Midwest Research-to-Practice Conference in Adult, Continuing, and Community Education
Abstract
Educators are increasingly incorporating collaborative and other group methods into the design of online learning. For the most part, however, these efforts reflect technical-rational views of group process. In this paper, we argue that this view of group process understates the
significance of unconscious and invisible processes in online learning. Using psychodynamic
theory, we discuss the role of unconscious processes in online learning and pedagogical
strategies that may be helpful in making these processes more visible.
In The Little Prince we are taught that it is only with the heart that we see rightly and what is essential is invisible to our eyes. We are interested in fostering online learning environments characterized by teaching and learning from the heart. Such an approach, however, requires a richer understanding of the emotional dynamics of online collaborative groups and how deep learning reflects a process essentially invisible to the eye.
Online learning programs are increasing at exponential rates (Bishop and Spake, 2003; Kariya,
2003) and many of their participants are adult learners. The design of learning experiences
within these programs is also evolving. While early online programs focused largely on
transmission and mastery of bodies of information, more emphasis is now being placed on
collaborative methods (Bruffee, 1999; Dirkx & Smith, 2003)), such as case study, problem-based
learning, and the fostering of learning communities in online contexts. For the most part,
these collaborative approaches remain defined within a technical-rational paradigm that
stresses subject matter or skill mastery. More expressive dimensions of adult learning, such as
fostering awareness of and reflecting on the process and dynamics of individual and group
learning remain underdeveloped or ignored by both researchers and practitioners. Yet, adult
learning principles and constructivist approaches stress the centrality of meaning-making to
learning and the dialectical relationship of the self of the learner with the content and context of learning (West, 2001). Process issues, however, are often difficult to discern even in face-to-face groups and can remain largely invisible in virtual, online contexts. The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem of group process in online learning, to
elaborate a deeper understanding of the role of process in fostering deep learning, and to
discuss pedagogical strategies that make more visible unconscious emotional processes and
dynamics associated with these deeper forms of adult learning