Meaning, Nature, Process, Characteristics and Process of Learning
Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. Learning means change in behaviour or behaviour potential that occurs as a result of experience and practice. Learning is a natural phenomenon which is natural to all organisms including both humans and animals. Learning can result from both vicarious and direct experiences.
i. Vicarious means observing someone and learning from that observation and not being directly involved in the experience. For example, a child learns how to clap hands by seeing someone else do it.
ii.
Learning also takes place through direct
experiences. For example, a child learns to write by practicing writing. A
child normally learns from his parents, teachers and the environment.
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a.
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Learning is a change in
behaviour—better or worse.
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b.
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It is a change that takes place
through practice or experience, but changes due to growth or maturation are
not learning. |
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c. |
This
change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it must last a fairly
long time. |
Definitions of Learning:
a. “The
term learning covers every modification in behaviour to meet environmental
requirements.”
-Gardener
Murphy
-Henry P. Smith
-Skinner
-M. L. Bigge
- As Process: the first is that
learning is 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.
Process
of Learning
It follows the following steps in sequence as shown below:
a. Stimulus: Stimulus refers those factors that motivate or inspire or induce learners to learn the required skills and knowledge. The factors that affect the learning process must be understood by the learner. Then only they can motivate themselves to learn. Stimulus exists in the environment in which the person lives and behaves.
b. Response: It means the amount of interaction by the learners. Response emphasizes that there should be a positive response from the learners with regard to learning process and program. Because the regular and timely response provides an opportunity to determine the level of teaching. This also helps to explore to what extent learners are improving.
c. Motivation: Stimulus and response are not enough for an effective learning process, rather the learners must be motivated to impart required skills and knowledge fro the training. Hence, an effective motivation package consisting of rewards and prizes should be provided to the learners to motivate them.
d. Reward: It is an incentive which satisfies the learner from learning. If a motivated learner is rewarded, he/she will be inspired by the further performance. Reward further stimulates the learners.
Therefore, the effective learning process will be completed only after the integration of different steps of learning stimulus, response, motivation, and reward. Then the only learner can learn effectively. As a result, the desired output can be obtained.
Nature of Learning
a. Learning is Universal: Every creature that lives learns. Man learns most. The human nervous system is very complex, so are human reactions and so are human acquisition. Positive learning vital for children’s growth and development.
b. Learning is through Experience: Learning always involves some kind of experience, direct or indirect (vicarious).
c. Learning is from all Sides: Today learning is from all sides. Children learn from parents, teachers, environment, nature, media etc
d. Learning is Continuous: It denotes the lifelong nature of learning. Every day new situations are faced and the individual has to bring essential changes in his style of behaviour adopted to tackle them. Learning is birth to death.
e. It results in Change in Behaviour: It is a change of behaviour influenced by previous behaviour. It is any activity that leaves a more or less permanent effect on later activity.
f. Learning is an Adjustment: Learning helps the individual to adjust himself adequately to the new situations. Most learning in children consists in modifying, adapting, and developing their original nature. In later life the individuals acquire new forms of behaviour.
g. It comes about as a result of practice: It is the basis of drill and practice. It has been proven that students learn best and retain information longer when they have meaningful practice and repetition. Every time practice occurs, learning continues.
h. Learning is a relatively Permanent Change: After a rat wake up from his nap he still remembers the path to the food. Even if you have been on a bicycle for years, in just a few minutes practice you can be quite proficient again.
i . Learning as Growth and Development: It is never ending growth and development. At reach stage the learner acquires new visions of his future growth and news ideals of achievement in the direction of his effort. According to Woodworth, “All activity can be called learning so far as it develops the individual.”
j. Learning is not directly observable: The only way to study learning is through some observable behaviour. Actually, we cannot observe learning; we see only what precedes performance, the performance itself, and the consequences of performance.
Characteristics of Learning
a. Learning involves change: It is a reconstruction, combined thinking, skill, information and appropriation in a single unity process.
b. All learning involves activities: These activities involve either physical or mental activity. They may be simple mental activities of complex, involving various muscles, bones, etc. So also the mental activities may be very simple involving one or two activities of mind or complex which involve higher mental activities
c. Learning Requires Interaction: At the time of learning, the individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the environment. This experience makes him change or modify his behavior to deal effectively with it.
d. Constitute Learning: To constitute learning, the change should be permanent. Temporary changes may be only reflective and fail to represent any learning.
e. Learning is a Lifelong Process: Learning is a lifelong process of gaining and using the information presented to a person. It is not static. A person never stops acquiring new information. It keeps a person’s mind active and aware but also conscious of the world around them.
f. Learning Occurs Randomly Throughout Life: Some learning occurs randomly throughout life, from new experiences, gaining information and from our, perceptions, for example: reading a newspaper or watching a news broadcast, talking with a friend or colleague, chance meetings, and unexpected experiences.
g. Learning Involves Problems Solving: Learning involves problem-solving i.e. understanding and discovering relations between different contents in a situation.
h. Learning is the Process of Acquiring Information: Learning is the process of acquiring information, knowledge, wisdom, and skills. It occurs as a result of interaction with the person’s environment.
i. Learning Involves far more than Thinking: Learning involves far more than thinking: it involves the whole personality – senses, feelings, intuition, beliefs, values, and will. If we do not have the will to learn, we cannot learn and if we have learned, we are changed in some way. If the learning makes no difference it can have very little significance.
