LEARNING

Learning is often defined as a relatively lasting change in behavior that is the

result of experience. When you think of learning, it might be easy to fall into the
trap of only considering formal education that takes place during childhood and
early adulthood, but learning is actually an ongoing process that takes place
throughout all of life.

PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING

 Learning must follow sequences.

 Learning can proceed at varying rates.
 Learning result from an interaction of maturation and experience.
 Early experiences have profound effects on learning.
 Learning is always cooperative
 For an effective learning readiness of a learner is necessary
 Repetitive trials and drill are necessary for learning
 Learning is strengthened when accompanied by a pleasant or satisfying
feeling, and learning is weakened when associated with an unpleasant
feeling.
 The more intense the material taught, the more likely it will be retained
 Things freely learned are best learned. Conversely, when a student is
coerced, the more difficult is for him to learn, assimilate and implement
what is learned.
 Things learned first create a strong impression in the mind that is difficult
to erase
 The principle of recency states that things most recently learned are
best remembered.

LEARNING AND MATURATION

LEARNING AND MATURATION IN HUMAN INFANT

A new born baby is the most helpless creature in the world. His head is too large
for his body His legs .and feet are too small. He cannot stand or even hold his
head up. His hands are no good for any kind of skill. He has no teeth. His voice
may be loud, but it is too monotonous for human speech. He has eyes and ears,
but makes no real use of them. He sleeps most of the time. His brain seems to be
inactive inspite of his big head.

But the baby is capable of development. He has the power of growth. His legs and
hands grow to the length appropriate for a human being. His muscles grow to a
size and strength sufficient for standing, walking and running. His teeth already
present in rudimentary form grow and harden and break through his gums at the
proper ages. His mouth and larynx grow into flexible speech organs. His brain will
not only grow in size, but also in fineness of microscopic structure and so become
capable for playing its part in various human activities. This growth of any
organism from an immature to mature state is called maturation.

Learning is extremely important for acquiring new knowledge, skills and attitudes
that are necessary for an effective life. Both growing and learning are equally
significant. Woodworth and Marquis have rightly said, "While many animals reach
maturity in a few weeks or months after being born, it takes the human being
about 18th years, and during all these years he is learning. What he is as an adult
depends on how well he has grown and on what he has learned".

The first stage of development must consist wholly of maturation. An organ must
have developed to a certain point before it can begin to function. For example,
the heart could not start pumping blood into the arteries until it had developed
for enough to be a workable pump.

Once maturation has provided an organ that can work or function, it has to be
strengthened by exercise. It is a fact that repeated exercise will build up strength
of a muscle, but gain in strength may be due to better circulation, oxygen supply,
and stimulation from the brain and so on.

Exercise or activity is necessary for learning. It may be a motor activity as in

playing the football or sensory activity as in listening to a song; there must be
activity in some kind or other. There is a saying "we learn by doing" which is true
enough, but does not fully cover the ground. To make it complete we have to say
"we learn by doing and getting results". When a young football player succeeds
playing football by giving goals, result encourages him to do the same thing again.
Therefore, there is another saying, "Nothing succeeds like success. This implies
reinforcement. Reinforcement is the individual's reaction to the results of his own
activity

Thus there are mainly four factors of development; maturation, exercise,

reinforcement and learning. These are all inter-related and it is difficult to assess
their importance individually in the transformation of the infant's behavior into
that of the

Maturation thus prepares the way for learning. Each step in maturation enables
the child to conduct new activities in which learning takes place. When the baby's
teeth, for example, come through (maturation), he starts biting and chewing
(learning).

It is controversial whether the child learns to walk or matures to walk. The adult
can stimulate the child to walk and protect him from bad falls. But if the child
learns to walk, he does so through his own efforts.

On the whole the development of the individual from infancy to adulthood is a

continuous process. His adult characteristics depend on his previous growth and
experience.

MATURATION AND LEARNING IN PRESCHOOL AGED CHILDREN

Your three-year-old will spend most of her waking hours questioning everything
that happens around her. She loves to ask “Why do I have to . . . ?” and she’ll pay
close attention to your answers as long as they’re simple and to the point.

