Learning Introduction

 LEARNING

INTRODUCTION

Dear students, what does the word “learning” bring to your mind? Learning to read, to ride a bicycle, to act, to use a computer, to play synthesizer etc. Each one of us learns something or the other intentionally or accidentally. Learning situations are most natural and common in our life. Every moment you learn something or the other because of the varied experience you have in life. In the educational process, the central idea is learning.

You are aware of a child learns right from his birth and goes on learning throughout his lifetime. An infant is quite helpless at birth, but slowly he learns to adopt himself to the environment around him.

E.g. A child approaches a burning matchstick; the child burns his hand and withdraws. Another time when he comes to a burning matchstick, he takes no time to withdraw himself away. He learns to avoid not only the burning matchstick but also all burning things.

When this happens, we say that the child has learned that if you touch a flame, you get burnt up. In this way, the change in the behavior of an individual occurs through direct or indirect experiences. This change in behavior brought about by experience is called as learning. This is a very simple explanation of the term learning. Now let us understand the meaning and definitions of learning.

CONCEPT OF LEARNING

Meaning and Definitions of learning

Learning, in psychology, the process by which a relatively lasting change in potential behavior occurs because of practice or experience. Learning is also a process of acquiring modifications in existing knowledge, skills, habits, or tendencies through experience, practice, or exercise.

Gates and others “Learning is the modification of behavior through experience”

Henry, P smith “Learning is the acquisition of new behavior or strengthening or weakening of old behavior as a result of experience”.

Crow and Crow “Learning is the acquisition of habits, knowledge and attitudes. It involves new ways of doing things, and it operates in an individual’s attempt to overcome obstacles or to adjust to new situations.”

Skinner “Learning is the process of progressive behavior adaptation.”

Munn“To learn is to modify behavior and experience.”

M. L. Bigge “Learning may be considered to changes occur in human insights, behavior, perception, motivation or a combination of these.”

The above definitions emphasize four attributes of learning...

1.     The first is that learning is permanent change in behavior.

2.     It does not include change due to illness, fatigue, maturation and use of intoxicant.

3.     The learning is not directly observable but manifests in the activities of the individual.

4.     Learning depends on practice and experience.

Characteristics of Learning

Yoakum and Simpson have stated the following general characteristics of learning: Learning is growth, adjustment, organization of experience, purposeful, both individual and social, product of the environment.

According to W.R Mc law learning has the following characteristics.

1.     Learning is a continuous modification of behavior continues throughout life

2.     Learning is pervasive. It reaches into all aspects of human life.

3.     Learning involves the whole person, socially, emotionally and intellectually.

4.     Learning is often a change in the organization of behavior.

5.     Learning is developmental. Time is one of its dimensions.

6.     Learning is responsive to incentives. In most cases positive incentives such as rewards are most effective than negative incentives such as punishments.

7.     Learning is always concerned with goals. These goals can be expressed in terms of observable behavior.

8.     Interest and learning are positively related. The individual learns bet those things, which he is interested in learning. Most boys find learning to play football easier than learning to add fractions.

9.     Learning depends on maturation and motivation.

Types of Learning

Learning has been classified in many ways.

I. Informal, formal and non-formal learning: Depending on the way of acquiring it learning may be informal, formal or non-formal.

• Informal learning is incidental. It takes place throughout life. It is not planned.

• Formal learning is intentional and organized. It takes place in formal educational institution.

• Non-formal is also intentional and organized. It is flexible.

II. Individual or Group learning: Learning is called either individual or group learning depending upon the number of individuals involved in the learning process.

III. Another classification involves the types of activity involved

(a) Motor learning: - when learning involves primarily the use of muscles it is called as motor learning. e.g.: learning to walk, to operate a typewriter

(b) Discrimination learning: - Learning which involves the act of discrimination is called discrimination learning. E.g. infant discriminates between mother and aunt, milk and water.

(c) Verbal learning: - when learning involves the use of words it is called as verbal learning.

(d) Concept learning: - when learning involves the formation of concept it is called as concept learning.

(e) Sensory learning: - when learning is concerned with perception and sense it is sensory learning.

