MODULE 4 – LEARNING

CONCEPT OF LEARNING (MEANING)

• Learning refers to a spectrum of changes in behaviour that occur due to one’s
direct/indirect experience and practice which are relatively permanent in nature.

CONCEPT OF LEARNING (MEANING AND DEFINITION)

• Learning, in psychology refers to the process by which a relatively lasting change in
potential behaviour occurs because of practice or experience. It is the process of
acquiring modifications in existing knowledge, skills, habits, or tendencies through
experience, practice or exercise.
• The above definitions emphasize 4 attributes of learning:
- As process: the first is that learning is permanent change in behaviour
- It does not include change due to illness, fatigue, maturation and use of intoxicant
- Learning is not directly observable, but it manifests in activities of the individual
- Learning depends on practice and experience

CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING
Yoakum and Simpson have stated the following general characteristics of learning:
- Learning is growth
- Learning is adjustment
- Learning is the organization of experience
- Learning is purposeful
- Learning is both individual and social
- Learning is the product of environment

According to W.R Mc law learning has the following characteristics:

• Learning is a continuous modification of behaviour continues throughout life
• Learning is pervasive. It reaches into all aspects of human life.
• Learning involves the whole person, socially, emotionally & intellectually.
• Learning is often a change in the organization of behaviour.
• Learning is developmental. Time is one of its dimensions.
• Learning is responsive to incentives. In most cases positive incentives such as rewards
are most effective than negative incentives such as punishments.
• Learning is always concerned with goals. These goals can be expressed in terms of
observable behaviour.
 • Interest & learning are positively related. The individual learns between those things,
which he is interested in. Most boys find learning to play football easier than learning
to add fractions.
• Learning depends on maturation and motivation.

TYPES OF LEARNING
Learning is classified in 3 ways:
• ON THE BASIS OF ACQUIRING INFORMATION
o INFORMAL – It is incidental, takes place throughout life and is not planned
o FORMAL – It is intentional, is organized and takes place in formal
educational institution
o NON-FORMAL – It is intentional, organized and flexible

• ON THE BASIS OF NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS

o INDIVIDUAL LEARNING
o GROUP LEARNING

• ON THE BASIS OF TYPE OF ACTIVITY

o MOTOR LEARNING - When learning involves primarily the use of muscles
it is called as motor learning. E.g., Learning to walk, learning to operate a
typewriter
o DISCRIMINATION LEARNING - Learning which involves the act of
discrimination is called discrimination learning. E.g., Infant discriminates
between mother and aunt, milk and water
o VERBAL LEARNING - When learning involves use of words it is called as
verbal learning
o CONCEPT LEARNING - When learning involves the formation of concept it
is called concept learning
o SENSORY LEARNING - When learning is concerned with perception and
sense it is sensory learning

NATURE OF LEARNING
1. Learning is adaptation or adjustment
2. Learning is improvement: Learning is often considered as a process of improvement
with practice or training. We learn many things, which help us to improve our
performance.
 3. Learning is organizing experience: Learning is not mere addition of knowledge. It is
the reorganization of experience.
4. Learning brings behavioural changes: Whatever the direction of the changes may be,
learning brings progressive changes in the behaviour of an individual. That is why he
is able to adjust to changing situations.
5. Learning is active: Learning does not take place without a purpose and self-activity.
In any teaching learning process, the activity of the learner counts more than the
activity of a teacher.
6. Learning is goal directed: when the aim and purpose of learning is clear, an individual
learns immediately. It is the purpose or goal, which determines what, the learner sees
in the learning situations and how he acts. If there is no purpose or goal learning can
hardly be seen.
7. Learning is universal and continuous: All living creatures learn. Every moment the
individual engages himself to learn more and more. Right from the birth of a child till
the death learning continues.

PROCESS OF LEARNING
Learning is a process and has following steps:
1. MOTIVE OR DRIVE
• A motive is the dynamic force that energizes behaviour and compels an individual to
act.
• When our need is strong enough, we are compelled to strive for its satisfaction
• Learning takes place because of response to some stimulation
• As long as our present behaviour, knowledge, skill and performance are adequate to
satisfy all our needs, we do not feel any necessity to change our behaviour or acquire
new knowledge and skills. It is this requirement, which initiates a learner to learn
something.

