---
title: The Shape of Learning
description: The shape of learning is a path that's connected, active, progressive, meandering and communal. Great teachers design accordingly.
source: framer
original: https://www.pathwright.com/blog/the-shape-of-learning
retrieved: 2026-11-09
visibility: public
date: 2017-09-21
author: /people/paul-johnson.person.md
series: Big Picture
---

# The Shape of Learning

![](./assets/the-shape-of-learning/8v5ou5kabncrh1dbfu9jgempicg.webp)

Before you read this, pause and take a look at everything you’ve learned in the past month.

Go ahead, take a close look at what you’ve learned.

Done?

Of course not. Unless you’re an unusually studious and visually-oriented notetaker there’s nothing for you put your eyeballs on and look at. We humans haven’t come up with a way to visually show a learning journey.

But if there were a way to look back at a learning journey, or to look forward at what we want to learn next, what shape would it be in?

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## The shape of learning is a path.

This may come as a surprise, but at *Path*wright, we think learning looks most like a path. As a path, learning is…

- **Connected:** No matter how spontaneous it seems in the moment, everything we learn is connected to something we’ve previously learned — like steps in a path.
- **Active:** Real learning happens when we reflect, apply, and *act* not just watch and read. Passively absorbing content without action is like sitting on a path enjoying the view and going nowhere.
- **Progressive:** Learning doesn’t really happen in giant leaps or light bulb moments. Learning happens as we struggle step-by-step towards a destination and make discoveries along the way.
- **Meandering:** Learning isn’t like a highway fading straight into the horizon or like a neat grid of city streets. Learning is more like a connected series of winding paths we stumble on, explore around, and even carve our own paths from.
- **Communal:** Paths are best taken with others and learning happens best with other people.

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## Five Principles

Whenever I’m teaching, thinking of learning as a path helps me remember a few core principles:

1. **Every new idea or concept must be connected** and built on a previous one. *It’s impossible to teach someone something entirely new.*
2. **Paths are best taken together.** How can I encourage “togetherness” even if I’m teaching online, at a distance?
3. **Learning is active, not passive.** Watching and reading doesn’t move people forward unless it’s acted upon.
4. **As a teacher, I’m primarily a guide** that helps people choose the right path and arrive safely at their destination.
5. **As a course designer, I’m primarily a path maker** (or “pathwright”) who creates a path through the chaos of information and ideas that I and others can guide people down.

The true shape of learning is a path — not a syllabus, a classroom, or a video playlist. As teachers, our primary job is to *make paths* and guide people along them.