NATURE OF LEARNING

a. Learning is adaptation or adjustment: Friends, we all continuously interact with our environment. We often make adjustment and adapt to our social environment. Through a process of continuous learning, the individual prepares himself for necessary adjustment or adaptation. That is why learning is also described as a process of progressive adjustment to ever changing conditions, which one encounters.

b. Learning is improvement: Learning is often considered as a process of improvement with practice or training. We learn many things, which help us to improve our performance.

c. Learning is organizing experience: Learning is not mere addition of knowledge. It is the reorganization of experience.

d. Learning brings behavioral changes: Whatever the direction of the changes may be, learning brings progressive changes in the behavior of an individual. That is why he is able to adjust to changing situations.

e. Learning is active: Learning does not take place without a purpose and self-activity. In any teaching learning process, the activity of the learner counts more than the activity of a teacher.

f. Learning is goal directed: when the aim and purpose of learning is clear, an individual learns immediately. It is the purpose or goal, which determines what, the learner sees in the learning situations and how he acts. If there is no purpose or goal learning can hardly be seen.

g. Learning is universal and continuous: All living creatures learn. Every moment the individual engages himself to learn more and more. Right from the birth of a child till the death learning continues.

PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING

The following list presents the basic principles that underlie effective learning. These principles are distilled from research from a variety of disciplines.

1.     Students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.

Students come into our courses with knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes gained in other courses and through daily life. As students bring this knowledge to bear in our classrooms, it influences how they filter and interpret what they are learning. If students’ prior knowledge is robust and accurate and activated at the appropriate time, it provides a strong foundation for building new knowledge. However, when knowledge is inert, insufficient for the task, activated inappropriately, or inaccurate, it can interfere with or impede new learning.

2.     How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know.

Students naturally make connections between pieces of knowledge. When those connections form knowledge structures that are accurately and meaningfully organized, students are better able to retrieve and apply their knowledge effectively and efficiently. In contrast, when knowledge is connected in inaccurate or random ways, students can fail to retrieve or apply it appropriately.

3.     Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.

As students enter college and gain greater autonomy over what, when, and how they study and learn, motivation plays a critical role in guiding the direction, intensity, persistence, and quality of the learning behaviors in which they engage. When students find positive value in a learning goal or activity, expect to successfully achieve a desired learning outcome, and perceive support from their environment, they are likely to be strongly motivated to learn.

4.     To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.

Students must develop not only the component skills and knowledge necessary to perform complex tasks, they must also practice combining and integrating them to develop greater fluency and automaticity. Finally, students must learn when and how to apply the skills and knowledge they learn. As instructors, it is important that we develop conscious awareness of these elements of mastery so as to help our students learn more effectively.

5.     Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning.

Learning and performance are best fostered when students engage in practice that focuses on a specific goal or criterion, targets an appropriate level of challenge, and is of sufficient quantity and frequency to meet the performance criteria. Practice must be coupled with feedback that explicitly communicates about some aspect(s) of students’ performance relative to specific target criteria, provides information to help students progress in meeting those criteria, and is given at a time and frequency that allows it to be useful.

6.     Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.

Students are not only intellectual but also social and emotional beings, and they are still developing the full range of intellectual, social, and emotional skills. While we cannot control the developmental process, we can shape the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical aspects of classroom climate in developmentally appropriate ways. In fact, many studies have shown that the climate we create has implications for our students. A negative climate may impede learning and performance, but a positive climate can energize students’ learning.

7.     To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

Learners may engage in a variety of metacognitive processes to monitor and control their learning assessing the task at hand, evaluating their own strengths and weaknesses, planning their approach, applying and monitoring various strategies, and reflecting on the degree to which their current approach is working.  Unfortunately, students tend not to engage in these processes naturally. When students develop the skills to engage these processes, they gain intellectual habits that not only improve their performance but also their effectiveness as learners.

FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNING

Introduction

Learning, as we know, can be considered as the process by which skills, attitudes, knowledge and concepts are acquired, understood, applied and extended. All human beings, engage in the process of learning, either consciously, sub-consciously or subliminally whether grownups or children. It is through learning that their competence and ability to function in their environment get enhanced. It is important to understand that while we learn some ideas and concepts through instruction or teaching, we also learn through our feelings and experiences. Feelings and experiences are a tangible part of our lives and these greatly influence what we learn, how we learn and why we learn.

Learning has been considered partly a cognitive process and partly a social and affective one. It qualifies as a cognitive process because it involves the functions of attention, perception, and reasoning, analysis, drawing of conclusions, making interpretations and giving meaning to the observed phenomena. All of these are mental processes, which relate to the intellectual functions of the individual. Learning is a social and affective process, as the societal and cultural context in which we function and the feelings and experiences which we have, greatly influence our ideas, concepts, images and understanding of the world. These constitute inner subjective interpretations and represent our own unique, personalized constructions of the specific universe of functioning.

