Abstract
This is a thought-provoking book written by Rolf Arnold, a German professor of adult education. The book is based on Arnold’s concept of enabling didactics (translated from German: Ermöglichungsdidaktik). Enabling didactics adopts a constructivist epistemology and positions the role of the teacher as an enabler: Arnold argues that learning is always self-directed at its core; thus, teaching rather than being deemed as a transitive verb should reflect the practice of teachers designing imaginative learning environments that encourage and enable learning. In this book, Arnold presents a convincing and informed perspective that rather than focusing on the process of “teaching,” teachers should give central attention to facilitating internal individual learner cognitive processes and developing learning competencies.
Building on humanistic psychologists’ philosophical grounding and evidence from cognitive science, Arnold begins by presenting a convincing argument that many learners enter adulthood perceiving learning as a negative activity to be avoided: they have become accustomed to associating “learning” with educational experiences in which they are obliged to comply with external regulatory stipulations and parameters. Arnold follows by providing a comprehensive set of 29 chapters or “rules,” each of which depicts imaginative solutions to routinely encountered problems in the teaching environment. Arnold calls this an “unfinished” collection of rules that focus on how to enable teachers to organize learning environments that facilitate and enable the internal cognitive processes of learning to flourish, to ultimately encourage learners to view learning and the prospect of lifelong learning in a positive way.
The strengths of the book include the creative comprehensive range of solutions to teaching problems. In particular, Arnold encourages his readers to use reflection within a process of continual improvement toward the practice of enabling didactics. The book’s breadth of creative ideas is comprehensive and includes self-reflection exercises, learner tools, a learner model framework, and teacher case studies. For example, Rule 24—“Let outcomes guide your teaching activities”—gives direction on how teachers can let individual learner goals guide their planning of teaching activities in working toward the practice of enabling didactics. A teacher self-check for competencies in enabling didactics is included to allow teachers to reflect on their teaching practice. Arnold also supplies a number of tools that teachers can use with their students. Within Rule 3—“Strengthen the learner’s self-learner skills!”—Arnold describes a list of tools to facilitate self-learning. Rule 12—“Follow the criteria for vibrant and long-lasting learning”—includes the LENA learning model framework created by Arnold in a joint project with the Austrian WIFI Trainer Network. Based on the concept of enabling didactics and aimed to encourage lifelong and sustainable learning, the model has five components: self-paced, productive, activating, situated, and social. These five components form the acronym “SPASS,” which translates (from German) to fun. This learning model framework is an important centerpiece of this book and the effectiveness of the model in practice warrants further investigation.
There are some weaknesses of this book. First, Arnold’s words are very carefully crafted; however, because some parts of the book were translated from German, a few fine details of this creative writing may have been lost in translation. For example, the first element of the LENA model self-paced (originally selbstgesteuert [German]) is more accurately translated as self-directed. Moreover, the sequencing of the book content could have been more logical. For instance, the LENA learning model framework is presented in Rule 12. However, other rules appear to build upon and give detail to how teachers can implement this model effectively in practice. Finally, the model and ideas presented in this book are insightful, but nevertheless are generalized, and therefore one cannot assume that enabling didactics can function, or be welcomed in all contexts. Nevertheless, educational systems or teachers that conform to an instructional style of teaching may also find this book interesting, especially for reflection on their teaching practices.
I would recommend this book, particularly as a course text for teacher training. What stands out in this book is Arnold’s passion for wanting to assist educators to move away from traditional instructive practice. When read carefully this book has a powerful capacity to encourage teachers to reflect on their teaching practice, and thus this book is also particularly useful to help teaching practitioners understand why and how they should move away from traditional instruction. I would also therefore recommend this book for all educators who are actively seeking to improve their teaching competencies. Finally, the LENA learning model framework is of significant importance in this book and provides an excellent comparison to other internationally recognized models.