Understanding as the transformation of what is already known

Abstract

The conventional image is that we (and other students) reach an understanding of something after a period of puzzled wrestling with the material. Understanding is the end‐point of learning. However, there is an important sense in which understanding (of a rudimentary kind) precedes effective learning. Trying to develop this conceptually, I draw on Heidegger's account of hermeneutics in Being and Time (1962). The individual is seen as dwelling in an already‐interpreted world with which they have to come to terms. The focus (especially in university and other adult education) becomes the learner as the puzzled, would‐be interpreter of the writing and speech with which they are confronted. The interpretation is attempted on the basis of what is already known. However, the struggle is not purely individual. I argue that the paradigm of meaning–interpretation in the context of learning is conversation in that human learning is best considered participatory.