2. GOAL
• Every individual has to set a definite goal for achievement
• We should always have a definite goal for achieving anything
• If a definite goal is set, then learning becomes purposeful and interesting

3. OBSTACLE/BLOCK/BARRIER
• The obstacle or block or the barrier is equally important in the process of learning.
• The obstacle or the barriers keep us away from attaining the goal
• If one does not face any difficulty in attaining the goal, they might not bring any
change in their present behaviour or stock of knowledge or skills.
• Thus, block or the barrier is an essential step in the learning process.
 LEARNING CURVE
• It is a graphic representation of how learning takes place in a particular situation.
• In all types of learning situations, the course of learning can be depicted and described
graphically by drawing learning curves against X and Y axis

- The figure shows a typical learning curve of many types of learning. The curve
consists of a number of irregularities, as the progress is not constant. For the
convenience, the curve is divided into 5 stages:

a) PERIOD OF SLOW PROGRESS: Generally, when a person has to start a learning

of a given activity from a scratch, his early progress will be slow. E.g., an infant’s
progress in learning to walk is very negligible in the beginning.

b) PERIOD OF RAPID PROGRESS: In this stage, the learner’s output raises rapidly
e.g. In typing once the learner has developed co-ordination of the movement of
fingers he shows rapid progress.

c) PERIOD OF NO APPARENT PROGRESS: Learning curves frequently display a

period of no apparent progress. It is also known as plateau. A period of no visible
learning progress, preceded and followed by improvement is called as plateaus. E.g.
In typing, a person may after having made rather consistent progress for some time,
reach a point where perhaps for weeks no further progress is made.

CAUSES OF PLATEAU
● The learner may be reorganizing the previous learning into a new pattern before
further progress is possible.
● The learner may have hit upon bad habits
● Lack of progress may be due to decrease in motivation
● The task may not be of uniform difficulty
● Loss of interest
● The onset of fatigue is also one of the causes of a plateau
 d) PERIOD OF SUDDEN RISE: At the end of a plateau, there is generally a spurt in
achievement. While on the plateau, the learner acquires better techniques, which help
him later on to show rapid progress.

e) LEVELLING: All learning will finally slow down to such an extent that it will
ultimately reach a period of no improvement. No one can continue to improve
indefinitely in any given situation. The learning curve will eventually reach a limit,
where no further improvement is possible. This limit is known as physiological limit.

CHARACTERSTICS OF LEARNING CURVE

• Slow initial progress
• Spurt-like learning after some time
• Declination in the rate of learning
• Plateaus of learning
• Sudden increase in learning
• Gradual levelling at the end

TYPES OF LEARNING CURVE

We get different types of learning curves depending upon –
(a) The nature of the learner
(b) The nature of the task/learning material
(c) Time available.
(d) Conditions under which the learning takes place.
There are different types of learning curves:
- Positive accelerated learning curve or the concave curve
- Negatively accelerated or the convex curve
- Combination of convex-concave curve

1. CONCAVE CURVE - There is slow initial improvement and learning increases with
time. When the task is difficult, we get such type of learning curve.
2. CONVEX CURVE - It depicts a rapid initial improvement in learning that slows
down with time. When the task is simple and the learner has previous practice on a
similar task, we get this type of learning curve

3. COMBINATION OF CONVEX CONCAVE CURVE - It looks like the capital

letter ‘S’. The curve takes concave or convex shape in the beginning depending upon
the nature of the task.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF LEARNING CURVE

• In acquiring the basic skills in various subjects, the learner at times appears to show
no progress. At such moments, the teacher can diagnose the reasons for their lack of
progress.
• A student’s progress may be arrested because of the work is too complex for him. The
teacher can observe the student’s work and detect the part that gives him trouble. The
teacher should see if the student has developed any faulty study habits, which impede
his progress.
• The plateau may be due to the lack of motivation. The teacher should provide
encouragement in order to maintain motivation at a high level.
• The learning curves give graphic evidence of one’s progress, which is an effective
motivational device for the learner.
 • Occurrence of plateaus can be minimised by using superior teaching methods.

THEORETICAL APPROACHES
• Learning as a process focuses on what happens when the learning takes place. This
can be well explained through the ‘learning theories.
• Learning theories are attempts to describe how people and animals learn, thereby
helping us understand the inherently complex process of learning.

