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Copyright 1992, 2005 Lamon H. Small Text used by permission. |
Chapter 2LearningLet’s start with what learning is, and then look at learning in relation to performance. Performance is considered the better part of learning. Why? Well, to put it one way, that’s the way learning is measured. This is when learning is considered to have taken place. Learning is a process of acquiring new information and knowledge. It can also involve the altering of information that has already been learned and also the relearning of old material. Learning requires a need or desire to acquire knowledge. To put it another way, the learner must be in a readiness state by being motivated to learn. Nothing can be accomplished without some form of learning taking place. Learning requires motivation, time, and effort. Learning depends on the amount of attention exerted by the learner. Learning can be very disturbing and frustrating or it can be very exciting and fun. This usually depends on the material and the motivation of the learner. New and learned knowledge is information that is unknown or not understood by the learner before the process of learning begins. There is a difference between knowing something and understanding something. Basically there are three stages to the learning process: studying, learning, and understanding.
Studying is the process of the grouping together and organizing of the material to be learned. It is the basic process of memorizing the material. Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and knowing the material studied. This is when the new knowledge is entered into memory. It is the process of organizing the material to be learned into meaningful mental processes. Understanding, on the other hand, is the process of studying, learning, and knowing the material and having control over it. Understanding is the level of learning where comprehension takes place. This is where you know the meaning of what you have learned and know it thoroughly.
Let’s look at the process of learning to play a sport and compare it to the studying process. Let’s select the sport of tennis. You first have to decide you want to learn how to play tennis. It is important to note that you want to learn to play, not "Well, I guess I’ll try it." The first step is usually to enroll in a course to learn how to play the game. You will go through a process of studying and learning the rules and the rights and wrongs of the game. (You can equate this with the lecture part of a course.) Next comes the skill area. This is where you will actually start participating in the learning process. You will learn how to hold the racket, how to stand, how to serve the ball, and how to make forehand and backhand shots. (This you can equate with the studying part of a course.)
The next step is to apply all you have learned about the game. (This is the performance or test-taking part of the course.) Your performance will be measured by how well you have learned the rules and skills of the game and how well you can perform them. It is no different with learning any task or material. You will notice after completing the course and learning to play tennis that you begin to adjust some of the ways you play. You will hold the racket the way it best fits your needs and the way it feels comfortable. Your stance will also change allowing you to adopt your own personal physical characteristics to the game. (This is where understanding takes place.) In other words, you are going to take all the techniques that you were taught and incorporate them into your way of playing the game which best satisfies your needs. It is the same with studying. You need to learn a way which works, then after you have mastered its techniques you need to alter, adjust, modify, and/or change it in some way to fit into your needs. Audio-visual aids are very beneficial to the learning process. If there is any way that you can incorporate these devices into your approach to the learning of new materials, take advantage of them. Check to see if the instructor knows of any films or movies which may be available to watch. If not, check with the library or audio-visual center to see if they have any films covering the topic that you are studying. If you have no access to these materials, there are a few things that you can do to help create similar effects. One way is to try reading the material aloud. This can be very helpful when trying to learn or to memorize lists of materials. Another way is to condense your notes so that they only show key concepts and terms on as few sheets as possible so a visual reference can be made of them. Index cards are very helpful here.
DEVELOPMENTAL LEVELS OF LEARNING Learning is a developmental process that occurs throughout life. The need for learning naturally divides itself into three levels: 1. Basic Learning Needs; 2. Social/Educational Learning Needs; and, 3. Aesthetic Learning Needs. (These levels are based on the needs of the learner.) Level I — Basic Learning Needs Level The basic needs level is the most fundamental of the learning levels. These are skills required for everyday life and existence. These can be considered survival or street-wise skills and are needed to function at the lowest level. Level II — Social/Educational Learning Needs Level These are skills and knowledge taught by our public educational system and are needed to survive in our society. These needs are also important for interpersonal communications. Level III — Aesthetic Learning Needs Level This is the optimal level of learning where learning for the sake of learning takes place. This is the process of accruing information and knowledge for the pleasure of learning. It is the level where the desire for learning and understanding takes place. This is the level for which you should strive, and it can only be achieved after the other two levels have been satisfied. Productive Study Techniques is necessary for both Level II and Level III learning. Level II is where these techniques are learned and practiced. Level III is where the most benefit of these techniques can be derived.
