Characteristics

of Learning
(Special Topics in English)
 Definitions of Learning
“Learning is the acquisition of habits, knowledge and attitudes”. - Crow and Crow
“Learning is any change in behavior, resulting from behavior”. - J.P. Guilford
“Learning is the modification of our ready-made behavior due to experience”. – Colvin
“Learning is a process whereby a change in, behavior results from some of experience, activity,
training, observation and the like”. - H.J. Klausmeir

Learning
- An individual starts learning as soon as he is born. He continues learning throughout his
life. Learning is the acquisition of habits, knowledge, attitudes and skills. It involves new
ways of doing things and attempts to adjust to new situations. It shows progressive
change in behavior as the individual reacts to a situation. It is an effort to adopt his
behavior effectively to demands made upon him. It thus enables him to satisfy interests or
to attain goals.

Characteristics of Learning
(Yoakman & Simpson)
The ability to learn is one of the most outstanding human characteristics. Learning occurs
continuously throughout a person’s lifetime. To understand how people learn, it is necessary to
understand what happens to the individual during the process. Knowledge of the general
characteristics of learning help the teacher use them in a learning situation. If learning is a
change in behavior as a result of experience, then instruction must include a careful and
systematic creation of those experiences that promote learning.
1. Learning is Purposeful
Each student sees a learning situation from a different viewpoint. Each student is a
unique individual whose past experiences affect readiness to learn and understanding of the
requirements involved. Each student has specific intentions and goals. Students learn from any
activity that tends to further their goals.
The students’ individual needs and attitudes may determine what they learn as much as
what the teacher is trying to get them to learn. In the process of learning, the student's goals are
of paramount significance. Teachers need to find ways to relate new learning to the student's
goals.
2. Learning is a Result of Experience
Since learning is an individual process, the instructor cannot do it for the student. The
student can learn only from personal experiences; therefore, learning and knowledge cannot exist
apart from a person. A person's knowledge is a result of experience, and no two people have had
identical experiences.
 Even when observing the same event, two people react differently; they learn different
things from it, according to the manner in which the situation affects their individual needs.
Previous experience conditions a person to respond to some things and to ignore others.
3. Learning is the Process of Acquiring Information
Learning is the process of acquiring information, knowledge, wisdom, and skills. It
occurs as a result of interaction with the person’s environment.
4. Learning Involves Far More Than Thinking
Learning involves far more than thinking: it involves the whole personality – senses,
feelings, intuition, beliefs, values, and will. If we do not have the will to learn, we cannot learn
and if we have learned, we are actually changed in some way. If the learning makes no
difference it can have very little significance.
5. Learning is a Lifelong Process
Learning is a lifelong process of gaining and using the information presented to a person.
It is not static. A person never stops acquiring new information. It keeps a person’s mind active
and aware but also conscious of the world around them.
6. Learning is Growth
The individual grows as he lives. This growth implies in both physical as well as mental
development of the learner. The individual gains experiences through various activities. These
are all sources of learning. The individual grows through living and learning.
7. Learning is Adjustment and Problem Solving
Learning enables the individual to adjust himself properly, with the new situations. The
individual faces new problems and new situations throughout his life and learning helps him to
solve the problems encountered by him.
The society in which we live is so complex and so dynamic that any one type of
adjustment will not be suitable for all or many situations and problems. It is through learning that
one could achieve the ability to adjust adequately to all situations of life.
8. Learning is Both Individual and Social
Although learning is an individual activity, it is social also. Individual mind is
consciously or unconsciously affected by the group activities. Individual is influenced by his
peers, friends, relatives’ parents and classmates and learns their ideas, feelings and attitudes in
some way or others.
9. Learning is the Product of the Environment
The individual lives in interaction of the society. Particularly, environment plays an
important part in the growth and development of the individual. The physical, social, intellectual
and emotional development of the child is molded and remolded by the objects and individuals
in his environment.