• Learning theories have 2 chief values according to Hill (2002):

- Providing with vocabulary and a conceptual framework for interpreting the
examples of learning that we observe
- Suggesting where to look for solutions, but they do direct our attention to
those variables that are crucial in finding solutions

BEHAVIOURAL THEORIES:
1) E.L. THORNDIKE- TRIAL AND ERROR THEORY (S-R THEORY WITH
REINFORCEMENT)

• According to Edward Lee Thorndike, learning takes place because of formation of

bond or connection between stimulus and response.
• He adds that learning takes place through a process of approximation and
correction.
• He suggests that a person makes a number of trials until he gets satisfactory
responses.
• His most widely quoted experiment is with a cat placed in a puzzle box
 • On the basis of the experiment on the hungry cat, he named it as Trial-and-Error
Learning.
• The analysis of learning behaviour of the cat in the box shows that besides trial
and error, the principles of goal, motivation, explanation and reinforcement are
involved in the process of learning by trial and error.
• Based on the trial-and-error learning theory, Thorndike gave certain laws of
learning:

a) Law of Readiness
- Learning takes place only when the learner is prepared to learn
- If the child is ready to learn, he/she learns more quickly, effectively and with greater
satisfaction than if he’s not ready to learn
- - This law means mental preparation for action
- It says not to force a child if he’s not ready
- Learning failures are the result of forcing the learner to learn when he is not ready to
learn

b) Law of Exercise
- This law explains the role of practice in learning
- Learning becomes efficient through practice or exercise.
- This law further splits into two parts:
▪ Law of use: a connection between a S and R is strengthened by its occurrence ,
its exercise or its use
▪ Law of disuse: when a modifiable connection is not made between a stimulus
and a response over a length of time, the strength of that connection is
decreased. Any act that is not practiced for some time gradually decays.

c) Law of Effect
- When a connection between S and R is accompanied by a satisfying state, its strength
is increased. When a connection between S and R is accompanied by an annoying
state of affairs, its strength gets reduced or weakened
- The responses that produce satisfaction or comfort for the learner are strengthened
and responses that produce annoyance or discomfort for the learner are weakened
- This law was revised by Thorndike, and he stated that reward strengthened the
response, but punishment did not always weaken the response.
- Then he placed more emphasis on the reward aspect than on the punishment aspect of
the law of effect

2) B.F. SKINNER’S OPERANT CONDITIONING (S-R THEORY WITH

REINFORCEMENT)

• Operant Conditioning- also known as Instrumental Conditioning

• It is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for
behaviour that is displayed.
• Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behaviour
and a consequence for that behaviour.
• It is also known as Skinnerian conditioning because Skinner coined the term
‘operant conditioning’.
 • He believed that internal thoughts and motivations could be used to explain
behaviour. He suggested that we should look at the external, observable causes
of human behaviour.
• The term ‘operant’ is used to refer to any active behaviour that operates upon
the environment to generate consequences.
• Skinner’s work is based on Thorndike’s law of effect- Reinforcement
Behaviour that is reinforced tends to be repeated, behaviour that is not
reinforced tends to die out or be extinguished (weakened).
• Skinner studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments using
animals, which he placed in a “Skinner Box” which was similar to
Thorndike’s puzzle box
• There is an important difference between a ‘reward’ and ‘reinforcer’ in
operant conditioning
• A reward is something which has value to the person giving the reward, but
may not necessarily be of value to the person receiving the reward
• A reinforcer is something, which benefits the person receiving it, and so
results in an increase of a certain type of behaviour
• Skinner identified 3 types of responses or operant that can follow behaviour:

a) Neutral Operants - Responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease
the probability of a behaviour being repeated.

b) Reinforcers - These are any event that strengthens or increases the behaviour it
follows. There are 2 kinds of reinforcers:
▪ Positive reinforcers: are favourable events or outcomes that are presented after
the behaviour. In situations that reflect positive reinforcement, a response or
behaviour is strengthened by the addition of something, such as praise or a
direct reward
▪ Negative reinforcers: involve the removal of an unfavourable events or
outcomes after the display of a behaviour. In these situations, a response is
strengthened by the removal of something unpleasant.
▪ In both these cases of reinforcement, the behaviour increases

c) Punishment - It is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a

decrease in the behaviour it follows. Punishment weakens behaviour. There are 2
kinds of punishment:
▪ Positive punishment: sometimes referred to as punishment by application,
involves the presentation of an unfavourable event or outcome in order to weaken
the response it follows
▪ Negative punishment: sometimes known as punishment by removal, occurs when
a favourable event or outcome is removed after a behaviour occurs
▪ In both these cases of punishment, the behaviour decreases.

