Social Learning: The Heartbeat of Communities and Networks

Mapping learning processes and outcomes

Often, when reflecting on ‘learning’, people recall their days of compulsory schooling, filled with specific content to learn and tests to complete. Yet, when we stop to think about it, most learning experiences differ from this. From learning to tie shoelaces, to the intricacies of how to interact on a social network, we learn by imitation and from others.

In other words, learning occurs both unintentionally and intentionally, both solo and collectively. It’s something that happens daily in all different kinds of ways. So when we’re thinking of designing learning experiences with and for others, we need to be aware of different forms of learning; each can be used effectively for various purposes.

Learning in four quadrants

A good place to start in understanding different forms of learning is with the work of De Laat & Simons (2002). They map learning processes and learning outcomes against each other to create four ‘quadrants’ of learning. A slightly adapted version, with the quadrants renamed for clarity, can be found below:

To explain those four quadrants with some examples:

1. Individual Learning

Self-directed learning processes and personal knowledge acquisition.

Examples:

• Learning to cook a new dish by following a recipe found in a cookbook or online, adjusting it through trial and error to suit one’s own taste.
• An independent bookstore owner researching and implementing a new inventory system to better track sales and customer preferences.
• An activist educating themselves on legal rights and protest strategies through various self-study materials to organise a non-violent civil disobedience campaign for social justice.

2. Networked Learning

Individual learning that occurs as a result of being part of a broader network.

Examples:

• Using a neighbourhood social networking app to exchange gardening tips and local plant knowledge with nearby residents.
• A cafe owner joining a national coffee shop network to share insights on sustainable sourcing and eco-friendly practices.
• Environmental scientists across the globe collaborating through a virtual network to share research on plastic degradation, aiming to develop new solutions to the plastic waste crisis.

3. Participatory Learning

Individuals actively engaging in learning communities.

Examples:

• Local people sharing knowledge and learning from each other’s experiences in a community garden about planting seasons, pest control, and crop rotation.
• A coworking space that hosts weekly skill-sharing sessions where entrepreneurs share expertise on various topics such as marketing, legal issues, or funding strategies.
• The forum of a social movement where members discuss and learn from each other about effective strategies for advocating policy changes to address income inequality.

4. Cooperative Learning

Structured group learning with common goals and shared knowledge creation.

Examples:

• A group of friends forming a book club where they read and discuss books together, each person bringing their own perspective to the discussion.
• Renewable energy companies working together through a consortium to develop a shared framework for assessing the environmental impact of their products.
• An international coalition of NGOs designing a cooperative learning program for young leaders from marginalised communities, focusing on climate action and sustainable development.

Types of social learning

As we can see, the difference here is not simply between ‘learning alone’ or ‘learning with others’. Putting to one side Individual Learning, let’s dig into the three types of learning involving a collective or ‘social’ element:

Where do Communities of Practice (COPs) sit in relation to these three types of learning? The answer is that CoPs can involve all three, depending on the members of the community, how they interact, and what their goals are. This is why the value cycles we discussed in our post about the Community Conversations workshops are so important. CoPs change and mature over time, with different forms of learning happening for different people at different times.

Conclusion

There is no one form of learning that is best for every situation. For example, you might find a manual useful for fixing a boiler, but a manual would be of little use when learning to abseil.

Using the right type of learning depends both on the process you want to follow and the outcome you want to reach:

• If you want to help people or organisations enhance their own knowledge or skills by interacting with others, then look at a Networked Learning approach.
• If you want to help them work separately on the same (or similar) goals then consider a Participatory Learning approach.
• If you want shared involvement to reach a common goal, then perhaps a Cooperative Learning approach would be best suited.

Taking the time to understand both what you and your learners want from a situation can save a lot of time, money, and frustration. Designing a course to deliver the latest information might be important in the world of compliance training, but for the vast majority of learning experiences, it’s the social component that provides a lot of the value.