Facultad de Ciencias de la Educacin

MAGISTER EN EDUCACIN MENCIN EN INGLES COMO IDIOMA EXTRANJERO

DEFINITION OF LEARNING

Subject:

Evaluacin y clasificacin del idioma Ingls como lengua Extranjera. Ana Maria Fuentes Maria Olga Ramirez Pedro Mendoza Eynnath Vazques Monserrat Vega Patricia Diaz

By:

Professor:

Santiago of Chile, June 16, 2013

Introduction

Its very important to mention that thanks to this research we were able to discuss about our different points of view (from the thought that we all learn by personal motivation to thinking that a boy needs to be taught by a personal tutor without the boy putting any effort for learning new knowledge) and compare them with all of the authors theories mentioned in class so we can reach a consensus from all of their theories to make our own definition of what learning is.

As all our movements, thoughts and attitudes start from brain activity, the interest of learning may occurs as part of personal development (educational or professional) and it depends on the interest of each person, if he/she is interested in something and wants to learn more about it, he/she will look for more information and more opportunities to learn about that issue. This process is different according to the age or stage of life. although it is said that learning is an unconscious action that we do from our first days of life, we also can say that the right name for infant learners could be acquisition, every person has a different disposition towards life and facing what he/she is interested in learning, this is why if we want to learn how to use a computer there is the intention for; we voluntarily want to learn, but all the moves to make this action begin and are delivered by the brain activity. Piaget states in his theory of cognitive development that children go through specific stages according to their intellect and ability to perceive relationships between interests and the tools that they have to carry out their purpose. It is a transition from less to more, because we all have knowledge, it's just that is stored in our brain and it only takes that at any given time we need to remember it or assimilate it as such, learning is directly linked with the understanding and the ability to recognize that we need to know and learn more in life.

Learning refers not only to information collected by our environment which makes us more able to solve problems and communicate something

desired, also affects or produces a change of behavior in the individual depending on their age, maturity and environment.

Learning does not only refer to knowledge and learning in schools and universities (topic-subject), as it is safe to say that learning is related to the way of living the day by day, in other words the intelligence leading to solving the problem, due to different experiences or how to overcome a failure. However, we cant let aside the genetic inheritance, since that when we learn we mustnt only focus on the environment, because learning is not only an experience factor. Thus we can say that sometimes you behave in a specific way without having learned necessarily due to the environment.

Kolb suggests that learning is based on experience, in other words activities that allow learning. We believe that our environment and information captured makes us more skilled, allows us to process information, engage, reflect, integrate, make decisions and solve problems, which affects or produces a change of behavior in the individual depending on their age, maturity and environment.

Analyzing Illeriss concept (Learning can broadly be defined as any process that in living organisms leads to permanent capacity change and which is not solely due to biological maturation or ageing) we can understand that learning is a transition from a low level of knowledge to an upper one, due to that reason everyone has different kinds of knowledge when they finish preschool, school or college. Learning transforms the concepts and classifies them, we can say that children learn many words without context during their first years of life and then when they grow they can classify them for a permanent use in their lives.

According to Illeris theory there are three dimensions of learning; functionality it is referred to learning content and the individuals sensitivity, the individuals incentive for learning is really important (motivation, emotion

and volition. ) And finally is Integration: it is focused in the individual learning that makes sense to him in interaction with fellow learners or the environment.

Conclusion

Its very important to mention how gratifying it was to discuss this issue with all the members of the group because we consider that is essential to have an idea of how each theory can be related to an individuals learning experience through each stage of his/her life and especially the way students learn so we as teachers can focus our teaching methods and develop their learning skills in the most appropriate way and letting them know that no matter the circumstances a person never stops learning. The definitions that we get from the vision of each member are related to the four learning orientations of learning that include aspects of behaviorism, the cognitive aspect, humanistic and social. There are many differences in regard of what each theory postulates, however we can still make a definition in broad terms from our personal experience with the subject.

Learning is a cognitive process from a lower to an upper level, this results in a change in behavior that remains permanent for whatever the purpose the individual may need and desire in life. The individual is conscious about the decisions he/she made towards learning based on content, incentive and interaction (social experience) so everything is a voluntary process since everything starts from brain activity, there are many factor that will determine the way an individual will learn, such as the environment, heredity, stage of life or social context. Learning is directly linked with the understanding and the ability weather to feel the need of learning for personal development or to recognize that we need to know and learn more in life