3) PAVLOV - CLASSICAL CONDITIONING (S-R THEORY WITHOUT

REINFORCEMENT)

• Classical conditioning is a term used to describe learning which has been

acquired through experience.
 • One of the best-known examples of classical conditioning can be found with
the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov and his experiments on dogs

a) Various components involved in classical conditioning:

- The Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): It is anything, which can evoke a response
without prior learning or conditioning. This causes automatic reflex response
- The Conditioned Stimulus (CS): It is created by learning, and therefore does not
create a response with prior conditioning. Here learning happens before response.
It is an acquired power to change something.
- The Unconditioned Response (UCR): It is anything that happens automatically
without having to think about it. This response happens automatically, and one did
not have to learn how to do it.
- The Conditioned Response (CR): It is a response which one has learnt to associate
with something. It is a reflex that can be evoked in response to a conditioned
stimulus.

Classical definition is described as a previously neutral stimulus which causes a reflex

(stimulus something which causes a physical responses)

b) Basic concepts in Classical Conditioning:

- Acquisition
- Extinction
- Spontaneous Recovery
- Stimulus Generalization
- Stimulus Discrimination

COGNITIVE THEORIES:
1) PIAGET’S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORY

● The Piaget’s theory states that children go through 4 stages of cognitive

development as they actively construct their understanding of the world.
● Two processes underlie this cognitive construction of the world:
- Organization
- Adaptation
● Piaget also held that we go through 4 stages in understanding the world. Each
stage is age-related and consists of a distinct way of thinking, a different way
of understanding the world.
● Following are then 4 stages of cognitive development according to Piaget:

a) SENSORYMOTOR STAGE
▪ It lasts from birth to about 2 years of age
▪ Infant’s construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory
experiences (such as seeing and hearing) with physical, motoric actions- hence the
term ‘sensorimotor’
▪ It has following substages:
 - Simple reflexes
- First habits and primary circular reactions
- Secondary circular reactions
- Coordination of secondary circular reactions
- Tertiary circular reactions, novelty and curiosity
- Internalisation of schemes

b) PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
▪ Lasts from approximately 2-7 years of age.
▪ In this stage, children begin to go beyond simply connecting sensory information
with physical action and represent the world with words, images, and drawings.
▪ However, according to Piaget, preschool children still lack the ability to perform
what he calls operations, which are internalized mental actions that allow children
to do mentally what they previously could only do physically.
▪ Following are the substages:
- Symbolic function substage
- Intuitive thought substage

c) CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE

▪ Lasts from approximately 7-11 years of age
▪ The children can perform operations that involve objects, and they can perform
operations that involve objects, and they can reason logically when the reasoning
can be applied to specific or concrete examples.

d) THE FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE

▪ Appears between ages 11 and 15 and continues through adulthood.
▪ In this stage, individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract
and more logical terms.
▪ As part of thinking more abstractly, adolescents develop images of ideal
circumstances.
▪ They might think about what an ideal parent is like and compare their parents to
this ideal standard.
▪ They begin to entertain possibilities for the future and are fascinated with what
they can be.
▪ In solving problems, they become more systematic, developing hypotheses about
why something is happening the way it is and them testing these hypotheses.

2) LEV VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL COGNITIVE THEORY

▪ Lev Vygotsky was a Russian developmentalist who argued that children actively
construct their knowledge.
▪ He gave ‘social interaction’ and ‘culture’ far more important roles in cognitive
development than Piaget did.
▪ Vygotsky’s theory is a sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasises how culture
and social interaction guide cognitive development. He portrayed the child
development as inseparable from social and cultural activities.
▪ He maintained that cognitive development involves learning to use the
interventions of society, such as language, mathematical systems, and memory
strategies.
 ▪ According to Vygotsky, children’s social interaction with more skilled adults and
peers is indispensable to their cognitive development. Through this interaction,
they learn to use the tools that will help them adapt and be successful in their
culture.

3) INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY

● It emphasises that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize

about it
● This theory does not describe development as stage-like. It believes that
individuals develop a gradually increasing capacity for processing information,
which allows them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills
● Robert Siegler, a leading expert on children’s information processing, states that
thinking is information processing.
● When individuals perceive, encode, represent, store, and retrieve information, they
are thinking.
● Siegler emphasizes that an important aspect of development is learning good
strategies for processing information. E.g., becoming a better reader might involve
learning to monitor the key themes of the material being read.

CONSTRUCTIVISM
• It is a theory that says that learners construct knowledge rather than just passively
take information.
• As people experience the world and reflect upon those experiences, they build
their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing
knowledge (schemas)
• Constructivism is an approach to learning that holds that people actively construct
or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of
the learner
• Constructivism believes in personal construction of meaning by the learner
through experience, and that meaning is influenced by the interaction of prior
knowledge and new events

PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Knowledge is constructed, rather than innate, or passively absorbed
• Learning is an active process
• All knowledge is socially constructed
• All knowledge is personal
• Learning exists in the mind

FEATURES OF CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASSROOM

• Knowledge will be shared between teachers and students
• Teachers and students will share authority
• Teacher’s role is one of a facilitator or guides
 • Learning groups will consist of small numbers of heterogeneous students

FACTORS INFLUENCING LEARNING

- Learning is the process by which skills, attitudes, knowledge and concepts are
acquired, understood, applied and extended.
- Learning has been considered partly a cognitive process and partly a social and
affective one. It qualifies as a cognitive process because it involves functions of
attention, perception, reasoning, analysis, drawing of conclusions, making
interpretations and giving meaning to the observed phenomenon. Learning is social
and affective process, as the societal and cultural context in which we function and
the feelings and experiences which we have, greatly influence our ideas, concepts,
images and understanding the world.
- Following are the factors that influence learning:
• Maturation
• Attention and perception
• Motivation
• Fatigue

a. MATURATION
▪ It is an important factor that affects our learning and can be defined as “growth that
proceeds regularly within a wide range of environmental conditions”
▪ Maturation is growth that takes place regularly in an individual without special
condition of stimulation such as training and practice.
▪ Learning is possible only when a certain stage of maturation is also reached. Exercise
and training becomes fruitful only when a certain stage of maturation is attained.
▪ Maturation determines the readiness of the child for learning. Learning will be
ineffective if the child has not attained the required level of maturity.
▪ There are individual differences in maturation. This means that the rate of maturation
varies with the individuals.
▪ There are individual differences in the capacity to learn at the same age level. This is
because of the difference of maturation level. Specific skills are learnt by children
easily who mature earlier than others.
▪ The 3 Rs, i.e., Reading, Writing and Reckoning can be learnt only after the maturation
of muscular and brain capacities. Rate of learning ability is closely related to the
maturation of the cerebral cortex
▪ Deterioration of cortical tissues in old age brings about declination in the learning
ability. So, it can be said that learning is not independent of maturation, but must be
based upon a sufficient stage of growth
▪ Learning is possible only when a certain stage of maturation is reached.
▪ Practice is most productive when properly articulated with maturational level. It is
very essential for the teachers to know the maturation level of the pupils.

b. (i) ATTENTION
▪ Another factor that affects learning is attention. Attention is always present in
conscious life and is common to all types of mental activity.
 ▪ It is the characteristics of all conscious life. Every activity of an individual is based on
interest and attention.
▪ One can succeed in achieving goals only when the attention is directed towards
learning.
▪ Attention is defined as the act of selective consciousness-Ross Dumville defined
attention as the concentration of consciousness upon one subject rather than another

▪ Characteristics of Attention:
- Attention is focusing on one object.
- Attention is selective
- Attention is a state of preparedness where the muscles and sense organs ready
themselves for attending
- Attention cannot be divided between two mental tasks

▪ Types of Attention:
- Voluntary Attention
- Selective Attention
- Involuntary Attention

▪ Several factors affect attention. These are factors inherent in the object of attention:
- Movement
- Size of an object
- Contrast
- Colour
- Novelty
- Change in stimuli
- Intensity
- Repetition

▪ Significance of Attention
- It is basic need for all types of learning. Every moment is attracted by many
stimuli of the environment. The mind is able to concentrate on all the stimuli at
the same time. It is because of attention that one is able to concentrate on
important aspect of a single object.

