Meaning of Human Learning | Nature of Human Learning |

 

  QUESTION  

Explain the meaning and nature of human learning

Course: Human Development & Learning

Course code 8610

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment 

ANSWER 

MEANING AND NATURE OF LEARNING 

Learning means to bring changes in the behavior of the organism. It is very difficult to give a universally acceptable definition of learning because various theories developed by psychologists attempt to define the term from a different angle. Learning in psychology has the status of a construct. Construct means an idea or image that cannot be directly observed like electrons or genes but which is inferred from the behavior of the organism. Melvin H. Marx says; “learning is a relatively enduring change in behavior which is a function of prior behavior” (usually called practice).

 

The words given above emphasize four attributes of learning as a process the first is that learning is a permanent change in behavior. It does not include change due to illness, fatigue, maturation, and use of intoxicants. The second is that learning is not directly observable but manifests in the activities of the individual. The third attribute of learning is that it results in some change of enduring nature. The fourth and last is that learning depends on practice and experience. Hilgard defined learning as, a change in a subject’s behavior to a given situation brought about this repeated experience in that situation, provided that the behavior change repeated experiences in that situation provided that the behavior change cannot be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation, or temporary states of the subject (e.g. fatigue, drugs, etc).

An Earlier View of Learning:

 An earlier view of learning regarded the teacher as a dispenser of information and the children as the passive absorbers. It was believed that the central nervous system could be developed through experience in much the same way as the muscular system reading and other communicable language skills were taught principally by isolated drill in both phonics and phonetics. All this rendered learning a somewhat distasteful task for the learner

 

A Later View of Learning:

A later view regarded learning “as a special form of activity in which children responded specifically to particular stimuli in certain prescribed situations.” According to this view, commonly referred to as stimulus-response psychology, learning occurs as a result of modification of the synaptic connections of the neurons or as a synthetic process of forms of reflex behavior. Accordingly, the subject matter and the skills to be learned should be organized specifically for instructional purposes. The stimulus-response theory, developed by E.L. Thorndike made use of certain laws of learning, namely, readiness, exercise, and effect. Motivation is primarily extrinsic and frequently places emphasis on rewards and penalties instead of the activity itself or its purpose.

 

A Recent View of Learning:

 One of the recently developed views of learning is based on the biological concept. Accordingly, the living organism develops by the process of individuation from the central (central nervous system) to the peripheral areas (arms, legs, hands, and feet). This view of learning is popularly known as the organismic, purposive theory. It is also referred to as one of the field theories of learning. This leads us to define learning in the words of some of the experts on the subjects.