LEARNING: PROCESS OR PRODUCT

Abstract
1. What is learning?

2. Characteristics of learning

2.1. Learning is Purposeful

2.2. Learning is a Result of Experience

2.3. Learning is Multifaceted

2.4. Learning is an Active Process

3. Learning Theories: behaviorism and cognitivism

3.1. Behaviorism

3.2. Cognitivism

4. Learning as a product

5. Learning as a process - learning theory

6. Learning as process

6.1. The reading process

6.2 The psycholinguistic model of reading

7. Conclusions

8. Bibliography
 ABSTRACT

The purpose of my essay describes the differences between the learning as process or
product.

First of all I define what is learning and the characteristics of learning, differences view of
points according to Gentile and wikipedia’s definition.

I define characteristics of learning, where I write some experiences then there are two
theories about learning: process or product .They define according the view of point.

Finally I define the learning as process in a specific skill the reading process.
 LEARNING: PROCESS OR PRODUCT

1. What is learning?
According to Gentile (1987:25) Psychologists traditionally define learning as a relative
permanent chance in behavior as a result of experience. Already we can see the overlap
between learning and memory, since the phrase relatively permanent implies not only that
something has been acquired, but that it has been retained.

This definition also contains several other important implications.

First, there is a change in behavior, which prescribes that learning is inferred from data that
are gathered at the minion of two points in time.

One cannot measure student learned anything from the course. One must show that the
student’s performance is better (in some way) at the end of the course than it was at the
beginning.

Learning is an individual process to acquire abilities, knowledge as a result of

experience. It is the most important function of the human being.

It is establish between human being and environment.

Other definition In psychology and education, learning is commonly defined as a process

that brings together cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences and experiences for
acquiring, enhancing, or making changes in one's knowledge, skills, values, and world
views (Illeris, 2000; Ormorod, 1995).

Learning as a process focuses on what happens when the learning takes place. Explanations
of what happens constitute learning theories. A learning theory is attempts to describe how
people and animals learn; thereby helping us understand the inherently complex process of
learning. Learning theories have two chief values according to Hill (2002).
One is in providing us with vocabulary and a conceptual framework for interpreting the
examples of learning that we observe. The other is in suggesting where to look for solutions
to practical problems. The theories do not give us solutions, but they do direct our attention
to those variables that are crucial in finding solutions. (1)

(1) Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_ (education)

2. Characteristics of learning

In order to apply them in a learning situation. If learning is a change in behavior as a result

of experience, and then instruction must include a careful and systematic creation of
those experiences that promote learning. This process can be quite complex because,

among other things, an individual's background strongly influences the way that person
learns. To be effective, the learning situation also should be purposeful, based on
experience, multifaceted, and involve an active process. (2)

2.1. 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. For example, an instructor may give two aviation maintenance
students the assignment of learning certain inspection procedures. One student may learn
quickly and be able to competently present the assigned material. The combination of an
aviation background and future goals may enable that student to realize the need and value
of learning the procedures. A second student's goal may only be to comply with the
instructor's assignment, and may result in only minimum preparation. The responses differ
because each student ads in accordance with what he or she sees in the situation.

Most people have fairly definite ideas about what they want to do and achieve. Their goals
sometimes are short term, involving a matter of days or weeks. On the other hand, their
goals may be carefully planned for a career or a lifetime. Each student has specific
intentions and goals. Some may be shared by other students. Students learn from any
activity that tends to further their goals. Their individual needs and attitudes may determine
what they learn as much as what the instruc- tor is trying to get them to learn. In the process
of learning, the student's goals are of paramount significance. To be effective, aviation
instructors need to find ways to relate new learning to the student's goals.

Each human being is individual in process to learning, in my experience as a teacher

I work in public school with around 34 students and this case they receive the same
learning but each one has a different purposeful, some of them want to learn and
another group maybe not.

2.2. 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.