▪ Attention helps one to clear the vivid objects:

- It arises interest in learners to learn a particular thing
- It increases efficiency of the learner
- It motivates learners to learn more
- It makes the learners ready to learn
- It brings a state of alternates in learners for doing task
- It helps the learner to perceive events or ideas
- Attention is a necessary condition for any task in the classroom. It is the hub
of entire learning process. It is essential for learning as well as understanding
well.

(ii) PERCEPTION
▪ It is the process through which a person is exposed to information, attends to the
information, and comprehends the information.
▪ Exposure: A person receives information through his/her senses
▪ Attention: A person allocates processing capacity to a stimulus
▪ Comprehension: A person interprets the information to obtain meaning from it
▪ Perception is the mental process by which one gets knowledge of external world. One
receives innumerable impression through the sense organs. People have to select some
of these and organise them into unit, which convey some meaning. The
transformation of sensation into organised pattern is called as perception
▪ Perception= Sensation+ Meaning
▪ Perception is an active state of mind in which it reacts on sensation and interprets it.
The basis of perception is sensation
▪ Learning depends on an individual’s precepts. If you are able to perceive a thing
correctly then right learning will take place
▪ Learning will proceed in a proper direction due to correct precepts. Both sensation
and perception play an important role in you learning. Sensations are the first
impression, so it has to be absolutely clear. Sensations give rise to perception and on
that basis, one gets a proper understanding of an object, idea or an experience.
▪ Learning depends upon accurate and efficient perception and perception depends
upon the sensation, which depends on the normal functioning of the sense organs.
Thus, perception is important for proper learning and understanding.

c. MOTIVATION
▪ Motivation is defined as an inspiration that propels someone into an action. It is an
internal state or condition that activates and gives direction to our thoughts, feelings
and actions.
▪ Motivation is the process by which the learner’s internal energies are directed toward
various goal objects in his/her environment. These energies or arousals push an
individual in achieving his goals.
▪ Maslow believed that motivation leads to growth and development, and that need
satisfaction is the most important sole factor underlying motivation.
▪ The needs of a man may either be primary or secondary. Primary needs are the
physiological wants if man. It may be the need for water, rest, sexual intercourse,
hunger and thirst. Secondary needs are the desire for autonomy, affection, or the need
for safety and security

▪ Types of motivation or arousals (2 Types):

- Intrinsic motivation - is an internal force or motive within the individual which
propels him/her into emitting certain behaviour. It is an innate or genetically
predetermined disposition to behave in a particular way when a person faces a
certain situation
- Extrinsic motivation - is the external or environmental factor, which sets the
individual’s behaviour into motion. The incentive/ reinforcer drives an
individual’s behaviour towards a goal.

d. FATIGUE
▪ It is quite essential to do away with fatigue in the process of learning as fatigue
becomes an obstacle in the task to be performed or at least reduces its rate of progress.
▪ Achievement is decreased with increase in fatigue
▪ Fatigue is the state of reduced interest and desire, and this constitutes psychological
explanation.
 ▪ Fatigue is neither purely physical not exclusively mental
▪ It is a psychological state of exhaustion. Reduce efficiency or capacity of body as well
as mind is implicit in this phenomenon.

▪ Types of Fatigue:
- Mental fatigue
- Physical fatigue
- Nervous fatigue
- Boredom

▪ Ways of Removing Fatigue

- Sleep
- Relaxation
- Balance of work and rest
- Change in the nature of work
- Recreation
- Change in emotions

▪ Reducing Fatigue in School and Classroom

- Satisfactory physical condition
- Medical check up
- Mid-day meals
- Supply of fresh air
- Motivation
- Co-curricular activities

MINDFULNESS IN LEARNING
WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?
- A wholesome development requires continuous growth and nurturing all aspects of
the child's development. Apart from following the traditional cultivation of
intelligence. it is important to encourage self-awareness, ‘emotional intelligence’, and
motivation, and to nurture social skills and empathy (SEL). These objectives can be
achieved by mindfulness training.
- Mindfulness means living in the present moment. It is a 'mode of being' rooted in
paying attention with acceptance and without judgement. When someone is mindful,
he or she is aware of moment-to-moment sensations
- Mindfulness exercises increase awareness of the contents of our minds and provide
ways to respond to our thoughts and feelings ‘skillfully’, such that they are less likely
to lead to emotional distress or harmful behaviors.
- Mindfulness is not an abstract or remote body of knowledge, like physics or history.
It’s more of a practical skill, like being able to ride a bike or play the piano.

