Teaching & Learning
NATURE OF LEARNING AND TEACHING
What
is learning?
Answer to this question
has been attempted by many psychologists and educationists. Learning is not
something that takes place within the boundaries of a classroom; rather it
takes place anywhere, anytime and from anyone. Traditional Indian Literature
has examples where people learnt from trees, mountains, rivers, insects, etc.
It means learning is something which is possible anywhere. In order to
understand the concept of learning, let us begin with few definitions of
learning which many psychologists and educationists have proposed. Generally,
learning is defined as a process of behaviour modification through experiences,
exercise and efforts.
Before discussing
further, let us have a look at the definitions of learning given by various
psychologists/educationists:
Hurlock
(1942): Learning is development that comes from exercise
and effort. Through learning, children acquire competence in using their
hereditary resources.
Hilgard,
Atkinson and Atkinson (1979): Learning may be
defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as the result
of prior experience.
Murphy
(1968): The term learning covers every modification in
behaviour to meet environmental requirements.
Woodworth
(1945): Any activity can be called learning so far as it
develops the individual (in any respect, good or bad) and makes him alter
behaviour and experiences different from what they would otherwise have been.
If you examine these
definitions carefully, particularly focusing on the underlined portion of the
definitions, you may conclude that:
Every creature,
including human beings, is born with certain capabilities. e.g.: a human baby
can suck milk from its mother’s breast as soon as it is born. These
capabilities are known as instinctive behaviour. As an individual grows s/he
has to make certain adjustments in various situations of life. Therefore, s/he
has 9 Understanding Learning to acquire various habits, knowledge, attitudes
and skills, etc. The acquisition of all these things is called ‘learning’. It
means that:
• Learning is not
acquired by birth, but it is the process of acquiring competence by using
hereditary resources.
• Temporary change in
behaviour is not learning.
• Not only the modification
of behaviour by acquiring good things as per the social norms is learning but
even behaviour modification by acquiring bad things comes under ‘learning’. In
other words, learning leads to change in behaviour but this does not
necessarily mean that these changes always bring about improvement or positive
development.
According to Smith
(1962), ‘learning is the acquisition of new behaviour or the strengthening or
weakening of old behaviour as the result of experience’. It means, instead of
change in existing behaviour or acquisition of new behaviour, learning may also
result in discontinuance or abandonment of existing behaviour. This
‘unlearning’ is also learning in itself.
According to Fagin
(1958), learning is a sequence of mental events or conditions leading to
changes in learner.
It can be concluded
that learning is a process by which an individual, as a result of interactions
in a situation, modifies his/her behaviour. It helps in bringing desirable
changes in behaviour attaining proper adjustment, and attaining proper growth
and development.
Behaviors
not Attributable to Learning
In previous section, we
have discussed that a modification or change in behavior is called ‘learning’.
However, there are some types of behavior which are due to one or other kind of
modifications yet; these are not termed as ‘learning’. e.g.: when a pin pricks
our finger, we withdraw it from the pin. Similarly, when a very bright light
falls on our eyes, we immediately close our eyelids. Such behavior is instant
and we even do not feel that we are putting in any special effort. This
behavior does not fall under the learning category; rather these are called
‘reflex actions’.
There is another
category of behavior commonly known as ‘biological instincts’. e.g.: a child
start crying when s/he feels hungry, we feel like resting when tired, we are
attracted towards opposite sex, etc. Such behavior is natural and not learned;
therefore we do not call it learned behavior.
Sometimes,
modifications or change in behavior takes place due to accidents or
psychological defects, for example, limping of a person after an accident or
stammering in speech due to some defect in tongue. We again exclude such
behavior from the category of learned behaviour. Similarly, there are some
motor actions which a child can perform only at a certain age. For instance, to
sit in a proper posture, to walk with steady steps, etc., are attained after a
specific age. The behavior which is the outcome of maturity of the child, is
not called learned behavior. However, in most of such cases, maturity and
learning both play their role simultaneously and therefore, it becomes
difficult to determine which of the two is responsible for the behavior.
NATURE
OF LEARNING
Learning occupies a
very important place in our life. It provides a key to the structure of our
personality and behaviour. Experience, direct or indirect, plays a very
important and dominating role in moulding and shaping the behaviour of the
individual from the very beginning. When a child touches a hot pan and gets
burnt, s/he immediately withdraws her/his hand and learns to touch such vessels
carefully. S/he concludes that if one touches a hot vessel, one gets burnt. In
the same way from other experiences, in her/his day to day life, s/he derives
different conclusions and modifies her/his behaviour. These changes in
behaviour brought about by experience are commonly known as learning and this
process of gaining experiences, drawing conclusions, and changing behaviour
goes on from womb to tomb.
This discussion and the
definitions given in the first section ‘What is learning?’ Understanding
Learning of this unit, reveals the nature of learning as follows:
• Learning is a process and not a product: Learning is a fundamental
and life-long process. Attitudes, fears, gestures, motor skills, language
skills, etc. are the products of learning. They are not learning themselves. In
a classroom, when learning is viewed as a product then it is viewed as
something external. Something like shopping– people go out and buy knowledge
and then it becomes their possession. Paulo Freire in his book ‘Pedagogy of the
Oppressed’ criticizes this and says that education thus becomes an act of
depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the
depositor. In this ‘banking’concept of education, the teacher is the subject of
the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects. Whereas, when learning
is viewed as a process, it is viewed as something internal or personal. It is
something that a child does in order to understand the real world and uses it
as a tool for survival.
• Learning is purposive or goal directed: Learning is not an aimless
activity. All true learning is based on purpose. We do not learn anything and
everything that comes in our way in a haphazard manner. However, some experts
argue that sometimes learning is unintended.
• Learning generally involves some degree of permanence: Activities
bringing temporary change in behaviour and not lasting do not come under
learning. For example, cramming the content matter by a learner for examination
and forgetting it after sometime does not bring any change (to some extent to
permanence) in the total behaviour pattern of the learner and thus this type of
learning cannot be said as true learning.
• Learning is universal and continuous: Every creature till it lives,
learns. In human beings it is not restricted to any particular age, sex, race
or culture. It is a continuous never-ending process which starts from birth and
continues till death.
• Learning prepares for adjustment: Learning helps the individual to
adjust herself/himself adequately and adapt to the changes that may be
necessary to the new situations. We meet with new situations which demand
solutions. Repeated efforts are required react to them effectively. These
experiences leave behind some effects in the mental structure and modify our
behaviour.
• Learning is comprehensive: The scope of learning is spread over
each and every dimension of life. It is a very comprehensive process which
covers all domains – Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor- of human behaviour.
• Learning is change in response or behaviour may be favourable or
unfavourable: Learning leads to changes in behavior but this does not
necessarily mean that these changes always bring about improvement or positive
development. There are chances to drift to the negative side too.
• Learning is organizing experience: Learning involves all those
experience and training of an individual (right from birth) which help her/him
to produce changes in behaviour. It is not mere addition to knowledge or mere
acquisition of facts. It is the reorganization of experience which may also
include unlearning.
• Instincts and reflexes are not learning: Changes in behaviour on
the basis of native response tendencies like instincts and reflexes (e.g.
infant’s sucking behaviour, blinking at bright lights) cannot be attributed to
learning.
• Learning does not include changes in behaviour on account of
maturation, fatigue, illness, or drug etc.
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