Learning to Learn: Toward a Philosophy of Education

Addressing specific questions of what should be learned, the nature of the learner, and the learning process, Learning to Learn offers a fresh perspective on basic issues in philosophy of education. The special thrust of this book is to establish a theory of cognitive activity before taking up issues of curriculum and human nature. The author's approach, which is grounded in the insights of Michael Polanyi, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and the later Ludwig Wittgenstein, focuses on learning as mediated through tacit and participatory processes in relational contexts.
Jerry Gill first discusses the nature of cognitive activity (the knowing) from an epistemological perspective, and then moves on to a consideration of human nature (the knower) and of curriculum (the known). The book's three parts each begin with a survey of the ideas of four major educational theorists, A. N. Whitehead, John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Carl Rogers. Professor Gill then presents his own angle of approach and concludes with a discussion of practical classroom principles and practices, especially at the college and university level.