When students progress through educational programmes, we expect them to learn to interact with their world in new ways. In other words, we expect them to be changed or transformed through education. While this is an implicit expectation of these programmes, such transformation is typically not their focus. Instead, emphasis is placed on the development of knowledge and skills—or an epistemological dimension—while there is scant attention to an ontological dimension—or who students are becoming. While knowledge and skills are important, they are insufficient for enabling new ways of interacting with the world, as well as for the process of becoming that such learning entails. Nonetheless, emphasis on developing knowledge and skills is generally evident in practice, as well as in much of the educational research literature. While there is passing reference to a need for ‘transformation’ in a small proportion of this literature, the form this transformation is to take is rarely clarified and its importance is undermined through a clearer focus on knowledge and skills development. Early in the 20th century, Martin Heidegger began arguing for close attention to the ontological dimension of human being, including in educational processes (for example, Heidegger, 1962/1927; 1998/1967). When ontology is foregrounded, education is reconfigured as a process of becoming (Dall’Alba, in press). The key purpose of educational programmes is then seen as forming ways of being, rather than simply in terms of developing knowledge and skills. If education is to have an ontological focus, there is not a need for a shift from teaching to learning, but teaching itself must be re-thought. Heidegger argued, as follows: “Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn” (1968, p. 15). Letting students learn requires space and opportunities for attuned, responsive dwelling with others and things. It demands a curriculum that is not overloaded or closed to inquiry, but allows and encourages students to pursue the questions they bring, including about who they are becoming.

Drawing upon Heideggerian philosophy, this paper explores what it means to let students learn in ways that enhance becoming. It draws upon an empirical study of students learning to become medical practitioners to elaborate the notion of letting students learn, as well as identifying some barriers to learning that these students encountered. The paper explores how an ontological dimension can be addressed in educational programmes.

The paper proposes an alternative way of configuring educational programmes as a process of becoming. It seeks to elaborate Heidegger’s notion of ‘letting learn’ as a means of exploring how education can contribute to becoming.