The Heart of Learning

doi:10.4236/ce.2013.412A2003

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Creative Education

2013. Vol.4, No.12B, 16-19

Published Online December 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2013.412A2003

Open Access

The Heart of Learning

Allan M. MacKinnon

Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

Email: [email protected]

Received October 17th, 2013; revised November 17th, 2013; accepted November 24th, 2013

Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original work is properly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights ©

2013 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian.

This essay explores the central importance of human interest and aspiration in learning. In an age when

our educational institutions and ministries of education seem to be preoccupied with defining and meas-

uring the “outcomes” of schooling, there is a great need to reconsider what we are doing in curriculum

studies and refocus at least some of our energy on helping young people develop and sustain their inter-

ests. I use an autobiographical account of my interest in playing guitar and how this is related to my for-

mative school experiences to develop my argument. The article also reviews literature tracing educa-

tional research and writing that focuses on the role of interest in learning.

Keywords: Motivation; Curriculum Studies; Activity Theory; Student-Centered; Learning Theory

Introduction

There is something about human character and spirit that lies

at the heart of learning, an emotive aspect of human nature and

development that brings one to put one’s heart into something,

or to have one’s heart set on something. The heart (core, center)

of the matter is the heart (passion) of learning, that is, the emo-

tive qualities associated with intrinsic motivation that make us

who we are. So the title of this essay is a pun with its double

meaning, the heart of learning. What I do not mean by the

heart of learning is “learning by heart”—our familiar colloqui-

alism for memorizing something—unless of course we are

talking about someone who memorizes, say, Marc Anthony’s

funeral speech from Julius Caesar to satiate a passion or obses-

sion for Shakespeare. Actually, I am writing about the role of

human interest in learning and what I wish to say is—the heart

of learning is human interest.

We need a deep personal construct psychology, or a theory of

being that would give new life to our understanding of learning,

knowledge and cognition by placing these concepts firmly in a

context of human agency vis-à-vis interest and aspiration. It is

the interests and aspirations of learners that determine the rela-

tionship they will have with whatever curriculum they encoun-

ter, whether in school or elsewhere. It is in the interest of learn-

ers that we should think again about what motivates learning,

how learners become motivated, and what sustains their moti-

vation. This essay is not so much a report of a research study as

it is a call to the educational research community, particularly

in the area of curriculum studies, to reconsider fundamental

notions about schooling and education. I explore my own story,

my own experience in the formative years at school that shapes

me and influences the way I am in the world to this day—the

way I see and understand the world, the way I see and under-

stand myself, and therefore how I find my place in the world.

The Challenge for Curriculum Studies

Suppose we were to heighten our awareness of the role of

human interest and aspiration in learning in order that we might

develop a different kind of window for looking out at the edu-

cational world? What would a school system or a ministry of

education look like, for instance, if it were built more upon the

interests of learners, and less upon what we expect them to

learn? What curriculum would we draw upon? Whose “cur-

riculum”? Surely we would ultimately have to turn the concept

of curriculum on its head such that the central driving force

would be the interests of learners rather than those of ministries

of education and political influences.

Learning as Purposive Activity

Let us consider first what goes into learning and then search

for a literature that illuminates the concept of human interest

and its role in learning. Learning is a purposive activity—it is

willful, deliberate and intentional, and it is manifest in a per-

son’s activity, behavior, outlook—in short, his or her way of

being in the world (Engeström, 1987, 1999; Lave & Wenger,

1991). This means that learning comes to bear in the context of

an agenda, that is, it happens when someone strives to achieve,

when somebody ‘reaches’ for something. As learning is pur-

posive, we cannot receive an education; we must take an educa-

tion. In order to flesh out and illustrate what this means, I de-

velop here an autobiographical account of my own life-long

interest in playing guitar. This interest is at the heart of my own

learning and development, my own identity I would say.

The Concept of Interest

I believe the typical attitude of educators toward students’

interests is one of casual indifference. By this I mean that many

A. M. MACKINNON

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of us actually believe we can educate children along side their

interests at best, or worse, despi te their interests. I think this is

unfortunate; I believe that students’ interest is by far the single

most important ingredient of their education. In search for a

deeper appreciation of the concept of interest and its role in

learning, it is useful to review a brief history of the develop-

ment of the concept as an important construct in the field of

education.

