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What is Learning?

WEAAM ALMUZAIN

MAY 4, 2010

EPSY 5240
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What is Learning?

When I ma thinking about learning, one thing comes to my mind which is learning is a forever-

ongoing process that continues throughout every individual life. Learning is a process you do, not a

process that is done to you. Learning can come from many aspects such as the role of society,

environment, heredity, and behaviorism. Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It

incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are

taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without it

being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on

without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work

or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is

irrelevant.

1- Genuine Learning:

How does genuine learning occur?

Genuine learning occurs in the context of our lives.  The events that are going on in the outside

world and in the context of our lives can have a much more significant impact.  Often during difficult

times we come to understandings that would not otherwise occur. It can also occur from new experience

we gain. We learn by first observing an unfamiliar situation and experiencing disequilibrium. To regain

understanding, we look for patterns in the new experience that maybe similar to something we have

observed in previous experience. When pattern is identified, we create theories of solutions to the

problem. For example; I tried several hypotheses to find solution in the “Petal around the Rose” activity.

Every time my hypothesis didn’t work, I would try another one. Sometimes, I was thinking that I missed

some slight bit of information. I even tried some math theories to solve it, but still didn’t work. When this

activity was end, I realized how hard learning is and how easy it would be to give up. Students need to

recognize that when they learn anything, the process of failing before succeed will build up their
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knowledge. The result of find solution of any problem we meet, that will become a part of our

background knowledge. The trial and error process builds a list that grows perpetually.

When do you determine when genuine learning has occurred?

Based on the activity “Petal around the Rose”, I realized the genuine understanding when my

hypothesis was working over and over. The ability to independently recreate a solution of the game can

represent that genuine learning has occurred. I would say that genuine understanding and learning occur

when you can transfer a solution to other similar problems and context. The ability to transfer knowledge

demonstrates that a person understand the concept or meaning and can also use this knowledge to solve

whatever problem that may occur.

2- Schema

What is the role of prior knowledge in initial learning?

The role of prior knowledge in initial learning is that people construct new knowledge and

understanding based on what they already know and believe. For example, the activity of finding the area

of parallelogram by manipulating the shape using our knowledge of rectangle was challenging for me.

Math is always something complicated to me. But in this activity, I recall the information from my long

term memory and use it to manipulating the base and height of the shape in order to know the area of

parallelogram. I was having difficulty learning and connecting to the schema of patter on the

parallelogram. In this process, prior knowledge allows new learning to be connected to information

already in long-term memory. “Having prior knowledge or experience which relates to the current

learning enhances memory and conversely, lacking prior knowledge or experience with the current

learning reduces memory” (Banikowski, 1999).

How would you (or do you) go about unearthing misconceptions in students’ understanding?

In order to discover student’s misconceptions is to provide opportunities for students to build on

new knowledge based on previous concepts they learned. Sometimes misconceptions are formed from a

student's past experiences, sometimes from incorrect past teaching; often the cause can't be identified.

Theories tells us that in the absence of complete and accurate schema, students will inductively assemble
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the various pieces they have in whatever whole conception seems to fit all of the data at hand. In the

activity “Petal around the Rose”, I was unable to understand the patterns of the dice by my own. The

opportunity that had given to me by a friend helped me to rethink and explore reconstructing my

understanding.

What is the role of disequilibrium in learning?

According to Piaget, reorganization to higher levels of thinking is not accomplished easily. The

child must "rethink" his or her view of the world. An important step in the process is the experience of

cognitive conflict. In other words, the child becomes aware that he or she holds two contradictory views

about a situation and they both cannot be true. This step is referred to as disequilibrium. According to

Piaget, learning cannot occur without disequilibrium. Equilibration is a regulatory process that maintains

a balance between assimilation and accommodation to facilitate cognitive growth. Think of it this way:

We can't merely assimilate all the time; if we did, we would never learn any new concepts or principles.

