Push Me, Pull You: Personalising the Learning Experience in Higher Education

According to Winston Churchill, ‘There is no sweeter sound in the English language than that of a man’s own name’. Leaving aside the lack of awareness of gender balance in this quote, the central point is still a valid one. Child psychologists such as Jean Piaget have focused much of their work on cognitive development, a process that tends to involve a personally centralist approach to new situations. Whilst Piaget was talking about child and adolescent development, other psychologists, notably Kristina Frankenberger, noted that this approach, known as egocentrism, extends much further into adolescence and into adulthood, with people understanding new situations with reference to fixed points in their past, and hence their own construct of the world. Put simply, everyone sees new experiences through different eyes.