It’s about structure. The more I think about it, the more I realise that learning needs to be structured. Nunan came up with an interesting concept years ago called feral learning, which he didn’t really define, but which struck a chord with me. I’ve often thought that doing a PhD was the quintessential example of feral learning, particularly with respect to being outside the normal confines of domesticity (ie a bit wild and taking whatever you can to survive). Someone doing a PhD has had lots of training in how to ’survive the wilds of academia’ and yet, the PhD has very little structure (at least in Australian universities).

So for first years, they need to be introduced to the structure, the processes that are important for learning and for making one’s way in the wild (of both academia and the so-called real world). This means that everything I want them to do must be broken into smaller parts. If they can get the parts, in order, they can construct the solution, that is, they can put all those parts together into whatever it is they need to do. In developing an understanding of the use and processes of spreadsheets, we can break it down into

1. entering data
2. manipulating data
3. calculating with data
4. presenting data (starting to become information)
5. analysing data/information
6. discussing information

In effect, there will be a tutorial for each of those activities with some having more than one tutorial. That’s what I want to control. That structure. That processes of development.

Perhaps the title of this post should have been: It’s not JUST about control. After all, I’m obviously a control freak