Dr. Merete Wiberg, Associate Professor in Philosophy of Education
Danish School of Education
Aarhus University Denmark
Talk Title: “The normative striving in learning”
Date and Time: Thursday, October 20th, 16:30-18:00
Where:
University of Edinburgh
Moray House School of Education,
Room: Paterson’s Land, Room 1.21
A map link to Paterson's Land:http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps?building=patersons-land
Abstract:
The talk addresses how normative striving is inherent in the learning process itself. In order to understand motivation as more than just inner psychological processes it is helpful to conceptualize how motives of learning are constituted from the perspective of the individual struggling to come to terms with what it considers valuable to learn. In this sense, inspired by Nicolai Hartmann, man can be seen as the axiological being. Learning is understood as the interplay between individual and world, while the individual – according to Hegel –stands midway between particularity and universality. Learning is, inspired by the philosophy of John Dewey and G.W. Hegel, seen as an inquiring process consisting of continuous evaluation of the individual’s own understanding. The idea, when focusing on normativity, individuality and learning, is not to prescribe how learning must be facilitated but to emphasize the normative aspect that must be taken into account when learning is intended and required.