The purpose of learning

Categorised: Pedagogy | Tags: Assessment
Posted by Stuart Pedley-Smith. Last updated: July 31, 2025

Stuart Pedley-Smith reflects on 30 years with Kaplan, the professional education company, and asks some fundamental questions, such as what he would share with his younger self.

A version of this article was first published in Pedleysmiths Blog on 31 July 2024.

Socrates: “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

I have always thought that wisdom was something slightly magical, even biblical, reserved for those who have travelled the world in search of the secrets and meaning of life. But in reality, it’s far less mystical and is more likely the result of a lifetime or simply a long time of “good learning”.

This year marks my 30 years with Kaplan, a professional education company in the UK, and I am leaving for pastures new. This has inevitably meant I have been thinking about the past, reflecting, and asking some fundamental questions such as, what do I know now that I didn’t know 30 years ago, what has been my most important lesson, and of course, the classic, what do I know now that I would share with my younger self? So, I hope you will allow me this slightly self-indulgent post about wisdom.

What is wisdom?

There seems to be no single definition of wisdom, although all agree that it is much more than simply possessing knowledge. There is also a commonly held view that intelligence plays a part largely because if you are intelligent, you are able to solve problems and learn from experiences, but it would be wrong to conclude that intelligent people are wise.

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.
Albert Einstein

A simple definition is probably all we need – “Wisdom is the ability to make sound judgments and decisions based on knowledge, experience, and understanding.” And when you read that back, wisdom becomes far more accessible and less mysterious. In fact, who wouldn’t want to make sound judgments every single day – we all need wisdom.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

But the definition gives little away in terms of what is meant by knowledge, experience and understanding.

John Vervaeke, the philosopher and cognitive scientist, goes a little further by saying that to be wise, you need the ability to identify what is relevant from the vast amount of information we are exposed to (Vervaeke, 2013) Vervaeke, J. (2013) What is wisdom?, YouTube Video. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpVVcVRkLok (Accessed 31 July 2025) . “Relevance realisation” helps us navigate complexity and make sense of our world, but to do this, you need to pay attention and challenge what you see, continually looking for feedback. This is an example of thinking about how you are thinking or metacognition, reflecting on what was momentarily in your mind and asking questions as to its accuracy, your bias and prejudice. And when you can do that, it becomes possible to develop insight, the “aha” moment that comes from a deep understanding, revealing previously unseen connections.

Okay, that might be a little too much detail, but I think it shows that in order to develop wisdom, you need the ability to challenge your own thinking in search of a greater and deeper understanding.

Wisdom and age

Knowledge in youth is wisdom in age.

The relationship between age and wisdom is nuanced and multifaceted. While age can contribute to wisdom, it is not an absolute guarantee. Wisdom can be accumulated over time as a result of having different life experiences, but it’s not necessarily experience that creates wisdom; it’s what you learn from it.

Additionally, with age often comes a greater capacity for reflection. You may simply have more time to integrate your experiences into a broader understanding and, as a consequence, develop that all-important insight. Emotional regulation also tends to improve with age, contributing to more thoughtful and less emotional and reactive decision-making.

However, it is important to acknowledge counterpoints that some cognitive abilities, for example, problem-solving and processing speed, decline with age. In fact, studies from the Berlin Wisdom Project suggest there is a plateau of optimal wisdom performance in middle and old age, with some evidence of wisdom declining from the age of 75. (One interesting aside: wisdom tends to correlate with less loneliness. In a 2020 study, researchers found that wisdom warded off the worst effects of loneliness for middle-aged and older adults (Jeste et al., 2020) Jeste, D. V., Di Somma, S., Lee, E. E., Nguyen, T. T., Scalcione, M., Biaggi, A., Daly, R., Liu, J., Tu, X., Ziedonis, D., Glorioso, D., Antonini, P., and Brenner, D. (2020). Study of loneliness and wisdom in 482 middle-aged and oldest-old adults: a comparison between people in Cilento, Italy and San Diego, USA. Aging & Mental Health, 25(11), 2149–2159. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2020.1821170. (Accessed 31 July 2025) .

In conclusion, it’s not necessarily age that helps you develop wisdom. It’s just that you have had more life experience and time on which to reflect, together with a greater inclination to do so.

How to acquire wisdom

To think that you can provide an instruction manual for wisdom is, at best, ambitious and more likely foolish, but there might be a few lessons we could learn that will move us in the right direction. A good starting point might be to ask a couple of experts:

Confucius said “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
And Socrates “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

From these “wise words” we can perhaps extract some of the traits of wise people. Wisdom comes from:

Reflection – the process of introspectively examining and evaluating your thoughts, experiences and actions. It’s a continuous process requiring a creative and inquisitive mind, questioning assumptions and seeking new perspectives. Reflection is an essential component of both learning and wisdom.
Experience – you need to have had some interesting life experiences on which to reflect. It is, however, not necessary to have “seen it all,” only that you questioned, challenged and thought about the experiences you had.
Humility – Socrates went around asking people questions about justice, truth, and wisdom and found that despite their claims to knowledge, in reality they were ignorant. To be wise, you need to reach a sufficiently high level of questioning that you find your own level of ignorance, whilst at the same time not slipping into becoming arrogant.
Although not derived directly from the quotes, we should include Virtue – this is about consistently choosing to do what is right and good. It requires perspective, the ability to see things from the point of view of others, as well as honesty, courage, kindness, and fairness.

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
Albert Einstein

30 years later

What a long time 30 years is, but so far it has been a real privilege to work with good people in an industry that helps people learn, and get a chance to change lives for the good. If I’m honest, it wasn’t what I set out to do, but it’s not worked out too badly.

And now to the hardest part, how would I answer those three questions I posed at the start?

What do I know now that I didn’t know 30 years ago?
In some ways, this is the easiest one because I have learned so much. But if I had to pick one thing, it would be the understanding I now have as to how learning works. This has served me well in both my teaching and wider career in education.
What has been my most important lesson?
Work hard, have focus and purpose, but try to be kind, make friends, and don’t fall out with people — life’s too short.
What do I know now that I would share with my younger self?
A couple of things, I guess. Firstly that Socrates was right, “I know that I know nothing.” This is not so much about humility but a recognition that even when you get to a level of competence or expertise, there is always another higher level waiting for you. And secondly, don’t compare yourself with others, only with yourself. If you’re moving forward, that’s good enough.

I don’t claim the above as wisdom, but give me another 30 years and maybe I will have something for you.

About Stuart Pedley-Smith

With over 30 years in professional education, Stuart is an educational strategist focussed on innovation, specialising in digital learning and evidence-based practice. After serving as Head of Learning at Kaplan Financial (UK), his focus has expanded to tackle some of the broader challenges in professional education.

He is the author/co-author of two books and a regular blogger (pedley-smith.uk).

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