1. learning process

Learning Process

1. Learning Process Dr. Manju N D Assistant Professor SVK National College of Education Kuvempu University, Shivamogga

2. Meaning and concept of learning: In psychology, Learning is the process by which a relatively lasting change in potential behaviour 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. It is a relative permanent change in behavior or mental state based on experience. Learning may occur consciously or unconsciously.

3. Definitions of learning: According to Gates and others  ―Learning is the modification of behaviour through experience. ‖ Henry, P Smith  ―Learning is the acquisition of new behaviour or strengthening or weakening of old behaviour as a result of experience‖. Skinner  ―Learning is the process of progressive behaviour adaptation.‖

4. 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.‖ Munn  ―To learn is to modify behaviour and experience.‖ M. L. Bigge   ―Learning may be considered as change in insights, behaviour, perception, motivation or a combination of these.‖

5. The above definitions emphasize four attributes of learning... learning is the Process and permanent change in behaviour.  It does not include change due to illness, fatigue, maturation and use of intoxicant. The learning is not directly observable but manifests in the activities of the individual.  Learning depends on practice and experience.

6. Nature of Learning: 1 . Learning is adaptation or adjustment:  All persons continuously interact with their 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.

7. 2.     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. 3.     Learning is organizing experience:  Learning is not mere addition of knowledge. It is the reorganization of experience. 4.    Learning brings behavioural changes:  Whatever the direction of the changes may be, learning brings progressive changes in the behaviour of  an individual. That is why he is able to adjust to changing situations.

8. 5.    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. 6.    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. 7.    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.

9. CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING Learning is growth, adjustment, organization of experience, purposeful, both individual and social product of the environment. Learning has the following characteristics. 1.  Learning  is  a  continuous  modification  of  behaviour  which continues throughout life 2.  Learning is pervasive. It reaches into all aspects of human life. 3.   Learning involves the whole person, socially, emotionally & intellectually.

10. 4. Learning is often a change in the organisation of behaviour. 5. Learning is development. 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 behaviour.

11. 8. Interest & learning are positively related. The individual learns best 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.

12. PROCESS OF LEARNING Learning is a process. It is carried out through steps. Learning process involves – a.   A motive or a drive. b.   An attractive goal. c.     A block to the attainment of the goal.

13. (a)    A motive or a drive: Motive is the dynamic force that energizes behaviour and compels an individual to act. We do any activity because of our motives or our needs. When our need is strong, enough we are compelled to strive for its satisfaction. Learning takes place because of a response to some stimulation. As long as our present behaviour, knowledge, skill and performance are adequate to satisfy all our needs, we do not feel any necessity to change our behaviour or acquire new knowledge and skills. It is this requirement, which initiates a learner to learn something.

14. (b)    Goal:   Every individual has to set a definite goal for achievement. We should always have a definite goal for achieving anything. If a definite goal is set then learning becomes purposeful and interesting.

15. (c)    Obstacle /block /barrier:   The obstacle or block or the barrier is equally important in the process of learning. The obstacle or the barriers keep us away from attaining the goal. Now, how can the obstacle be important in the process of learning? If one faces no difficulty of any kind in attaining the goal, he will not bring any change in his present behaviour or stock of knowledge or skills. Thus, the block or the barrier is an essential step in the learning process.

16. Consider an example: Suppose you wish to be included in your college hockey team. You want to have the esteem of your colleagues, your teachers. You are also motivated to try interesting experiences that you many enjoy. But you are blocked by your lack of skill in dodging, tackling and handling the ball. The obstacles in the path of goal achievement will set you make up your deficiency and acquire essential skill through sufficient practice and coaching

17. Maturation Maturation  is the process by which we change, grow, and develop throughout life. Developmental psychologists look at many different types of maturation throughout the lifespan. S. Alexandra,  “Maturation is essentially a process of modification from ‘within’, an ‘innate’ or development of the organism and growth in structure and function that occurs by reason of forces inherent in the organism itself.” According to Boldwin , “Maturation is an increase in competency and adoptablity .”

18. Gates and Jersild , “Maturation is growth that proceeds regularly within a wide range of environmental conditions, or that takes place without special conditions of stimulation, such as training and practice.” Garry and Kingsley, “Maturation is the process whereby behaviour is modified as a result of growth and development of physical structures.”

19. Characteristics of Maturation: 1. Sum of gene effects: Maturation is the net sum of gene effects operating in a self-limiting life cycle. It is based on heredity. It is the process of describing underlying potential capacity of an individual. 2. Automatic process: Maturation is an automatic process of somatic, physiological and mental differentiation and integration. 3. Completion of growth: Maturation is a stage of completion of growth and consolidating of mental, social and emotional development.

20. 4. Growth and development: Maturation means the growth and development that is necessary either before any unlearned behaviour can occur or before the learning of any particular behaviour can take place. It involves both structural and functional changes or performance. It helps an individual with structural change to reach at the stage of functional readiness. 5. Modification from within: Maturation is essentially a process of modification from within and innate ripening and development of capacities of the organism.

