Professional Documents
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Nursing Instructor
Dhaka Nursing College, Dhaka
Learning
The ability to learn is one of the most outstanding human characteristics. Learning
occurs continuously throughout a person's lifetime. To define learning, it is necessary to
analyze what happens to the individual. For example, an individual's way of perceiving,
thinking, feeling, and doing may change as a result of a learning experience.
Thus, learning can be defined as a change in behavior as a result of experience. This can be
physical and overt, or it may involve complex intellectual or attitudinal changes which affect
behavior in more subtle ways.
Definitions of learning
Learning, in psychology, the process by which a relatively lasting change in potential
behavior occurs because of practice or experience. Learning is also a process of acquiring
modifications in existing knowledge, skills, habits, or tendencies through experience,
practice, or exercise.
According to Gates and others Learning is the modification of behavior through
experience
According to Henry, P smith Learning is the acquisition of new behavior or
strengthening or weakening of old behavior as a result of experience.
According to Crow and Crow Learning is the acquisition of habits, knowledge and
attitudes. It involves new ways of doing things, and it operates in an individuals attempt to
overcome obstacles or to adjust to new situations.
According to Kingsley and Garry, '' Learning is a process by which behavior (in the
broader sense) is organized or changes through practice or training.''
According to Gardner Murphy, (1962), ''The term learning covers ever modification
in behavior to meet environmental requirements''.
Types of Learning
Learning has been classified in many ways.
I. Informal, formal and non-formal learning: Depending on the way of acquiring it
learning may be informal, formal or non-formal.
a. Informal learning is incidental. It takes place throughout life. It is not planned.
b. Formal learning is intentional and organized. It takes place in formal educational
institution.
c. Non-formal is also intentional & organized. It is flexible.
II. Individual or Group learning: Learning is called either individual or group learning
depending upon the number of individuals involved in the learning process.
III. Another classification involves the types of activity involved:
a. Motor learning: When learning involves primarily the use of muscles it is called
as motor learning. e.g.: learning to walk, to operate a typewriter
b. Discrimination learning: Learning which involves the act of discrimination is
called discrimination learning. e.g. infant discriminates between mother and aunt, milk and
water.
c. Verbal learning: When learning involves the use of words it is called as verbal
learning.
d. Concept learning: When learning involves the formation of concept it is called as
concept learning.
e. Sensory learning: When learning is concerned with perception and sense it is
sensory learning.
Characteristics of learning
1. Learning is growth, adjustment, organization of experience.
2. Learning is purposeful
3. Learning is both individual and social, product of the environment.
4. Learning is a continuous modification of behavior continues throughout life
5. Learning is pervasive. It reaches into all aspects of human life.
6. Learning involves the whole person, socially, emotionally & intellectually.
7. Learning is often a change in the organization of behavior.
8. Learning is developmental. Time is one of its dimensions.
9. Learning is responsive to incentives. In most cases positive incentives such as rewards are
most effective than negative incentives such as punishments.
10. Learning is always concerned with goals. These goals can be expressed in terms of
observable behavior.
11. Interest & learning are positively related. The individual learns bet those things, which he
is interested in learning. Most bys find learning to play football easier than learning to add
fractions.
12. Learning depends on maturation and motivation.
Importance of learning
1. To improve the behavior of students: In a class room group, the students come into
contact with each other and acquire appropriate type of education.
2. To develop mental processes: Some sort of exchange of thoughts goes on in the class
group through which intellectual activities like reasoning, memory, judgments, decisions,
thinking and imagination develop.
3. To develop the feeling of self sacrifice: The students in a class room group remain in
close contact with each other. Therefore so much love good will and sympathy develops in
them that in the time of need they do not hesitate to sacrifice themselves for the sake of
others.
4. To prepare for future social life: Students in class room group live together for pretty
long time and try to adjust their thoughts, habits and view points to others. Such a type of
experience prepares them for future social life.
5. To excite sympathy of numbers: A student starts doing as other students do. Their
tendency is called sympathy of numbers.
6. To develop qualities of leadership: Students in classroom groups plan or organize a
number of co curricular activities. Thus qualities of leadership are developed in them.
7. To acquire more knowledge: In a classroom group the students learn the habits of
competition and imitation and get an inspiration to acquire more knowledge.
8. To develop the feeling of co-operation: The teacher encourages all the members of a
classroom group to work together and thus feeling of cooperation is developed in them.