MEMORY Everyone has different memory strengths and techniques that have been formed over the years. Think of your own strengths. Are they remembering names, faces, places, dates, or events? The process probably comes natural to you. It is this process you need to better develop and to use in forming productive studying skills.
My memory strengths are: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Memory is the product of learning. It occurs when information is stored in the brain in such a way that it can be retrieved or manipulated later. The two basic types of memory are short term and long term memory. Short term memory is the process of recording information for a short period of time. This is its sole purpose. If this is its only function, what is the purpose of short term memory? Its main purpose is to allow the filtering out of environmental information that for whatever reason is considered unimportant. It allows the selection of only important information that needs to be stored into long term memory. A good example of short term memory is looking up a telephone number in the phone book. Once you find it, you repeat the number so you can remember it long enough to make the call. After the call has been made, you forget the number. This also occurs if you are assigned a new telephone number. You first have to rehearse it enough times to be able to remember it. Long term memory is the process of rehearsing short term memory enough times until it becomes permanently stored in the brain. Long term memory is a product of learning. Learning is accomplished when short term memory has been rehearsed and now stored into long term memory. When this new material is learned, it is considered to be permanently stored into long term memory. For long term memory to be successful, it requires organization and understanding of the rehearsed material. Remember the old saying—PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! Information must be rehearsed to be learned. There needs to be time intervals between the learning session for absorption and integration of new information. That is one reason why cramming does not work.
Learning is also linked with how well information is understood and organized. The understanding of new information builds upon itself. The more the information is understood the easier the learning process becomes and the easier it becomes to recall that information. The information to be learned needs to be organized in such a way as to make it meaningful. While studying, do not try to learn everything at once. Learning builds on itself one step at a time. Do not try to memorize everything. Sometimes it is necessary to memorize lists but not necessarily every detail that explains that list. Trying to memorize every detail can, and usually does, lead to an overload of information and can block the learning process. Learning can be discussed in terms of:
Attitude, motivation and self-confidence are considered the most important of these considerations. If you are not willing or do not have a need to learn or achieve, then the learning process is going to be greatly impaired if not completely blocked. The process of learning new material is controlled by your willingness to accomplish and the desire to achieve. Performance can be thought of as the measurement and results of learning. In education this is usually determined with the use of tests. No matter what you are studying, tests are usually considered to be the best form of measuring performance. Learning is only one factor affecting performance. Others include motivation, attitude, desire, stress, fatigue, and expectations, with motivation being the most important factor. Rehearsal is the process of going over and over material until it is learned or memorized. Retrieval is also referred to as remembering or recall. After material has been learned, the next task is recalling that material. Relearning is a process of learning material that has already been learned. Research shows that the relearning of material that has already been learned is accomplished much faster than the time it took to learn the material the first time.
Forgetting is the inability to recall information successfully. A question to ask when material has been forgotten is "Was the material learned in the first place?" If material is learned and not used or rehearsed, there is a process that occurs which is referred to as memory decay. Memory decay is basically a process of use it or lose it. If material is learned and not used for a period of time, then that memory is not readily available for recall. Since memory is considered to be stored forever, the problem then becomes not one of forgetting but one of not being able to recall the memory that was originally stored. Forgetting is basically the inability to recall or recognize previously learned information. One important point about forgetting is that it occurs to everyone. It is a fact of life. You cannot remember everything. Once information is learned, it is not easily recalled forever. There has to be some form or type of rehearsal or relearning that takes place for information to be recallable at will. Forgetting or the inability to recall information can occur due to a lack of organization of the information or a lack of an appropriate learning process. A lapse of time and stress can be an influential factor in forgetting. A problem that occurs when learning takes place in a classroom is that by the end of the term, for a final exam, students have a tendency to forget the information that was learned on the first test. This is even more apparent a term or two after a course has been completed. One thing to remember about the information that you have learned is that after a period of time all of the factual information learned will not be easily remembered without some type of rehearsal or relearning taking place. Education should be considered as a process of learning that exposes you to a fairly high volume of new information over a period of time.
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