Learning Journal Unit 1

WHAT IS LEARNING ?

What I have learnt from this Unit ?

Learning is something that we want to study or have studied and get an opportunities from what we have learnt.

Learning can be define as :

" .. a relatively permanent change in the potential for performance as the result of our post interaction with the environment. (Lovell, K.1982)

".. a change in human disposition or capability which persists over a period of time, and which is not simply ascribable to process of growth. (Gagne, R.W., 1977)

".. the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of expereince. (Kolb,1984).

" .. the process which individuals go through as they attempt to change or enrich their knowledge, values, skills, strategies and behaviour possesed by each individual. (Brundagaend Macker, 1980).

What are the common elements in these Three of the definitions :
i. Lovel , Gagne and Brundage and Mackercher : use the term "change".
ii. Kolb : use the term " transformation".


Transformation is an important word because of its implications. An English Educator, J Britton said that for him learning consists of ...reconstucting your previous knowledge in a new form and then thinking about this new form and seeing where it needs.

Definition of learning indicate that :

• learning is a process and not an end result
• prevent learning is always based on previous learning, and
• learning is a continous process taking place throughout one's lifetime.
  

An Inner Process.

• Learning is a personal inner process. It is a process of internal change and can only be observed by others in the form of a change in behaviour or performance.

Performance.

• It is important to distinghuish between learning (the inner process) and performance (behaviour that is observable) by someone else). From a change in performance, we can infer that learning has taken place.
• Not everything what we have learnt will necessaily be demonstrated , eg: a child may have learned how to feed herself with a spoon, but chooses not to. There must internal or external motivation to perform.

Learning is not always the result of teaching.

• Learning does not necessarily take place as a result of teaching.
• Learning could be intentional or deliberate, but most occurs informally at an unconciuous level and may be unintentional.

Intentional learning (Formal learning)

Occur is a person consciously decides they want to acquire a skill or understanding and deliberately pursues it :

• through their own efforts, e.g. taking up a hobby of following up an interest in a library, or
• by taking a specific course of study.

Unintentional learning

Occurs all the time in informal settings and often goes unrecognised because we are not conscious of it. Many of skills, we take granted, like speaking our mother toungue, are the result of unintentional, unconscious laerning.

There are three main types of theories :

• simple behaviourist approaches that see learning in terms of stimulus and response
• cognitive theories on types of learning, information processing and memory, and learning to learn, and
• humanist theorist that focus on the individual and the importance of linking feelings and perceptions to thought.