Herbart (1806/1965a, 1941/1965b) is cited as the first psy-

chologist to recognize the role of interest in learning (Hidi,

1990; Schiefel, 1991). He theorized that interest allows for

complete and accurate recognition of an object, that it leads to

meaningful learning and long-term storage of knowledge, and it

stimulates further learning. Schiefel (1991) notes that this early

work in psychology took hold in the work of a few German

psychologists, including Kerschensteiner (1922) and Lunk

(1926, 1927). Dewey (1913, 1916, 1938) is often cited as the

first ‘modern day’ psychologist/philosopher to write about the

role of interest in learning and education (Hidi, 1990; Schiefel,

1991). Hidi (1990) provides an extensive review of more recent

research and writing in this area, but comments as well on the

paucity of attention to the role of interest in learning.

Once we accept the premise that individual interest facilitates

learning, we must consider how interest develops, how the

interest/learning relationship actually works, and how it could

best be utilized in schools. … In fact, it is remarkable how little

we know about how early interests begin and what they lead to.

(p. 553)

My Story

As a young boy I became intrigued with guitars at the age of

six or seven. It was 1961, a time of innovation and creation in

the early years of the electric guitar and I was consumed with

the looks and the sounds—the whole ethos and intrigue sur-

rounding the guitar. When I was in grade three I made a guitar

from cardboard with elastic strings, and on seeing this, my

mother bought me a ukulele. I learned to play and sing songs

like ‘Old Black Joe,’ which I performed for my class at the

grade four Christmas party. I began to notice the relationship

between lyrics and musical tones and passages, as well as the

way an audience interacted with them. This first public per-

formance of strumming and singing was a milestone for me,

and I remembered it as such for many years to come.

The school in which I was enrolled had a school-wide as-

sembly every Friday morning—a practice that continued

throughout my attendance at the school from grade one to six.

At one of these assemblies when I was in Grade Two, an older

student mesmerized me by singing and playing electric guitar to

‘Sugar Time.’ Later, when I was in Grades Five and Six, I was

given extra jobs as a student monitor around the school for

various weekly routines. The assembly was one of these rou-

tines; for this I was in charge of operating the public address

system and stage lighting in the school auditorium. In this role

I also prepared the children who were about to perform in front

of their peers. The performance could be a dance, a piece on

the piano or violin, a song, a poem or short story that was read.

A sense of show business enshrouded me as though I were the

host of a variety show in the early days of television. Still

prominent in this whole gestalt, even today, is the memory of

the older boy singing, ‘Sugar in the morning, sugar in the eve-

ning….’

By grade six I had my first guitar and this was very signifi-

cant in my long journey of self-discovery. I also absorbed a

sense of show business vis-à-vis the school assembly, as I had

the experience of helping many of my school mates step in and

out of the spotlight on the school stage. By the time I was in

high school I was known to be a good guitar player, partly of

course because I also seemed to know how to work the stage.

I began playing with rock and country rock bands at the age

of fourteen; about the same time I began to teach guitar for a

local music conservatory. The guitar led me further and further

into other worlds, as I became fascinated with teaching the

guitar, how kids learn the guitar, how many different ways one

can play the guitar, ‘put one’s finger prints on it.’ I noticed

among my young students that only those who really wanted to

play would play proficiently, that those who struggled also

seemed to lack interest and motivation. To those who are pas-

sionate about guitar, playing it comes easily.

I continued to teach guitar while attending university and

eventually I became a school teacher and later a professor of

education. The whole while I continued to play guitar as much

as I could, continued to perform with bands, continued to write

and record music, still with the guitar as large as ever in my

mind. I still think, from time to time, about the older boy at the

school assembly singing ‘Sugar Time,’ and the feeling of prep-

ping my fellow classmates for the stage and ensuring the sound

and lighting were working properly. Not only am I still pas-

sionate about guitars to this day, I see myself as a guitar player

just as I did back in elementary school.

