Learning Theories and Principles

Lesson 1. Nature of Learning

When we hear the word, "learning", the first thing that comes to our mind is studying subjects or courses like
mathematics, science, and language in school. In a broader sense though, learning extends much more beyond the
confines of the classroom or the school. People learn everyday of their in various places and conditions.

The term "learning and all other concepts related to it, expectedly form a major part of the experiences for you
who are studying to become teachers. As such, it is important for you to understand the nature of learning, because you
play a major role in the students' learning. Knowing and understanding learning-related concepts will enable you to better
develop teaching methodologies and other interventions meant to improve, enhance and facilitate learning.

The goal of education is to effect learning among students the population at large. Learning connotes observed
changes in a person as result of environmental events and interventions. The process of education is a deliberate effort
to ensure that as students go up the educational ladder, developmental changes in there is personality are effected. This
has to do with improved and enhanced physical, emotional, social and cognitive skills, and knowledge and other
personality behaviors.

Generally, learning is defined as any change in the behavior of the learning. The change can be deliberate or
unintentional, for better or for worse, correct or incorrect and conscious or unconscious (Mayer, 2011; and Schunk, 2012
in Woolfolk, 2013). To qualify for learning, the change should be brought about by experience or by interaction of the
person with the environment. It is not learning if the change is brought about by maturation like getting taller or hair
turning gray. Temporary changes due to illness, fatigue, or hunger are not also included s examples of learning.

While the definition any generally connote change wither in the direction of the positive or negative, it should be
borne in mind that for our purposes in education, it means a conscious and deliberate effort to effect behavioral changes
among learners in the positive direction. Thus, we should be thinking about improving and enhancing learners' knowledge,
abilities, skills and values, quantitatively and qualitatively speaking. Toward this end, we should look to the goals and
objectives of education as our guide to successfully effect the desired learning outcomes.

Learning is a process that brings together personal and environmental experiences and influences for acquiring
enriching or modifying one's knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, behavior and world views.

Burns (1995) defined learning as a relatively permanent change in behavior with behavior including both
observable activity and internal processes such as thinking, attitudes and emotions.

Santrock (2012) defined learning is a relatively permanent influence on behavior, knowledge, and thinking skills
that comes about through experience. Santrock goes further to say that it is a long-term change in mental
representations or associations as a result of experience. For example, as a result of experience, children will change
from being unable to operate a computer into individuals who can. However, not everything that an individual knows or is
able to do is the result of experience. There are some things an individual can do due to inherited capacities. An example
of this is swallowing or blinking of the eyes. If, however, an individual develops new methods of study, works harder to
solve problems, asks better questions, then these are learning as a result of experience.

The definition of learning covers the following elements:

a. It is a long-term change (though it does not necessarily last forever).

b. The change is brought about by experience.

c. It does not include changes that are physiological like maturation, mental illness, fatigue, hunger or the like.

d. It involves mental representation or association, presumably, it has its basis in the brain.

Woofolk (2016) asserts that "learning occurs when experience (including practice) causes a relatively permanent
change in an individual's knowledge, behavior or potential for behavior." For Ormrod (2015), "learning is a long-term change
in mental representations or associations as a result of experience."

Learning is also defined as "any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of practice and
experience. From the definitions, learning has three important elements: a) a change in behavior, better or worse; b)
change takes place through practice or experience, (not changes due to growth or maturation); and, c) behavior change
must be relatively permanent and last for a fairly long time. All learning involves activities learned by the individual refer
to types of learning, as for example, habits, skills, facts (Learning: Meaning, Nature, Types and Theories of Learning" n.d.)

There are types of learning resulting from engagement or participation in classroom activities, these types of
learning are basic ingredients to success in school. These are what schools desire of students to develop.

a. Motor Learning. It is a form of learning for one to maintain and go through daily life activities as for example,
walking, running, driving, climbing and the like. These activities involve motor coordination.

b. Verbal Learning. It involves the use of spoken language as well as the communication devices used. Signs,
pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds are tools used in such activities.

c. Concept Learning. A form of learning which requires the use of higher-order mental processes like thinking,
reasoning, and analyzing. It involves two processes: abstraction and generalization.

d. Discrimination Learning. It is learning to differentiate between stimuli and responding appropriately to these
stimuli. An example is being able to distinguish the sound of horns of different vehicles like bus, car, and
ambulance.

e. Learning of Principles. It is learning principles related to science, mathematics, grammar and the like. Principles
show the relationship between two or more concepts, some examples of which are formulas, laws, associations,
correlations and the like.
 f. Problem Solving. This is a higher-order thinking process. This learning requires the use of cognitive abilities-
such as thinking, reasoning, observation, imagination, and generalization.

g. Attitude Learning. Attitude is a predisposition which determines and predicts behavior. Learned attitudes
influence one's behavior towards people, objects, things or ideas.

The nature of learning or the changes occurring within an individual is difficult to visualize and understand
because it is an internal process. Hence it is not easy to present, or explain in concrete terms what this complex process
is all about. Thus, there is a need to look at theories of learning to enable one to better conceptualize and operationalize
what learning is all about.

Learning is a very comprehensive and complex concept, and it covers a wide range of activities which cannot be
explained with a limited framework. This may be the reason why there is available wide range of theories of learning, each
propounding and focusing on a particular perspective or view to explain what learning is.

A learning theory is an organized set of principles explaining how individuals acquire, retain, and recall knowledge.
Learning theories try to explain how people learn and why they learn. They also try to explain the phenomenon of learning
its nature, and the conditions under which learning best occurs. The explanations are, however, considered as tentative.
Be as it may, these statements are not result of guesswork. Instead, they are well studied or seriously thought out, and
in many cases, the result of scientific study. These theories especially guide teachers to have better understanding of
how learning occurs and how learners learn.

The term "learning" may mean differently to different people and used differently by different theories. As
theories of learning evolved over time, definitions of learning shifted from changes that occur in the mind or behavior of
an individual, to changes in participation in ongoing activities with other individuals, to changes in a person's identity within
group.

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Lately, there has been a strong advocacy and push for learner-centeredness in educational practice, especially
in curriculum development and teaching methodology. This means that policy, planning and implementation of
educational practice should have the leaner as its focus. It is therefore expected that theories of learning and their
applications should be learner-centered.

Learner-centered is the perspective that focuses on individual learners-their heredity, experiences,

For a better understanding of the term learner-centered, following are learner- centered principles meant to
provide a framework for developing and incorporating new strategies and designs of teaching.
These are main ideas of these principles:

a. They pertain to the learner and the learning process.

b. They focus on psychological factors primarily internal and under the control of the learner.

c. They deal with external or contextual factors that interact with the internal factors.

d. They are seen as an organized set of principles: no principle to be viewed in isolation.

e. The principles are classified under cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, affective, developmental, social and
individual difference factors related to learning.

f. These principles apply not only to all learners but to everybody involved in the educational systems, for
example: teachers, administrators, parents, staff, and guidance counselors.