All learning is by experience, but learning takes place in different forms and in varying
degrees of richness and depth. For instance, some experiences involve the whole person
while others may be based only on hearing and memory. Aviation instructors are faced with
the problem of providing learning experiences that are meaningful, varied, and appropriate.
As an example, students can learn to say a list of words through repeated drill, or they can
learn to recite certain principles of flight by rote. However, they can make them meaningful
only if they understand them well enough to apply them correctly to real situations. If an
experience challenges the students, requires involvement with feelings, thoughts, memory
of past experiences, and physical activity, it is more effective than a learning experience in
which all the students have to do is commit something to memory.

It seems clear enough that the learning of a physical skill requires actual experience in
performing that skill. Student pilots learn to fly aircraft only if their experiences include
flying them; student aviation maintenance technicians learn to overhaul power plants only
by actually performing that task. Mental habits are also learned through practice. If students
are to use sound judgment and develop decision-making skills, they need learning
experiences that involve knowledge of general principles and require the use of judgment in
salving realistic problems.

Learning is an individual process; it is the result of experience, each human being

through life acquires different experiences.

I remembered one year ago I made a class with 22 students the question I said What
provinces of Peru do you know? They answered me Huancayo, Iquitos, Ica,

Lima, etc. They told me different experiences from their clothing, traditional dishes,
and costumers to their traditional tales because they lived in those places.

2.3. Learning is Multifaceted

If instructors see their objective as being only to train their students' memory and muscles,
they are underestimating the potential of the teaching situation. Students may learn much
more than expected if they fully exercise their minds and feelings. The fact that these items
were not included in the instructor's plan does not prevent them from influencing the
learning situation.

Psychologists sometimes classify learning by types, such as verbal, conceptual, perceptual,

motor, problem solving, and emotional. Other classifications refer to intellectual skills,
cognitive strategies, and attitudinal changes, along with descriptive terms like surface or
deep learning. However useful these divisions may be, they are somewhat artificial. For
example, a class learning to apply the scientific method of problem solving may learn the
method by trying to solve real problems. But in doing so, the class also engages in verbal
learning and sensory perception at the same time. Each student approaches the task with
preconceived ideas and feelings, and for many students, these ideas change as a result of
experience. Therefore, the learning process may include verbal elements, conceptual
elements, perceptual elements, emotional elements, and problem solving elements all
taking place at once. This aspect of learning will become more evident later in this
handbook when lesson planning is discussed.

Learning is multifaceted in still another way. While learning the subject at hand, students
may be learning other things as well. They may be developing attitudes about aviation-good
or bad-depending on what they experience. Under a skillful instructor, they may learn self-
reliance. The list is seemingly endless. This type of learning is sometimes referred to as
incidental, but it may have a great impact on the total development of the student. (2)

(2) Taken from: http://www.dynamicflight.com/avcfibook/learning_process/

Learning get a lot of paper in our life because it is multifaceted because learning
tries to solve any problems so you can apply your experiences as possible as.

2.4. Learning is an Active Process

Students do not soak up knowledge like a sponge absorbs water. The instructor cannot
assume that students remember something just because they were in the classroom, shop, or
airplane when the instructor presented the material. Neither can the instructor assume that
the students can apply what they know because they can quote the correct answer verbatim.
For students to learn, they need to react and respond, perhaps outwardly, perhaps only
inwardly, emotionally, or intellectually. But if learning is a process of changing behavior,
clearly that process must be an active one. (2)

Learning is a process that step by step gets the answer to solutions.

I remember when I started this major Teaching English as a Foreign Language , I

was confused about that but the months go on , I understand that my learning is in
process and get new experience at the same happen with my studies .

3. Learning Theories: behaviorism and cognitivism

We have two theories, they explain Learning: process or product.