Nature of learning
These are the nature of learning:
1. 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 is vital for students 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. Students 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 behavior
adopted to tackle them. Learning is birth to death.
5. It results in change in behavior: It is a change of behavior influenced by previous
behavior. 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 behavior.
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.
9. 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.
10. Learning is not directly observable: The only way to study learning is through some
observable behavior. Actually, we cannot observe learning; we see only what precedes
performance, the performance itself, and the consequences of performance.
Element of learning
The element of learning as follows:
1. Motives: Motives arouse individuals and as a result they respond. This arousal functional
is essential because it activates the energy needed to engage in learning activity.
2. Cues: Capable of providing direction i.e. it influences the manner in which to respond the
motive. eg. Hungry man is guided by restraints sign or aroma of food.
3. Response: Mental or physical activity in reaction to a stimulus.
4. Reinforcement: Anything that follows the response and increase the tendency of response
to reoccur in a similar situation.
Tools of Listening
GRRR as a listening tool:
G Greeting Offer greetings and establish positive environment.
R Respectful Listening Listen without interrupting and pause to allow others
to think.
R Review Summarize message to make sure it was heard accurately.
R Recommend or Request
More Information:
Seek additional information as necessary.
R Reward Recognize that a collaborative exchange has occurred by offering thanks.
Styles of Learning
There are seven categories of learning style. These are as follows:
1. Visual: The occipital lobes at the back of the brain manage the visual sense. Both the
occipital and parietal lobes manage spatial orientation.
2. Aural: The temporal lobes handle aural content. The right temporal lobe is especially
important for music.
3. Verbal: The temporal and frontal lobes, especially two specialized areas called Brocas
and Wernickes areas (in the left hemisphere of these two lobes).
4. Physical: The cerebellum and the motor cortex (at the back of the frontal lobe) handle
much of our physical movement.
5. Logical: The parietal lobes, especially the left side, drive our logical thinking.
6. Social: The frontal and temporal lobes handle much of our social activities. The limbic
system (not shown apart from the hippocampus) also influences both the social and solitary
styles. The limbic system has a lot to do with emotions, moods and aggression.
7. Solitary: The frontal and parietal lobes, and the limbic system, are also active with this
style.
Stages of learning
The stages of learning are as follows:
1. Be introduced to it: Overviews, preliminary reading, listening to discussion, presentation,
websites, media or video clip.
2. Get to know more about it: Lectures, further reading, group discussion, demonstrations,
asking questions, relating to earlier learning experience, interactive websites, audiovisual
material, media, research projects.
3. Try it out: Practical projects, discussion of ideas with peers and teachers, design tasks,
structured experiences, role play, skills laboratories, writing.
4. Get feedback: Informal and formal feedback with criteria from self, from peers, from
teachers, from colleagues, from family and friends.
5. Reflect, adjust and try again: Through contemplation, writing, reflective journals,
discussion.
Strategies of learning
These are the strategies in learning:
1. Practice testing: Self testing or talking practice tests on to be learned material.
2. Distributed practice: Implementing a schedule of practice that spread out activities over
time.
3. Interleaved practice: Implementing a schedule of practice that mixes different kinds of
problems, or a schedule of study that mixes different kind of material, within a single study
session.
4. Elaborative interrogation: Generating of explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or
concept is true.
5. Self-explanation: Explaining how new information is related to known information or
explaining step taken during problem solving.
6. Rereading: Restudying test material again after an initial reading.
7. Highlighting and underlining: Marking potentially important portion of to be learned
materials while reading.
8. Summarization: Writing summarizes of to be learning texts.
9. Keyword mnemonic: Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials.
10. Imagery for text: Attempting to form mental images of text materials while reading or
listening.
Principles of learning
These are the principles of learning:
1. Motivation: Motivation is the key to successful teaching. Students learn faster and more
thoroughly when they want to learn. It is difficult for the teacher is to create the conditions in
which the students will want to learn. It is fact that the nature of people is want to learn.
Naturally peoples are more eager to learn then other people. This internal eagerness to learn
is part of the student's personality and cannot be changed much by the teacher. This is the
students level of motivation. Each of these idea will help to make interesting, easier to learn
or more relevant to the students carrier and help to motivate students about their success.
