienced a number of equal things, this alone does not entitle us to claim that both are
equally experienced. To 
be
experienced (generally) requires proper reflection on one’s experiences or that
an individual has extracted meaning from or given meaning to some experience. Yet all reflection on one’s
experiences should not be identified with learning.
If changes in our understanding of something occurring without systematic practice, i.e. unintentionally,
are included in the concept of learning, then we seem to end up in a situation where every possible change
should be called learning. Some of these changes would occur as a result of conscious efforts and others
more or less accidentally. From a pedagogical perspective it is natural to concentrate on those changes in
competence which occur as a result of systematic reflection on experiences.
Conscious reflection upon one’s experiences (that will most likely result in experience) might thus be
identifiable with one kind of learning process. However, it seems that this model would require something
that is capable of reflecting on experiences, something that may recognize an experience either as something
new or as something already known. This ability could be called self-reflection. It may also be possible to
view an experience (German