Your child’s more abstract “why” questions may be more difficult, partly because
there may be hundreds of them each day and also because some of them have no
answers—or none that you know. If the question is “Why does the sun shine?” or
“Why can’t the dog talk to me?” you can answer that you don’t know, or invite
her to look into the question further by finding a book about the sun or about
dogs. Be sure to take these questions seriously. As you do, you help broaden your
child’s knowledge, feed her curiosity, and teach her to think more clearly.

When your three-year-old is faced with specific learning challenges, you’ll find her
reasoning still rather one-sided. She can’t yet see an issue from two angles, nor
can she solve problems that require her to look at more than one factor at the
same time. For example, if you take two equal cups of water and pour one into a
short, fat container and the other into a tall, skinny one, she’ll probably say the
tall container holds more water than the short. Even if she sees the two equal
cups to start with and watches you pour, she’ll come up with the same answer. By
her logic, the taller container is “bigger” and therefore must hold more. At around
age seven, children finally understand that they have to look at multiple aspects
of a problem before arriving at an answer.

By age four, your child is beginning to explore many basic concepts that will be
taught in greater detail in school. For example, he now understands that the day
is divided into morning, afternoon, and night, and that there are different
seasons. By the time he’s five and entering kindergarten, he may know some days
of the week and that each day is measured in hours and minutes. He also may
comprehend the essential ideas of counting, the alphabet, size relationships (big
versus small), and the names of geometric shapes.

MATURATION AND LEARNING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

The best approach is to offer your child a wide range of learning opportunities.
AT ELEMNTARY STAGE i.e above 7For instance, this is the perfect age to introduce
him to zoos and museums, if you haven’t done so already. Many museums have
special sections designed for children, where he can actively experience the
learning process. At the same time, you should respect his special interests and
talents. If your child seems very artistic, take him to art museums and galleries, or
let him try a preschool art class. Also, if you know an artist, take him for a visit so
he can see what a studio is like. If he’s most interested in machines and dinosaurs,
take him to the natural history museum, help him learn to build models, and
provide him with construction kits that allow him to create his own machines.
Whatever his interests, you can use books to help answer his questions and open
his horizons even further. At this age, then, your child should be discovering
stages joy of learning so that he will be self- motivated when his formal education
begins

STAGES OF LEARNING

With class room strategies learning can be divided again into four stages
STAGE 1: EMERGENT
 The burning question is “ what I am learning?”
Approach :teacher centered
In this type of learning the child is unaware of every thing . he is totally
dependent on the instructor
STAGE 2: BEGINNER
The burning question is “ CAN I GET IT RIGHT?”
Approach: supportive and instructive
This is for the Montessori students who are grown up a little. The teacher
role is to support and to direct them. They alone cant handle any thing

STAGE 3: DEVELOPING
METHOD: INSTUCTOR AND LEARNER SHARE IN DECISION MAKING .
APPROACH : LEARNER CENTERED
Its appropriate for the elementary students where teacher and students
can share each other their ideas
• STAGE 4: MATURE
• METHOD INSTRUCTOR ACT AS CONSULTANT OR ADVISOR
• ROLE OF INSTRUCTOR IS ONLY TO GUIDE..
• FREEDOM IS REQUIRES
STAFES OF LEARNING
THE FOUR STAGES OF LEARNING, ALSO KNOWN AS THE FOUR STAGES OF
COMPETENCE WHERE FIRST UNCOVERED BY NOEL BURCH OF GORDON TRAINING
INTERNATIONAL, ALTHOUGH ABRAHAM MASLOW IS OFTEN ERRONEOUSLY
CREDITED.

1. UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE:
This is the stage of blissful ignorance when learning begins.
I DON’T KNOW THAT I DON’T KNOW
 2. UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE:
Here the learner starts analyzing hos level of ignorance
I KNOW THAT I DON’T KNOW

3. CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE:
Here the learner starts learning by utilizing his skills
I KNOW HOW TO DO IT

4 . CONSIOUS COMPETENCE:
Now the learner starts learner learns with all his perfections
YOU KNOW I DID IT WELL.
REFERENCES:
 www.lbs practitionertrainer.com

 LESTER D.CROW PhD and ALICE CROW PhD ( Department of Education ,

Brooklyn College)

 Commins,W.D and Fagin ,B .,Principles of Educational Psychology, 2nd

ed.The Ronald Press , New York, 1954, chaps 12 &16