21. 6. Condition of learning: Maturation is an essential condition of learning. It is the basis of learning and learning is the only source that makes human development complete. 7. Factors of maturation: Maturity has been considered as the process of learning. There are three factors underlying the process of learning: ( i ) Acquisition: Acquisition is helpful in modifying the behaviour. It is the acquisition which determines the meaning, nature and scope of learning. It makes the learner mentally prepared to learn. (ii) Retention: Without retention, the learner fails to express the acquired trait. (iii) Recall: It is only potential recall through which we form opinion about the maturity and learning behaviour of the learner.

22. 8. Essential for learning skill: Maturity is essential for physical and mental training. Attainment of physical and mental maturity is essential to get proficiency in any work. As maturity is an automatic process, there is no need of external arousing objects or stimulus. 9. Maturity and physical fitness: The development of mature learning behaviour also depends on physical fitness of the learner. Acquisition, retention and recall perform their functions successfully only when body apparatus is capable in making the development of these factors properly. Physical deficiency or illness obstructs the learning process of the child. Till the body apparatus is not stout or muscles are not strong enough, expected modification in behaviour of the child is not possible. In this context, maturity has been named as physical fitness.

23. 10. Training before maturity is useless: Training imparted before maturity is useless to learn any activity. Physical maturity is as important as mental maturity. Hence, before imparting training to the child, it is the foremost duty of the parents and the teachers to see that the child is fully matured or not, from the point of view of his physical and mental maturity. Disobedience of the norm will result into disappointment. Maturation and learning have been considered as two different aspects of the same process.

24. Educational Implications of Maturation: 1. The role of maturation and learning helps the parents or the teacher to know what and when to begin training. 2. The knowledge of the role played by maturation suggests that if the child is not old or mature enough to profit by teaching, it has little value for him and mere time and effort on the part of the teacher is wasted. 3. Thus if learning precedes maturation, there is more wastage of time and energy. Learning should begin when the child is ready to learn. If the child is ready to learn and he is not given guidance or training, his interest is likely to wave. 4. Maturation comes with learning not necessarily with age. Riesen has aptly remarked, “Maturation is necessary but not a sufficient condition for life.”

25. Relationship between learning and maturation : Learning starts at birth and continues till death. But a small infant cannot learn whatever we want him to learn. Learning depends on the maturation of central nervous system and other physiological system of the body, e.g. 6 months old baby cannot be made to walk or write because his system has not achieved the maturity for these tasks. If an individual reaches the required level of maturation learning will be effective and efficient. Individual differences in attitudes, interest, ambitions and personality patterns are not due to maturation alone but due to maturation and learning. If development is the result of maturation alone, there would not have been individual personalities.

26. Maturation is an important factor which influences learning. Maturation is a natural process. For maturation an external stimulus is not necessary and its sequence is biologically predetermined. On the other hand, learning is a change in the individual. It is a process which takes place as a result of 'stimuli' from 'without'.

27. The changes are not classified as learning. The swimming of tadpoles and the flying of birds can be attributed to primarily to maturation. But in the case of human beings, it is not easy to decide whether the activities result from maturation of learning. The child learns to talk only .When he reaches a certain stage or age in maturation. Again he does not learn the language just because he attains that age. The language which he learns is that which he hears. Thus the two processes maturation and learning are closely related to each-other.

28. Maturation facilitates the process of learning. Learning becomes effective when appropriate maturity has been attained. Learning takes place only if the stage for that type of learning has been achieved through a process of maturation. A teacher should know how to differentiate between maturation developments with that of changes due to learning. For example-Our typical human brain develops with age. It is a maturation process. But our knowledge, our habits are acquired though stimulus-response activities or in at her words learning. Maturation is important for learning. Before we learn anything, our sensory, motor and nervous structures should attain a certain level of maturity.

29. For example, we cannot make an infant run simply because he has not acquired the appropriate maturity. So until a certain level of maturation is acquired by the child, training (or learning) may be of no avail. We should bear in mind that during the early development period of the child, greater level of maturity brings more efficient learning, and learning of complex skills requires a higher level of maturity.

30. Maturation sets limits beyond which developments cannot progress even with the most favourable learning methods and the strongest motivation on the part of the learner ( Gessell ) The point has been stressed by Cattell and others when they said, “All learning and adjustment is limited by inherent properties of the organism.” Inter-relationship between maturation and learning establishes a “time­table” for learning. The individual cannot learn until he is ready Development readiness provides the “teachable moment” when the task should be learned. As Scott has pointed out, “Any attempt to teach a child or animal at too early a period of development may result in his learning bad habits or simply in his learning “not to learn” either of which results may greatly handicap him in later life.”

31. Trying to teach a child to read, for example, before his spontaneous vocalisations have developed will often dampen his interest in reading. Similarly forced toilet training often results in enuresis. Many under achievers in schools and colleges are the products of forced learning on the part of every zealous parents.