Our knowledge, ideas, concepts, attitudes, beliefs and the skills, which we acquire, are a consequence of these combined processes. The process of learning involves cognition, feeling, experience and a context. Individuals vary greatly with regard to their ability, capacity and interest in learning. You must have noticed such variations among your friends and students. In any family, children of the same parents differ with respect to what they can learn and how well they can learn.

For example, a particular child may be very good at acquiring practical skills such as repairing electrical gadgets, shopping for the household etc., while his brother or sister may in contrast be very poor on these, and good at academic tasks, instead. Even for yourself, you may be perplexed why you can do some tasks well, but not others given the same competence level.

Maturation as Factor in Affecting Learning

Maturation is an important factor that affects our learning is defined as “growth that proceeds regularly within a wide range of environmental conditions.” Maturation is growth that takes place regularly in an individual without special condition of stimulation such as training and practice. Learning is possible only when a certain stage of maturation is also reached. Exercise and training becomes fruitful only when a certain stage of maturation is attained.

Maturation determines the readiness of the child for learning. Learning will be ineffective if the child has not attained the required level of maturity. There are individual differences in maturation. This means the rate of maturation varies with individuals. There are individual differences in the capacity to learn at the same age level. This is because of the difference of maturation level. Specific skills are learnt by children easily who mature earlier than others.

The 3R’s i.e., reading, writing and reckoning can be learn only after the maturation of muscular and brain capacities. Rate of learning ability is closely related to the maturation of the cerebral cortex. Deterioration of cortical tissues in old age brings about declination in the learning ability. So it can be said that learning is not independent of maturation, but must be based upon a sufficient stage of growth.

Learning is possible only when a certain stage of maturation is reached. However much we practice a six month old child with walking exercises, the infant cannot walk. The muscles have not matured enough for the infant to learn to walk. This particular learning is possible only when the nerves and the muscles have attained a particular stage of maturity and development. Practice is most productive when properly articulated with maturational level. It is very essential for the teachers to know the maturational level of the pupils.

Attention and Perception as Factor in Affecting Learning

Another factor, which affects learning, is attention. Attention is always present in conscious life and is common to all types of mental activity. It is the characteristics of all conscious life. Every activity of yours is based on interest and attention. You can succeed in achieving your goals only when your attention is directed towards learning.

Attention is defined as the act of selective consciousness-Ross

Dumville defined Attention as the concentration of consciousness upon one subject rather than another.

Characteristics of Attention

1.                 Attention is focusing consciousness on one object. One object is the focus of attention. All other objects are in the margin of attention. (Right now, what is the focus of your attention? What objects are in the margin of your attention?)

2.                 Attention is selective. We choose to attend to one object in preference to others.

3.                 Attention is constantly shifting from focus to margin

4.                 Attention is a state of preparedness where the muscles and sense organs ready themselves for attending

5.                 Attention cannot be divided between two mental tasks.

Types of Attention

• Voluntary attention: a person actively searches out information that has personal relevance

• Selective attention: a person selectively focuses attention on relevant information

• Involuntary attention: a person is exposed to something surprising, novel, threatening, or unexpected- e.g.: surprise, movement, unusual sounds, size of stimulus, contrast effects and color.

Several factors affect attention. These are factors inherent in the object of attention

1. Movement: An animated picture elicits more attention than a still picture

2. Size of an object: Large letters attract more attention than tiny font.

3. Contrast: Dark letters stand out against a light background.

4. Color: Colors, especially bright ones, gain more attention than drab colors

5. Novelty: A new gimmick in advertising is an instant hit

6. Change in stimuli: If the clock suddenly stops its ticking, it is likely to attract attention. If a teacher pauses in the midst of the lecture, the students are likely to pay more attention to the next few words

7. Intensity: A glaring light, sharp sound, fluorescent markers serve as attention grabbers.

8. Repetition: Words of a song that are repeated or words in a lecture that are repeated attract attention.

Significance of Attention

It is basic need for all types of learning. Every moment of yours is attracted by many stimuli of the environment. Your mind is not able to concentrate on all the stimuli at the same time. It is because of attention that you are able to concentrate on important aspect of a single object.