Sustained Interest

What can we say about this guitar in a young boy’s mind?

And what of the relationship between the boy and the guitar?

My interest in the guitar certainly had its influence on my

learning and development. It is one of my ‘inputs’ of learning,

one of the ‘resources’ for my education. One might say this is

obvious; why single it out? Out of all of the things I would

learn about and all of the many and varied activities in my life,

why focus on a childhood interest? Wouldn’t an education lead

a person away from childhood interests, further and further

from them, rather than deeper and deeper into them?

What can be said about a boy and a guitar? I learn about my-

self through my engagement with the guitar and this provides

the foundation for much of my other learning because this is

how I know myself. This view of myself in the world lies at the

core of my education and development, my engagement. My

view of myself as a guitar player influences my academic and

teaching life, the way I interact with students and colleagues. I

am a guitar player first, then a husband, a father, a teacher, a

colleague. I carry myself as a guitar player, I go where guitar

players go. I speak like a guitar player, act like one. I am living

out my conception of myself in the world, at the very base of

which lies my childhood passion, ever evolving, one I have

lived out all of my life. It is the guitar that will bring me out

into the world, help me to stand tall at my horizon to look out at

my future and see opportunity.

Individuality and Opportunity in Learning

Why guitar? Why not baseball? What made my interest so

strong, so alive? What seed was planted in my mind and how

did this occur? Here we can theorize until we are blue in the

A. M. MACKINNON

Open Access

face, still how interest develops must surely remain a mystery,

something like a miracle that happens somehow through our

interactions with our families, heritage, culture, and the various

situations in which we find ourselves. How interest happens is

illusive, yet we cannot deny the over-arching influence of our

passions and desires over what we become.

Having said that, we may consider another input of learning

as opportunity—opportunities in life to develop and pursue

interests and passions. These are the formative times in our

lives when we have the opportunity to develop interests in the

first place. Of course this depends on milieu, culture, economic

condition, the fashion of the times, and so on. Nevertheless, we

could in my example come to see the guitar as a tool and means

with which I interact with the milieu. The guitar not only medi-

ates my engagement in the world, it allows for the engagement

in the first place. In this way we begin to understand the guitar

and a young boy’s interest as ingredients of learning. Through

the guitar, I interact with the world. My passion for the guitar

develops and presents me to the world dialogically through the

opportunities at hand.

The opportunities at hand nourish our view of ourselves and

our deepening passions and forming identities. The more I be-

came known for playing the guitar, the more opportunities

came and the more I was occupied—preoccupied—with play-

ing the guitar, and the more I put my heart into it. We can begin

to see the individual’s relationship with society—the opportu-

nities at hand—as karaoke. Literally, the word means ‘empty

song.’ In karaoke, one can enter an empty song and fill it as its

singer. The technology of karaoke provides a musical structure

that is quite literally a song without a singer. Through karaoke,

people find out whether they are singers or not. The more they

feel like singers, the more they go to karaoke; the more they go,

the better they get and the better the response from the audience;

the better the response, the greater they feel and behave like a

singer, and so on in spirals of contingencies. The occasion to

‘enter the song’ is furnished by the individual’s developing

identity, which is in dialogical relationship with society.

When we think about a child’s developing identity, we can

see in my example that the guitar is at the center of a whole

world of influences. The very nature of rock and roll music

provides a template for social uprising and critique. It is a cul-

ture of rebellion, and the guitar especially is like a tool for the

working-class man to sing the blues, to express his opinion

about the way things are and the way they ought to be. The

guitar, together with the culture of rock and roll music, can

become a vehicle for transcending from the conditions of eve-

ryday life and the problems of society. In this sense, the guitar

is like the pen of the poet, which permits a certain element of

cheekiness and impertinence on the part of rock and roll musi-

cians, and hence some latitude for a young boy in expressing

himself as I did.

