I’ve been in contact with Prof. Thomas, and have discovered they have a website at: http://cshl.ac.uk/

Unfortunately, you’ll never find it other than via a direct link, as it’s completely hidden away from any search engines. I’ll do a review of it later, as there’s some useful content.

I hope you don’t mind if I use your phrase “a useful modern reference resource for learning professionals"?

Cheers,

Mark

Hardly an accurate use of the term in this context. The current use on this site is not as a scientific term but as a descriptive phrase for a useful modern reference resource for learning professionals.

The allegedly debased content is both obscure and unobtainable. The simple coincidental use of these 2 words in the same sequence has resulted in a resurfacing of Prof Thomas efforts which I sincerely doubt would otherwise have happened.

All in all, instead of degrading [/diˈgrād/ - Treat or regard (someone) with contempt or disrespect] your site and contribution, I think he should be offering some constructive comment the site and asking politely if you would like a copy of one of the books to perhaps review in context of your knowledge and observation of todays organisational environment and technological trends.

Keep up the good work Mark. I may not post comment often but I’m here reading and reflecting.

Thanks for the comment and the references. Really useful!

Mark

Thomas and his collaborator, Sheila Harri-Augstein, developed their ideas of “self-organised learning” at Brunel from the early ’80s. They drew on the Personal Construct Psychology of George Kelly (http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/personal.htm ) to develop a personalised curriculum for learners. It appealed to me chiefly because it was one of the few approaches to recognise a “learning trough” as part of the learners’ experience (they’re touched on at http://www.doceo.co.uk/original/learnloss_notes.htm ) However, as a pop-up note on the the first link indicates, I was not able to make it work.

Their work seems to have disappeared without trace. All I can find on ERIC is a trainers’ resource kit (1995, abstract at http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED410430 ) and an early 1977 report (http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED159594)