ABSTRACT
During the design of a new undergraduate programme, the BA in Childhood Studies at Nottingham Trent University, much thought was given to the importance of students learning how to learn. It was decided to build into the programme a significant component, to complement the general support provided by the university for students’ development of their learning abilities: two, year-long compulsory modules called Inquiry Into Learning (IIL), one in Year One and the other in Year Two. A straightforward, study skills based approach was rejected because, using distinctions detailed in Chapter 2, it would have had a training rather than an educative purpose. Neither is learning taught as a subject. Furthermore, IIL would not be a generic course in how to learn, which would be universally applicable to learning anything (as an MBA is said to be about how to manage anything). Inquiry Into Learning would help students on this programme to learn how to learn and also take a key role in achieving a central programme aim: the development of personal and professional autonomy enabling them to enter and contribute to professional worlds related to Every Child Matters (DfES 2003).