The factors are:
1.
Physiological Factors: The
physiological factors are sense perception, physical health, fatigue time and
day of learning, food and drink, age and atmospheric conditions.
c. Fatigue: Muscular or sensory fatigue causes mental boredom and indolence. A number of factors in the home and school environment may cause physical and mental fatigue, such as lack of accommodation, bad seating arrangement, unhealthy clothing, inadequate ventilation, poor light, noise over crowdingness, and pure nutrition. Longer homes of study also cause fatigue which affects the learning capacity.
d. Time of Learning: Morning and evening hours are the best periods of study. During the day, there is decline in the mental capacity. Experiments on children have shown that there are great variations in learning efficiency during the different hours of the day.
e. Food and Drink: Nutrition is responsible for efficient mental activity. Poor nutrition adversely affects learning. The type of food also has some effect. The alcoholic drinks, caffeine, tobacco and such addictive items have adverse effect on neuron-muscular system, and consequently upon the learning capacity.
f. Atmospheric conditions: High temperature and humidity lower the mental efficiency. Low ventilation, lack of proper illumination, noise and physical discomfort (as we find in factories and overcrowded schools) hamper the learning capacity. Distractions of all sorts affect power of concentration and consequently the efficiency of learning.
g. Age: Learning capacity varies with age. Some subjects can better be learnt at the early age, and some during adulthood. On the evidence of experiments conducted. Thorndike says that mental development does not stop at 16 or 18 but increases upto 23, and halts after 40. Learning proceeds rapidly between 18 and 20, remains stagnant till 25, and declines upto 35. Age accompanies mental maturation. So some complex problems cannot be solved till the person is sufficiently mature.
b. Motivation and Interest: No learning takes place unless it is motivated. Purposeless learning is no learning at all. Every child is impelled by some motive to learn new things. In the absence of motivation, can he does not feel interested in the act of learning. A child’s behaviour in learning is energised by motives, selected by motives and directed by motives.
i. Motives energise behaviour: Hunger and thirst induce acquisition of food. Reward induces further success. Punishment or failure induces action for achievement.
ii. Motives select behaviour: Only those acts of learning are selected which are supported by some motive. A boy visits a village fair. He sees only those toys, objects or things that interest him.
iii. Motives direct behaviour: These activate the person, enthuse him and impel him to do the desired action. These direct his energies to reach the desired action. These direct his energies to reach the desired goal. Sultan of Kohlar was directed by hunger to reach the bananas, and that way he strived and learnt the way.
c. Success, Praise and Blame:
Nothing
succeeds like success. Thorndike’s law of effect is applicable most commonly.
Experimental evidences show that praise stimulates small children to work and
learn, although it does not produce much effect on superior and elder children.
Elder children are more sensitive towards reproof and blame, than younger
children are.
d. Rewards and Punishment: Rewards
of all sorts are powerful incentives to learn. But these days in India school
rewards are more abused than used properly. A first division of distinction in
the examination is a false reward. Work is its own rewards. Pupils forget this
point. They become over-dependent on rewards. They refuse to work without any
incentive of reward. All learning should not be and cannot be rewarded
immediately.
3. Environmental Factors:
a. Working conditions: Learning is hampered by bad working conditions such as distraction, noise, poor illumination, bad ventilation, overcrowding, bad seating arrangement, and uncomfortable stay both at home and school. The location of the school, the internal set-up, the accommodation, decoration and healthful and sanitary conditions are very important for efficient learning.
b. Organisational set-up: The organisational set-up of the school also influences learning.
ii. The democratic organisation promotes a healthy atmosphere for learning.
iii. The teacher-pupil relations should be healthy, so that there is mental cooperation and the pupils are motivated to learn.
iv. There should be some sort of competition. The inter-class or inter- house competitions will stimulate the pupils to work more in order to outshine others. Rivalry and jealousy should, however, be avoided. Group emulation should be strengthened.
v. The participation on the part of the pupils should be active. The pupil should not act as a passive learner.
vi. Guidance in the selection of subjects
and activities in accordance with age and ability and aptitude of the pupils
should be provided. Unguided children may oscillate from one subject to
another, and thus gather no mass.
4. Methodology of Instructions:
a. Presentation and Organisation of Material: The learning material should be properly planned and organised. It should be graded to suit the mental level of the pupils. It should be presented in a meaningful and interesting manners.
b. Learning by Doing: Practice makes a man perfect. Repetition and practice is important for learning. The pupils must be encouraged to learn through activity. Theoretical teaching should be replaced by practical application of knowledge, experimentation and personal application. Children learn better through personal experience. Verbalisation should be reduced to minimum.
c. Special Methods of Learning: It has been found that some special methods give better results. In learning a piece of poetry, learning by the whole method, and by the part method have been advocated. Sometimes it is helpful to recall what is learnt and to recite by memory. Gestalt psychologists do not approve of ‘trial and error learning’. They advocate learning by insight. They discourage mechanical repetitions without understanding.
d. Timely Testing: Through tests, the learner knows his exact achievement, and there is no scope for over-estimation or underestimation. Occasional and periodical testing motivates the pupil to be regular in his studies.