2. Social interaction: Learning is affected by social interaction among peoples involved.
Learning usually takes place in a group of setting. The interrelationship between the teachers
and students can be made learning is important and effective. Also interrelationship between
the different learners is influential. These relationships combine to provide an atmosphere in
the learning situation. They respond best to an atmosphere of acceptance, respect,
encouragement, geminate, students should feel free ask question and contribute to class
discussion.
3. Physical environment: Naturally physical surrounding can also affect learning. The basic
principle is that learning takes place best when there are no disturbance. The physical
environment should be quite and at a comfortable temperature. Poor ventilation or
overcrowding will decrease the rate of learning. An ideal room for a group of 20-25 students
should be good ventilation and sufficient light from the windows, a floor area of 60-80 m2
and be approximately squire.
The furniture should include moveable desk and chairs so that student can face each
other during discussion on face the screen or chalkboard when material is presented there.
4. Clarity: To learn, the students must be able to hear and understand the teacher and see
what is being demonstrated. Teachers should use clear language, define new words, and be
certain that audiovisual and other aids are used wisely to enrich learning.
5. Relevance to previous experience: People learn faster when new information or skill is
related to what they already know or can do. New information will be learnt more quickly if
it can be fitted into the structured of what is already known. This benefit is only achieved
when the relationship between what is already known and what is to be learnt are made clear.
So one of the functions of teacher is to:
i. Find out what learner already knows and them.
ii. Make the connections between existing knowledge and the new knowledge.
6. Structure: Learning will be more when the information or skills are presented in a
structured way. By structuring knowledge that is grouping information of similar topics are
learned together, systematically, and sequences when follows the logical train of thought. It is
more important because information is scattered about or which is muddled is much more
difficult understand and remember than information which is grouped, arranged and
classified.
7. Active learning: Learning takes place quicker when students actively process information,
solve problems or practice skills. Many experiments have shown that students learn very little
when they are listening to a teacher to giving a lecture. Students learn a little more when the
teacher writes on the board and use the diagrams and pictures because in this way students
can see and hear at the same time, thus they learn more. Students learn more when they
involve actively, teacher should give some exercise to do, such as answering question,
writing notes or explaining and idea.
8. Feedback: Students want to know how well they are doing and must be able to
understand the errors they are making in order to guide their efforts towards further progress.
Teachers should provide as much information as possible about the standard of students'
work, praising what is well done and showing how errors may be eliminated.
9. Speed: Learning is faster when the speed of presenting information matches the speed at
which student can learn. Student learns at different speeds and this principle presents a
serious problem to a teacher of a mixed class. If the teacher goes to fast the slow student will
get left behind, if he goes to slowly the fast student will become bored. Using the target
concept and giving time for individual study are two ways around these problems.
Processes of learning
These are the process of learning:
1. Aligns with the learning context, signature, and outcomes: Learning process pays close
attention to the design specifications for previous design elements.
2. Results in learning products which improve the community: Learning process
produces products which are valued by the community external to the institution.
3. Links to internal and external standards: Learning process is responsive to the
expectations of staff and the wider community (e.g., needed to continue learning at other
educational institutions, occupational skill standards).
4. Applies continuous assessment to improve learning: Learning process uses frequent and
immediate assessment and feedback to improve the learning experience.
5. Personalizes to the needs and prior experiences of each and every learner: Learning
process is tailored to the unique situation and experiences of each learner with the learner at
center of the planning process.
6. Provides multiple pathways to reach learning outcomes: Learning process provides
several ways to learn the same thing.
7. Builds the self-esteem of each learner: Learning process is a positive and energy-
producing experience for learners.
8. Is managed by learners in consultation with learning staff: Learning process is
managed by the learners with guidance by staff.
9. Employs collaborative learning in problem solving: Learning process involves working
as a small group or team to solve problems.
10. Creates strong sense of learning community: Learning process builds a close and
caring relationship among learners.
11. Engages the learner in inquiry (research) and knowledge construction: Learning
process involves students in the research and development process and forming meaningful
knowledge.
12. Links to global information network: Learning process is tied to and uses electronic
information networks (e.g., Internet).
13. Guides by experienced navigators: Learning process is shaped by knowledgeable staff
that is very familiar with using information networks.
14. Uses learning projects connected to the needs of the community: Learning process
uses real projects drawn from the needs of the community as a context and content for
learning.
Adult Learner