What is learning?
Posted by Jolanta Hudson on November 4, 2008
What is learning?
When looking at this term from three different perspectives: neuropsychology, personal development and education we may find out that ‘learning’ is one of the most important mental functions of humans. It is based on the development of different types of knowledge supported by perceived information.
When learning, humans develop skills, understanding, attitudes, values, and preferences. They increase they experience as individuals and as a group. Depending on the purpose of learning it can be conscious or unconscious.
People unconsciously learn certain behaviours which are rewarding to a life, e.g. survival, looking for food and accommodation, etc., and therefore those will be continued. Conscious learning occurs when there is a goal, a need to acquire more complex activities, such as e.g. play, exams passing, etc.
Conscious learning will therefore require a motivation from the student.
From the social perspective, learning will be the goal of teaching and the goal of education.
Learning has been seen by many as a product and as a process.
Learning as product is seemed as a change in behaviour, which mean is approached as an outcome-the final product of some process. This final product can be recognised or seen. However, there can come a question does we need to perform to learn? Can behaviour be caused by other factors? And finally a question from Merriam and Caffarella (1991:124) can the change involved include the potential for a change? While the permanent change in behaviour (or potential for a change) is a result of experiences, not all changes in behaviour resulting from experience involve learning.
Learning as a process needs to be seen through some learning theories about how or why change occurs?
The theory represented by Skinner B.F is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in behaviour. According to this the change in behaviour occurs due to humans’ response to the events (stimuli). Such response produces a consequence such as defying a word, solving a problem, etc. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. Skinner named this form of behaviourism, the Operant Conditioning which distinctive characteristic relative to previous forms of behaviourism (e.g., Thorndike, Hull) is that the organism can emit responses instead of only eliciting response due to an external stimulus.
The supporters of behaviourism believe that humans learn in the same way, emphasising that it is important to have a particular form of behaviour reinforced by someone in aim to control and modify what is learned. In class, the teacher provides the reinforcement and rewards to accelerate learning. The positive reinforcement instead of its lack or punishment is what emphasises this theory.
Opposite to this view the cognitive theory sees learning as not as a change in behaviour but a change in the way a student thinks, understands or feels. This theory focuses on what is going on inside student’s mind. There are two main models linked to this view which are information processing model and social interaction model.
The first information processing model says about internal structures in the student’s brain which select and process incoming material, then store and retrieve it, use it to produce behaviour, receive and process feedback on the results.
The social interaction model emphasises that learning and subsequent changes in behaviour occur as a result of interaction between the student and the environment. Both models have a lot in common as they stress the importance of reinforcing behaviour and measuring changes.
In my opinion the ability to learn is what makes us significant and outstanding. Learning is a part of our entire life. Since the birth we learn to adapt to the new circumstances, to survive and be accepted by those who are closest to us and later by the rest of the society. Therefore, learning is first quite an unconscious process in aim to assimilate, then once we aware of our role in the society and aware of our part in it we learn to reach specific goals. As we are also involved in education, the learning process is very conscious and reinforced by us and by those who take part in, e.g. teachers.
I believe that learning is a change in behaviour as a result of experience as the way we perceive, think, feel and do may change due to a learning experience. However, I am reluctant to believe that we all learn in the same way. Of course, there must be a pattern due to our natural biological condition, knowing how the brain works, but from my own experience and from what I observed in class there can be much more to say about it than just a theory that applies to everyone. I just do not see strong evidence to entirely support the cognitive theory and believe that there are still experiments carried on regarding this, although I agree that both behaviourism and cognitive theories can be useful learning theories for planning, managing, and conducting teaching is to include the best features of each major theory. This would provide a way to measure behavioural outcomes and promote cognitive learning, however as they are quite opposite views, combining them would not be a simple approach to do.
Ruby said
I guess one of hte interesting things about learning is that there can be so many different ways! It’s true that we can give examples that fit each of the theories you’ve outlined – learning to drive a car is not exactly the same as learning about a theory and maybe what we have to do is be able to use the best forms of learning for each particular task? I remember years ago someone saying that to learn how to write you have to write … and I keep forgetting that if I want to improve I have to keep practicing!