Effortless learning... Can we believe it?

Learning without even noticing?

Learn effortlessly, and why not in your sleep? It's something we often dream about, especially as our environment pushes us ever more efficiently. And methods abound.

We're promised fun, progressive learning or learning in small steps, without even realizing it. And yet... Can you imagine a Renaissance painter applying the precept of "painless and effortless"? Can you imagine musicians taking to the stage without having rehearsed dozens of times? And what about a writer who acquired his style from a dozen tricks?

And yet, the methods that teach us to draw from simple shapes give us a bit of self-confidence, they change our outlook, they make us believe that by being a bit smarter, we could avoid unnecessary effort. And above all, they enable us to improve our results very quickly.

The scarecrow of effort-based learning

Opponents of effort pedagogy particularly reject the value of useless effort and the feeling that we have to go through a phase of unpleasantness and suffering in order to learn. C

riticizing the pedagogy of effort means criticizing a pedagogy where play has no place and where the teacher is at the center, in a logic of transmission. It means criticizing a pedagogy where grades and ranking are seen as the only motivating factors. And finally, it's to criticize a pedagogy that sees mistakes as the result of a lack of attention or hard work.

François Chatelain clarifies the place of effort in pedagogy in his article "Principes de l'éducation nouvelle". He contrasts two visions of effort.

The active school," he says, "banishes effort prompted by secondary motives external to the child. Above all, it banishes effort prompted solely by the fear of sanctions, punishment, grading, etc. This kind of effort, linked to the fear of punishment and grading, is the result of the child's fear of the future. This type of effort, linked to fear, is repudiated because it seems to be both ineffective for work and, as we shall see later, for moral education. [...]

This is why we endorse M. Bloch's thought: "The opposition is not between the pedagogy of interest and the pedagogy of effort, but between the pedagogy of effort carried, sustained and invigorated by interest and the pedagogy of empty effort."

Effort is often essential for learning!

In most areas of learning, whether languages or techniques, the feeling of learning is very strong at the outset. After a few days devoted to learning a language, you can get by. Several hours of guitar lessons, and you start to produce recognizable sounds and melodies. But the progress that follows is much more difficult, and as skills consolidate, the next step is more laborious. The learning curve is not linear!

In pilot training, learners feel they are making great progress in the early stages. But progress can quickly reach a plateau. More flying hours are needed before progress is noticeable. Pilots may even regress, consolidating erroneous learning. This is the moment when effort, perseverance and persistence must take the place of the stimulation of the first discovery.

Effort and pleasure in learning are not incompatible

Effort and pleasure are found in the feeling of surpassing oneself, in the achievement of a work or project of which one feels proud. The pleasure of learning is experienced in the tension that leads to culture, away from routine, and even more so from the advertising and media discourse that sees them as marketing targets.

Effort can even be a source of pleasure and motivation. This is what Coraline Chapatte tells us, drawing inspiration from the Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In the 90s, Csikszentmihalyi created the notion of "flow". It's that moment when you lose track of time and become absorbed in your activity. Coders and video game enthusiasts know these moments when you're so absorbed in the activity that you forget to eat, and the hours fly by. Caroline Chapatte calls it the"elixir of effort".

Although effort is often perceived as an essential element of a pedagogy based on constraint, it is nevertheless very present in all learning activities. But it's an effort that makes sense and is accepted by the learner, without any authority imposing it. Athletes, video game enthusiasts and artists all make an effort.

And these efforts don't stand in the way of motivation. On the contrary, they contribute to the pleasure of learning or undertaking an activity.

Le café pédagogique: "Meirieu, le plaisir d'apprendre" consulted on September 15, 2017
http://www.cafepedagogique.net/lexpresso/Pages/2014/03/17032014Article635306292639520860.aspx

On the pedagogy of effort as defined by Herbart:

Innovation pédagogique: "Quelle pédagogie pour former des innovateurs?" consulted on September 16, 2017
https://www.innovation-pedagogique.fr/article150.html

Coraline Chapatte "Self-discovery through effort", online September 2, 2016, accessed September 16, 2017
https://blogs.letemps.ch/coraline-chapatte/2016/09/02/la-decouverte-de-soi-par-leffort/

Coraline Chapatte: "Le peak flow ou l'élixir de l'effort" online June 2, 2017, accessed September 16, 2017
https://blogs.letemps.ch/coraline-chapatte/2017/06/02/le-peak-flow-ou-lelixir-de-leffort/