Conscious learning

Characteristic of self-reflective consciousness or apperception and the development of language, this is the third mode of learning posited by Jantsch and Waddington in their ontogenetic model of human consciousness. It seems to be the primary vehicle for epigenetic development for conscious and creative interaction of the individual with the environment, and central to sociogenesis. This advanced human stage is equivalent to personal consciousness, commencing in an awareness of free space at birth, leaving foetal consciousness behind, and culminating in death of ego consciousness and transcendence of personal boundaries; it is characterized by conscious action. On a human scale, transition from conscious to superconscious learning is equivalent to the struggle between cultures, life styles and world views resulting in a sense of the wholeness of the process of mankind. It is at this transition that inner and outer reality are in perspective so as to guide thinking within the wider existential context.

One of four learning processes distinguished (Lazslo, 1972) by the type of consciousness brought into play.