Except for a few classes that may have touched on Learning Theories (over 20 years ago,) I don't recall ever formally learning any perspectives on how learning occurs. Prior to reading some of John Dewey's book Democracy and Education and Frank Smith's book The Book of Learning and Forgetting my point of view about how learning takes place was the result of observations, educated guesses, and techniques that had been proven to me and/or learned and applied by me through instructing and training. In addition, my experience in formal settings is limited to adult learners.
Both of these books offer research and examples to cite their core posture of how the author's believe learning occurs. While I am only a third of the way into Dewey's book; so far he offers philosophical examples and historical overview of some theories on education and learning. Personally, I found the writing to be difficult to digest, mainly due to the high level of vocabulary and dryness of the examples and perspective he writes about. The time it required me to dedicate to reading was worth it however. It was particularly interesting to read his examples of German and Greek philosophers.
I found myself disagreeing with what I would characterize as Dewey's broad generalizations and perceived leaps to certain conclusions. I feel he mis-characterizes some societal fixtures (for example, industry, or government motives for encouragement of education). Although my digital copy of the book depicts street graffiti given all the bright highlighted areas I have regarding the points I liked, great statements, interesting historical commentary, and outright points I disagree with. The depth that Dewey goes into coupled with his verbose examples made it necessary for me to keep a notebook to annotate many of his points so I could organize where his perspective was going.
The Book of Learning and Forgetting is written more conversationally; with logical examples, observations, and witty commentaries. So far, Smith makes specific connections identifying two contrasting methods of looking at how learning occurs; what he refers to as the Classic View and the Official theory. He contrasts the obvious ways that learning occurs among people (classic) and what the modern common perspective is where learning takes work (official theory). He is an obvious proponent of the classic view and his examples are short and concise to display that views positive attributes.
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