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Reflections on a Definition: Revisiting the Meaning of Learning

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Second International Handbook of Lifelong Learning

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE,volume 26))

Abstract

We learn all the time. Literally. We learn all the time we live. In fact, learning and living are profoundly intertwined. Learning is an integral aspect of what it means to live a fully human life. It starts nine months before we are born and ends when we die. Or does it? Any new human organism emerges in the context of an evolutionary history – genetically as well as culturally – that allows it to take over from and build on what those who went before it left behind. Thus, others will similarly take over from us and build on what, of our own learning, remains relevant and valid for future generations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

     The term ‘organismic learning’ is used instead of ‘organisational learning’ to give the concept a broader meaning that can just as easily be applied to self-organised social units, such as families, as to deliberately organised social entities, such as corporate bodies. Most of the literature on organisational learning refers to the latter.

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Visser, J. (2012). Reflections on a Definition: Revisiting the Meaning of Learning. In: Aspin, D., Chapman, J., Evans, K., Bagnall, R. (eds) Second International Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 26. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2360-3_12

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