HOW IS MINDFULNESS BENEFICIAL?

 • Allowing the brain to run on autopilot like this can make people unhappy. In
contemporary times, mindlessness has become the norm

MINDFULNESS TRAINING IT IS ALSO SHOWN TO FIVE BROAD BENEFICIAL

HELPS TO ENHANCE: REDUCE: EFFECTS:

• Academic achievement • Stress levels According to Fellicia Huppert, a

professor at Cambridge University,
• Focus • Mental health issues
mindfulness training has at least five
• Social skills and emotional • Fatigue board beneficial effects been:
regulation
• Bullying
• Self-esteem
• Improved attention.
• Sleep habits
• Emotional Regulation
• Compassion
• Cognitive control of transient
thoughts and feelings
• the capacity to regulate attention

COGNITIVE CONTROL
• The goal of mindfulness is not to clear one’s mind of all thoughts and feelings, but to
anchor oneself to current sensory experiences and to allow thoughts to enter the mind
freely. In this way, mindfulness promotes a ‘decentered’ perspective on our teeming
thoughts and creates some distance between thoughts that arise and our cognitive
reactions to them.

• People who practice mindfulness, for example, often have increased blood flow in
their brain and a thickened cerebral cortex. These changes are associated with a
stronger attention span and ability to regulate negative emotions. Mindfulness can
also affect the amount of grey matter in your brain. In your hippocampus, for
example, mindful activities increase grey matter density–which can strengthen your
memory, compassion, introspection, and self-awareness.

• These activities can also decrease the amount of brain matter in your amygdala, which
reduces stress and anxiety. Not only do mindful techniques strengthen your brain’s
ability to learn positive coping strategies, but they lower the power and frequency of
negative emotions.

ACCEPTANCE
 • The non-judgmental, detached perspective on our thoughts and feelings encouraged
by mindfulness training is another way of talking about acceptance of these thoughts
and feelings. The key is to note these passing thoughts non-judgmentally, without
analyzing them or elaborating on their contents. Perhaps you think, ‘I keep losing
focus on my breath and keep thinking about my to-do list!’. In a mindful state, you
don’t expand on this thought and start asking ‘Does this mean I can’t do mindfulness?
Am I doing it wrong?’ – you simply acknowledge the thought and bring your focus
back to your breath.

• Mindfulness doesn’t demand that you clear your mind of all thoughts and feelings, but
that you allow them to float by without being caught up in them, and return your
focus of attention to whatever mindful practice you are engaged in. In other words, it
provides training in how to regulate and direct at will, your attention. In his 1890
classic The Principles of Psychology, William James celebrated the importance of this
skill: ‘The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention repeatedly, is
the very root of judgement, character and will. An education which should improve
this faculty would be the education par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal
than to give practical instructions for bringing it about.’

DOES MINDFULNESS LEAD TO IMPROVED ATTENTION?

Jha. P. A., et. all. (2007) studied the effect of mindfulness training on the subsystems of
attention. Three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct but overlapping attentional
subsystems: alerting, orienting, and conflict monitoring were examined. Two types of
mindfulness training (MT) programs were examined, and behavioral testing was conducted
on participants before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) training. One training group consisted of
individuals naive to mindfulness techniques who participated in an 8-week mindfulness-
based stress reduction (MBSR) course that emphasized the development of concentrative
meditation skills. The other training group consisted of individuals experienced in
concentrative meditation techniques who participated in a 1-month intensive mindfulness
retreat. Performance of these groups was compared with that of control participants who were
meditation naive and received no MT. At Time 1, the participants in the retreat group
demonstrated improved conflict monitoring performance relative to those in the MBSR and
control groups. At Time 2, the participants in the MBSR course demonstrated significantly
improved orienting in comparison with the control and retreat participants. In contrast, the
participants in the retreat group demonstrated altered performance on the alerting component,
with improvements in exogenous stimulus detection in comparison with the control and
MBSR participants. The groups did not differ in conflict monitoring performance at Time 2.
These results suggest that mindfulness training may improve attention-related behavioral
responses by enhancing functioning of specific subcomponents of attention. Whereas
participation in the MBSR course improved the ability to endogenously orient attention,
retreat participation appeared to allow for the development and emergence of receptive
attentional skills, which improved exogenous alerting-related process.