3.1. Behaviorism
Methodological behaviorism began as a reaction against the introspective psychology that
dominated the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Introspective psychologists such as Wilhelm Wundt maintained that the study of

consciousness was the primary object of psychology. Their methodology was primarily
introspective, relying heavily on first-person reports of sensations and the constituents of
immediate experiences. Behaviorists such as J. B. Watson and B. F. Skinner rejected
introspectionist methods as being subjective and unquantifiable. Instead, they focused on
objectively observable, quantifiable events and behavior.

They argued that since it is not possible to observe objectively or to quantify what occurs in
the mind, scientific theories should take into account only observable indicators such as
stimulus-response sequences. According to Skinner (About Behaviorism) (3)

(3) Taken from: http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide2009/learning/behaviorism.html

3.2. Cognitivism
The cognitivist revolution replaced behaviorism in 1960s as the dominant paradigm.
Cognitivism focuses on the inner mental activities – opening the “black box” of the human
mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn. Mental processes such
as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving need to be explored. Knowledge can
be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions. Learning is defined as change in a
learner’s schemata.

A response to behaviorism, people are not “programmed animals” that merely respond to
environmental stimuli; people are rational beings that require active participation in order to
learn, and whose actions are a consequence of thinking. Changes in behavior are observed,
but only as an indication of what is occurring in the learner’s head. Cognitivism uses the
metaphor of the mind as computer: information comes in, is being processed, and leads to
certain outcomes. (4)

4. Learning as a product
Pick up a standard psychology textbook - especially from the 1960s and 1970s and you will
probably find learning defined as a change in behaviour. In other words, learning is
approached as an outcome - the end product of some process. It can be recognized or seen.
This approach has the virtue of highlighting a crucial aspect of learning - change. It's
apparent clarity may also make some sense when conducting experiments. However, it is
rather a blunt instrument.

For example:

• Does a person need to perform in order for learning to have happened?

• Are there other factors that may cause behaviour to change?

• Can the change involved include the potential for change? (Merriam and Caffarella
1991: 12) (quoted in (4) , above)

Questions such as these have led to qualification. Some have looked to identifying
relatively permanent changes in behaviour (or potential for change) as a result of
experiences (see behaviourism below). However, not all changes in behaviour resulting
from experience involve learning.

(4) Taken from: http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html

It would seem fair to expect that if we are to say that learning has taken place, experience
should have been used in some way. Conditioning may result in a change in behaviour, but
the change may not involved drawing upon experience to generate new knowledge. Not
surprisingly, many theorists have, thus, been less concerned with overt behaviour but with
changes in the ways in which people 'understand, or experience, or conceptualize the world
around them' (Ramsden 1992: 4) (see cognitivism below). The focus for them, is gaining
knowledge or ability through the use of experience.

The depth or nature of the changes involved are likely to be different. Some years ago Säljö
(1979) carried out a simple, but very useful piece of research. He asked a number of adult
students what they understood by learning. Their responses fell into five main categories:

1. Learning as a quantitative increase in knowledge. Learning is acquiring information

or ‘knowing a lot’.

2. Learning as memorising. Learning is storing information that can be reproduced.

 3. Learning as acquiring facts, skills, and methods that can be retained and used as
necessary.

4. Learning as making sense or abstracting meaning. Learning involves relating parts

of the subject matter to each other and to the real world.

5. Learning as interpreting and understanding reality in a different way. Learning

involves comprehending the world by reinterpreting knowledge. (quoted in
Ramsden 1992: 26)

As Paul Ramsden comments, we can see immediately that conceptions 4 and 5 in are
qualitatively different from the first three. Conceptions 1 to 3 imply a less complex view of
learning. Learning is something external to the learner. It may even be something that just
happens or is done to you by teachers (as in conception 1). In a way learning becomes a bit
like shopping. People go out and buy knowledge - it becomes their possession. The last two
conceptions look to the 'internal' or personal aspect of learning. Learning is seen as
something that you do in order to understand the real world.