Consider a classroom, where there are lot of things like, desk, bench, chalk, black board, duster, fan and charts. When a teacher shows you a particular chart, you pay attention to that. It shifts the focus of learner to the chart this helps them to learn more about it.

Therefore, it can be said that attention helps you to clear the vivid objects.

·        It arouses interest in learners to learn a particular thing.

·        It increases efficiency of the learner

·        It motivates learners to learn more

·        It makes the learners ready to learn

·        It brings a state of alternates in learners for doing task

·        It helps the learner to perceive events or ideas.

Thus, attention is a necessary condition for any task in the classroom. It is the hub of entire learning process. It is essential for learning as well as understanding well. Attention is an essential factor for teachers as well as students. If you are attentive in classroom, you are fully prepared to receive any stimulus. It enables you to learn properly within a period. It helps you to achieve the target within short period and with reasonable amount of effort.

Perception

Perception is the process through which a person is exposed to information, attends to the information, and comprehends the information.

Exposure: a person receives information through his/her senses

Attention: a person allocates processing capacity to a stimulus

Comprehension: a person interprets the information to obtain meaning from it

Meaning: Perception is the mental process by which you get knowledge of external world. You receive innumerable impression through the sense organs. You select some of these and organize them into unit, which convey some meaning. The transformation of sensation into organized pattern is called as perception.

Perception = Sensation + Meaning

For E.g. Eyes react to light and give us the knowledge of brightness, nose reacts to smell and give us the knowledge of pleasant or unpleasant smell, ear react to the sound of barking and gives us the knowledge of presence of a dog. Perception is an active state of mind in which it reacts on sensation and interprets it. The basis of perception is sensation.

Importance of Perception in Learning

Learning depends on an individual’s precepts. If you are able to perceive a thing correctly then right learning will take place. Learning will proceed in a proper direction due to correct precepts. Both sensation and perception play an important role in you learning. Sensations are the first impression so it has to be absolutely clear. Sensations give rise to perception and on that basis you get a proper understanding of an object, idea or an experience. Learning depends upon accurate and efficient perception and perception depends upon the sensation, which depends on the normal functioning of the sense organs. Thus perception is important for proper learning and understanding.

Motivation as Factor in Affecting Learning

The knowledge of how to stimulate the students to participate meaningfully in classroom will go a long way in assisting the teachers. This chapter therefore provides the learners the opportunity to understand different theories of motivation and how to apply these theories to their day-to-day classroom teaching/learning activities.

Maslow (1970) believed that motivation leads to growth and development, and that need satisfaction is the most important sole factor underlying motivation. Maslow furthered explained that man is perpetually in needs and that the resources to satisfy those needs are limited. In view of this, many places his/her wants on the scale of preference, that he/she selects the most pressing need. After this need has been satisfied, it becomes less important, paving way for the next on the rank.

Motivation is defined as an inspiration that propels someone into an action. It is an internal state or condition that activates and gives direction to our thoughts, feelings, and actions (Lahey, 1995).

In the opinion of Oladele (1998), motivation is a process by which the learner’s internal energies are directed toward various goal objects in his/her environment. These energies or arousals push an individual in achieving his goals. An individual may be highly motivated to perform well in a task and completely unmotivated in another. This means that when people are motivated, they will work tirelessly to achieve their aspirations.

The needs of man may either be primary or secondary. Primary needs are the physiological wants of man. It may be the need for water, rest, sexual intercourse, hunger and thirst. Secondary needs are the desire for autonomy, affection, or the need for safety and security. For example, the desire of laborers to take a glass of water after thirst is a primary need. At the same time, craving of the students to stay in a serene classroom environment is a secondary need.

Types of Motivation

There are two types of motivation or arousals. They can either be internally or externally driven. The desire for food or sex arises from within us (intrinsic), while the yearning to obtain recognition or approval is influenced by the conditions in our environment (extrinsic). In view of the above explanation, motivation is divided into intrinsic and extrinsic.

1. Intrinsic Motivation:

Is an internal force or motive within the individual who drives him/her into emitting certain behavior? It is an innate or genetically predetermined disposition to behave in particular way when he/she faces a particular situation. This type of motivation can make an individual to have the feelings of self-confidence and competence (Deci and Ryan, 1985). A student who is intrinsically motivated may carry out a task because of the enjoyment he/she derives from such a task.

