Learning

Here are some more brief notes I  have been making on learning, in preparation for my exam. 

What is learning? 

Learning is acquiring new knowledge and understanding. Often defined as, a relatively lasting change in behaviours resulting from an experience. 

Assumptions about learning 

• Learning is actively constructed
• It must have an emotional connection
• It emerges from and builds on experiences
• Influenced by the context of which is occurs 
• It is socially mediated and develops within a community 
• Primarily develops through social interactions between learners and teachers.

5 learning dimensions

• Conscious or unconscious
• With different levels of attention 
• Via different sense sequences 
• By detail or by the whole picture 
• By fast track or by scenic route

6 conditions for learning 

• New experiences 
• Learning foundations 
• Rehearsal
• Processing new information 
• Moving to another level of understanding 
• Demonstrating learning

To optimise learning you must:

• Want to learn
• See the need to learn (emotional attachment)  
• Repetition 
• Feedback for learners 
• The learner must be motivated

Information processing

• Encoding - processing information through our senses
• Storage - keeping information that we can then use again if necessary
• Retrieval - getting information from our memory system so that we can use it 

References

Sian Sanders (2013)