Give the meaning and nature of learning ?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
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.
2. Learning is through Experience. Learning always involves some kind of experience, direct or indirect (vicarious).
3. Learning is from all Sides: Today learning is from all sides. Children learn from parents, teachers, environment, nature, media etc.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
The individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the environment. This experience makes him to change or modify his behaviour in order to deal effectively with it. Therefore, learning is a change in behaviour, influenced by previous behaviour. As stated above the skills, knowledge, habits, attitudes, interests and other personality characteristics are all the result of learning.
Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of practice and experience”. This definition has three important elements.
a. Learning is a change in behaviour—better or worse.
b. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience, but changes due to growth or maturation are not learning.
c. This change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it must last a fairly long time.
All learning involves activities. These activities involve either physical or mental activities. They may be simple mental activities or 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.
What activities are learned by the individual refer to types of learning. For example, habits, skills, facts, etc. There are different types of learning. Some of the important and common learning activities are explained here.
Types of Learning:
1. Motor learning:
Most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor activities. The individual has to learn them in order to maintain his regular life, for example walking, running, skating, driving, climbing, etc. All these activities involve the muscular coordination.
2. Verbal learning:
This type of learning involves the language we speak, the communication devices we use. Signs, pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc, are the tools used in such activities. We use words for communication.
3. Concept learning:
It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental processes like thinking, reasoning, intelligence, etc. we learn different concepts from childhood. For example, when we see a dog and attach the term ‘dog’, we learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal. Concept learning involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalisation. This learning is very useful in recognising, identifying things.
4. Discrimination learning:
Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an appropriate response to these stimuli is called discrimination learning. Example, sound horns of different vehicles like bus, car, ambulance, etc.
5. Learning of principles:
Individuals learn certain principles related to science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to manage their work effectively. These principles always show the relationship between two or more concepts. Example: formulae, laws, associations, correlations, etc.
6. Problem solving:
This is a higher order learning process. This learning requires the use of cognitive abilities-such as thinking, reasoning, observation, imagination, generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome difficult problems encountered by the people.
7. Attitude learning:
Attitude is a predisposition which determines and directs our behaviour. We develop different attitudes from our childhood about the people, objects and everything we know. Our behaviour may be positive or negative depending upon our attitudes. Example: attitudes of nurse towards her profession, patients, etc.