5. Learning as a process - learning theory

The focus on process obviously takes us into the realm of learning theories - ideas about
how or why change occurs. On these pages we focus on four different orientations (the first
three taken from Merriam and Caffarella 1991).

The behaviourist orientation to learning

The cognitive orientation to learning

The humanistic orientation to learning

The social/situational orientation to learning

As with any categorization of this sort the divisions are a bit arbitrary: there could be
further additions and sub-divisions to the scheme, and there a various ways in which the
orientations overlap and draw upon each other.
The four orientations can be summed up in the following figure:

Four orientations to learning (after Merriam and Caffarella 1991: 138)

Aspect Behaviourist Cognitivist Humanist Social and

situational
Learning Thorndike, Koffka, Kohler, Maslow, Rogers Bandura, Lave
theorists Pavlov, Watson, Lewin, Piaget, and Wenger,
Guthrie, Hull, Ausubel, Salomon
Tolman, Skinner Bruner, Gagne

View of the Change in Internal mental A personal act to Interaction

learning process behaviour process fulfil potential. /observation in
(including social contexts.
insight, Movement from
information the periphery to
processing, the centre of a
memory, community of
perception practice
Locus of Stimuli in Internal Affective and Learning is in
learning external cognitive cognitive needs relationship
environment structuring between people
and environment.
Purpose in Produce Develop Become self- Full participation
education behavioural capacity and actualized, in communities of
change in skills to learn autonomous practice and
desired direction better utilization of
resources
Educator's role Arranges Structures Facilitates Works to
environment to content of development of establish
elicit desired learning activity the whole communities of
response person practice in which
conversation and
participation can
occur.
Manifestations Behavioural Cognitive Andragogy Socialization
in adult learning objectives development Self-directed Social
Competency Intelligence, learning participation
-based education learning and Associationalism
Skill memory as Conversation
development function of age
 and training Learning how to
learn

As can seen from the above schematic presentation and the discussion on the linked pages,
these approaches involve contrasting ideas as to the purpose and process of learning and
education - and the role that educators may take. It is also important to recognize that the
theories may apply to different sectors of the acquision-formalized learning continuum
outlined above. For example, the work of Lave and Wenger is broadly a form of acquisition
learning that can involve some more formal interludes. (5)

6. Learning as process
6.1 The reading process
According to Kenneth Goodman (1975:5) is a very real sense this chapter is a progress
report. Some years ago decided that a major reason for the lack of forward motion in
attempts to develop more effective reading instruction was a common failure to examine
and articulate a clear view of the reading process itself. Knowledge, I felt was not
cumulative in improving reading instruction largely because we either ignored the reading
process and focussed on the manipulation of teacher and / or pupil behaviors or because we
treated reading as a unknowable mystery.

(5) Taken from: http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm

6.2 The psycholinguistic model of reading

According to Coady (1979) has elaborated on this basic psycholinguistic model and has
suggested a model in which the EFL/ ESL reader’s background knowledge interacts with
conceptual abilities and process strategies, more or less successfully, to produce
comprehension (see Figure 1).

By conceptual ability, Coady means general intellectual capacity. By processing strategies ,

Coady means various subcomponents of reading ability , including many which are also
more general language processing skills which also apply to moral language ( e.g.,
grapheme – morpheme correspondences, syllable – morpheme information, syntactic
information ( deep and surface) , lexical meaning , and contextual meaning).

Coady says little more about the role of background knowledge other than to observe that.

Conceptual habilities Background knowledge

Process strategies

CONCLUSIONS
1. Learning as a relative permanent chance in behavior as a result of
experience.

2. Learning as a process focuses on what happens when the learning takes

place, explanations of what happens constitute learning theories.

3. Learning is purposeful because each student is a unique individual whose

past experiences affect readiness to learn and understanding of the requirements
involved.

4. Learning is a result of experience all learning is by experience, but learning

takes place in different forms and in varying degrees of richness and depth. For
instance, some experiences involve the whole person while others may be based only
on hearing and memory.