In another way, a dog that sees a bone and runs for it did that because of the satisfaction it derives from eating bone. This type of behavior does not require any prior learning. Sighting the bone changes the behavior of the dog and propels it to act.

2. Extrinsic Motivation:

Is the external or environmental factor, which sets the individual’s behavior into motion. The incentive/reinforce drives an individual’s behavior towards a goal. A student that is extrinsically motivated will execute an action in order to obtain some reward or avoid some sanctions. For example, a student who read hard for the examination did so because of the desire to obtain better grade. The case also goes for a runner who wants to win a prize; he/she will need constant practice than a person who wants to run for the fun of it. Extrinsic rewards should be used with caution because they have the potential for decreasing exiting intrinsic motivation.

For example extrinsic incentive may spur a student to actively participate in the task for which the student has no interest, but may undermine intrinsic and continuing motivation in him/her (Deci et al, 1985). Therefore, students’ motivation automatically has to do with the students’ desire to participate in the learning process. It also concerns the reasons or goals that underlie their involvement or non-involvement in academic activities.

Fatigue As Factor In Affecting Learning

It is quite essential to do away with fatigue in the process of learning as fatigue becomes an obstacle in the task to be performed or at least reduces its rate of progress. The truth of the matter is that the proportion in which the students become fatigued, his achievement curve shows a downward trend. Achievement decreases with the increase in fatigue. Hence, educational psychology makes a detailed study of the cause of fatigue and of the methods of alleviating it.

What is Fatigue?

Fatigue is the state of reduced interest and desire, and this constitutes psychological explanation. It is the state or condition in which the nerves do not react and mind becomes lax and inert. Evidently, fatigue is neither purely physical nor exclusively mental. It is a psychological state of exhaustion. Reduce efficiency or capacity of body as well as mind is implicit in this phenomenon.

Kinds of Fatigue

Fatigue is of many kinds just as capacity. However, it is generally believed to be of four kinds.

1. Mental Fatigue: Mental work or any kind of strain on the mind reduces the capacity of the mind for work and causes mental fatigue. Thus in mental fatigue, the mind tries or the capacity to its minute fibers for work is diminished.

2. Physical Fatigue: This type of fatigue results in the reduction in the capacity of the muscles of the body and a feeling of fatigue. In this way physical fatigue is brought about by physical exertion. Even though the body feels tired due to mental exertion which should normally result in mental fatigue, yet on account of close relation of the two, it also produces physical fatigue. Thus mental fatigue is unavoidable and it leads to physical fatigue.

3. Nervous Fatigue: The subconscious mind of man is extremely active and since in the process of its work it consumes energy, in due course of time it naturally produces a feeling of fatigue and depression. Nervous fatigue can also result in the subconscious is extremely tired due to mental conflict.

4. Boredom: Boredom and fatigue are not identical. Fatigue is the result of the use of energy but boredom is the feeling of tiredness due to an incomplete or improper expulsion of energy. If you go to a friend and he is busy in some work you become bored. Similarly, you get bored if a person persists in talking about the same thing day after. Boredom result in restlessness, a state induced by our inability to find proper use for our capacity for work.

Ways of Removing Fatigue

1. Sleep: Getting proper 8 hours of sleep is necessary.

2. Relaxation: sitting or lying in a relaxed position, doing activities which are favorites also eliminate fatigue.

3. Balance of work and rest

4. Change in the nature of work

5. Recreation

6. Change in Emotions

Reducing Fatigue in School and classroom

The following points can be kept in the view to fight fatigue in the classroom situation.

1. Satisfactory physical condition: the school and the classroom should be attractive and clean. The furniture must be quite comfortable.

2. Medical Check Up: Sick children are soon tired. Sometimes some children are healthy apparently but they may be suffering from some chronic ailments. They cannot carry on sustained activity for a long time. Weak eye-sight exhausts the individual very soon.

3. Mid-day Meals: Hungry stomachs invite fatigue during activity. Therefore, children should be providing with mid-day meals or other light refreshments in the school time.

4. Supply of fresh air: The rooms must be well ventilated for fresh air and light. Oxygen is a necessary thing to fight fatigue. There should be enough outdoor activities also.

5. Motivation: the lesson must be made quite interesting. Therefore, various teaching techniques should be implemented during teaching-learning process.

6. Co-curricular activities: Extracurricular activities prove very refreshing, interesting and instructive to the children. Therefore, there should be ample provisions of such activities in the school.