EMOTIONAL REGULATION
Mindful emotion regulation is conceived as a unique emotion regulation strategy, that results
from encountering diverse emotional states from a mindful mental state, which includes
awareness and acceptance. Emotion regulation is the ability to exert control over one’s own
emotional state. It may involve behaviors such as rethinking a challenging situation to reduce
anger or anxiety, hiding visible signs of sadness or fear, or focusing on reasons to feel happy
or calm.

MINDFULLNESS AND EMOTIONAL REGULATION

• Mindfulness can help you regulate your emotions by decreasing emotional reactivity.
• mindfulness can help us better to manage our emotional states simply by calming us
down. Research shows that when mindfulness is practiced in the context of meditative
breathing it helps to slow down the heart rate and underscore feelings of safety, and
thus to shift the brain away from the types of fight-flight-freeze responses that hijack
the higher cognitive functions.
• the skills that mindfulness helps us to develop – skills like attentional control, self-
awareness, and meta-cognition – all involve the same mental muscles involved in
emotional maturity and self-regulation.
• A third way that mindfulness can help with emotional self-regulation is to increase the
gap between stimulus and response. Research shows that emotions are often
experienced first in the body before they are recognized by the conscious
• We know that mindfulness is the art of living in the present moment. Practicing
mindfulness helps us gaining awareness of our mind, body, and feelings. It builds a
secure connection to the present and allows us to look at our thoughts and feelings
from an objective and neutral perspective.

TYPES OF MINDFULNESS EXERCISES

• There are two types of mindfulness exercises that help in emotional regulation:
• The ‘Acknowledgment’ Exercises – including careful observation, naming thoughts,
and labeling emotions.
• The ‘Implementation’ Exercises – including practices of thinking non-judgmentally,
active, and empathetic listening, effective communication, and self-expression.

HOW TO BE MORE MINDFUL?

• Before class starts each day, take five to ten minutes, and put on a recorded
meditation or practice a few breathing exercises.
• Start keeping a journal and try to write in it at least a few times a week. Keeping track
of your experiences can help you recognize thoughts and feelings as they come during
the day.
• To make mindfulness a part of your routine, set daily reminders on your phone to do a
mindful activity.
• Gratitude is a great way to become more mindful while cultivating a positive attitude.
Once a day, try to make a mental list of ten different things that you’re thankful for.
• For a mindfulness activity that involves your body as much as your mind, join a yoga
class or do a few poses in the morning before your classes begin.
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

What is educational implication?

Educational Implications of Piaget’s Theory. This refers to an educational with environments,

curriculum, materials and instruction that are consistent with student’s physical and cognitive
abilities as well as their social and emotional needs.

What are the educational implications of growth and development?

Education is not only a process and a product of growing, but it also means growing. It aims
at the fullest possible realisation of all the potentialities of children. This implies that teachers
and parents must know what children are capable of and what potentialities they possess.

What are the educational implication of Erikson theory?

Various educational implications of Erikson’s theory are possible depending upon the age
group of the learner and the tasks they are expected to perform. For example, Allowing the
child to play with various natural, simple materials, and role-playing for the expression of
fantasy and imagination.

What are the educational implications of learning theories?

Implication of the cognitive theories of learning to the development of teaching. Teachers

should organise the teaching materials in a way that the concept in them can easily be
acquired and processed by learners’ mind. Teachers need to use variety of teaching
techniques.

What are the educational implication of classical conditioning?

Educational Implications of Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory: Many things of the

school-subjects are learnt more adequately through this process. Reading writing, spelling or
habits are learnt more effectively through the process of conditioning.