I suppose I would need a great deal more thought and analy-

sis in order to truly understand the role of the guitar in my mind

and heart and my learning. Of course, I was not alone in my

interests and motivations. There were and still are many, many

other people of all ages like myself who have a guitar stuck in

their minds, who anchor themselves in life with a guitar. We

would need to learn a great deal more to understand why this is

the case. But it is fascinating to think, in the example developed

here, that I was in fact profoundly influenced by my early

school experience, particularly my formative elementary school

days. As I look back on my early school experiences, these

profound influences seem to have had little to do with the cur-

riculum, or the intended outcomes of the school system in terms

of the way we understand them today.

A Theoretical Foundation for Interest

We cannot appreciate the importance and role of the guitar in

a child’s mind and education without turning to some kind of

personal construct theory or psychology. We need a dialogical

view of self and its social contingencies that is developmental

and multi-focal (Jonassen, 2000; Wertsch, 1998, 1991). We

also need a conception of education as an emotive process that,

for better or worse, follows in the wake of human interest, as-

piration and identity. The core of education for me is the ques-

tion of how one comes to know oneself. How do we, as social

entities, compose ourselves? How do we understand what and

who our influences are, and how is it that we come to see our-

selves in relation to these influences? Our interests tend to de-

fine us as well as our socio-cultural contingencies in the world;

they play a vital role in the kind of education we will ultimately

take for ourselves.

Activity Theory and Dialogism

Knowledge is always embedded in some kind of exchange,

some kind of relation, either mental or material (Lave &

Wenger, 1991; Wertsch, 1991). By material, I’m referring to

the body and its physical constituents and circumstance, draw-

ing attention to the notion that our knowledge is not only in our

minds, but also embedded in our movements, actions, activities,

mediated social practices and rituals (Jonassen, 2000; Lave &

Wenger, 1991). Part of our knowledge we also need to see as

being unmitigated, that is it grows inside our minds and bodies

without our being aware that it’s there. It turns out that some of

our learning is not intentional, that we know more than we can

tell, that we know how to do many things we are unable to de-

scribe.

Together, personal construct theory, a dialogical view of self,

identity and agency, and a view of knowledge as mediated ac-

tivity in social practices, provide a way to see the role and im-

portance of interest in learning. Here, psychology, sociology

and philosophy come together in a contemporary notion that

illuminates the depth of interest and learning that is possible in

young minds and the over-arching power that their interests

wield in shaping their lives.

A Promising Turn in Policy

I think there are two main points I would like to make about

learning. The first is really a comment on human nature itself. It

seems as though we are under constant self-composition or self-

construction. We make ourselves up as we go. It is as though

every day brings a re-birthing of interest, a new act of reaching

for the next bit of information, the next fix of playing the guitar

or whatever it happens to be, as though a person is never really

fully developed. What we think as our identity seems to be in

flux, in constant motion, under continual assessment, as though

cognition itself is the act of reaching. This is like a stage in the

school auditorium during assembly. The educational point to be

made is that this is the assembly where learning happens. There

are many people in the wings, in our various individual assem-

blies, of course, but the second point about learning—the one

A. M. MACKINNON

Open Access 19

that we just cannot seem to grasp publicly—is that each of us is

really our own director, determining the program as we go. The

assembly, whether it actually occurs in public or only in our

minds, helps us to see ourselves in relation to, and in terms of

our interests. We need some kind of reification of public inter-

est in our school system that would bring new ways of ad-

dressing the intellectual and emotional development of our

children. In short, we need to engage in our students, some-

times leading, sometimes following their interests, but always

focusing on identifying, sustaining, and developing genuine

interest in our classrooms.

The recent British Columbia Education Plan (BC Ministry of

Education, 2011) presents a Canadian example of a radical new

policy framework for the role of student interests and aspira-

tions in their learning. A short excerpt is illustrative and pro-

vides an appropriate optimistic note with which to end this

article:

Under the Plan, teachers, students and parents will work to-

gether to make sure every student’s needs are met, passions are

explored and goals are achieved. This means student-centered

learning should be focused on the needs, strengths and aspira-

tions of each individual young person. Students will play an

active role in designing their own education and will be in-

creasingly accountable for their own learning success. It’s all

about putting students at the center of education. That means

giving teachers and schools the flexibility to make sure each

student is well served by their educational program. Each stu-

dent is unique and our education system will support each stu-

dent’s interests and ways of learning (p. 5).

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