Everything new we encountered would just get put in the same few "slots" we already had. Neither can

we accommodate all the time; if we did, everything we encountered would seem new; there would be no

recurring regularities in our world. We'd be exhausted by the mental effort! In the “Petal around the

Rose” activity; I experienced disequilibrium when my schema of numbers and math did not work and I

had to incorporate visual patterns to help me accommodate my schema and learn.

How much disequilibrium is too much?

When a person is experiencing cognitive disequilibrium, a person is confused because a new

experience is jarring and incomprehensible. A person may choose to adapt to this new experience by

assimilating or accommodating. Through accommodation, old ideas are restructured to include new ideas

in order to achieve cognitive equilibrium. “Constant disequilibrium would do little other than to keep

[students] in a state of perpetual confusion” (course notes, 86). Eventually, the child changes her/his

cognitive structures to accommodate the new experience, and move back into equilibrium. Too much

disequilibrium, however, can make a problem appear to big a challenge and far too complicated to solve.
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It is important that the learner has a chance to stabilize and accommodate or assimilate schema before

being forced into a state of disequilibrium.

3- Teaching

What is the role of the teacher in the instructional process?

Based on Piaget's proposed stages and ability levels at each, certain teaching strategies have been offered

for teaching in the Piagetian school of thought. In the preoperational stage, the teacher would have to use

actions and verbal instruction. Because the child has not yet mastered mental operations, the teacher must

demonstrate his or her instructions, because the child cannot yet think through processes. The use of

visual aids, while keeping instructions short would most benefit the child in this stage. The teacher must

be sensitive to the fact that these children, according to Piaget, are still egocentric and may not realize that

not everyone shares the same view (Woolfolk, A., 2004). Teachers should provide short instruction and

concrete examples and offer time for practice. With skills such as classification, compensation, and

serration developing during this stage, teachers should provide ample opportunities to organize groups of

objects on "increasingly complex levels".

Like Piaget, Vygotsky believed that there were some problems out of a child's range of understanding.

However, in contrast, Vygotsky believed that given proper help and assistance, children could perform a

problem that Piaget would consider to be out of the child's mental capabilities. The zone is the area at

which a child can perform a challenging task, given appropriate help. Piaget and Vygotsky also differ in

how they approach discovery learning. Piaget advocated for discovery learning with little teacher

intervention, while Vygotsky promoted guided discovery in the classroom. Guided discovery involves the

teacher offering intriguing questions to students and having them discover the answers through testing

hypotheses. The students are engaged in the discovery process; however, they are still receiving

assistance from a more knowledgeable source. A teacher utilizing Vygotskian methods for teaching

would be a very active member in her student's education. Teachers should also make sure that students

are provided adequate tools for learning. Students should be taught how to use tools such as the computer,

resource books, and graphs in order to better utilize these tools in the future.
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4- Instruction

What 3 elements are most essential for initial learning to occur and/or be knowledge to be retained?

I believe the three most essential elements for initial learning are memory, prior knowledge, and

transfer. These three elements are serving as guidelines for educators. “The teacher’s goal is to develop

students’ understanding of given topic, as well as to help them develop into independent and thoughtful

problem solve” (Bransford, 2000). So, a successful teacher is one that is able to enhance and strength

students’ memory, use their prior knowledge to build new learning, and assist the transfer of acquired

information to real life situation.

Memory: Memory is one of the most fundamental mental processes. “Moving information from working

(short) memory to long-term memory involves connecting new information with prior knowledge”

(Banikowski, 1999).  Most information-processing models of memory have three major components: a

sensory register, a working (or short-term) memory, and a long-term memory. Memory is essential to all

learning; because it lets you store and retrieve the information that you learn. Memory is basically nothing

more than the record left by a learning process. Thus, memory depends on learning. But learning also

depends on memory, because the knowledge stored in your memory provides the framework to which

you link new knowledge, by association. And the more extensive your framework of existing knowledge

is, the more easily you can link new knowledge to it. Without memory, learning would be impossible.

Memory can be enhanced and strengthened by the impact the learning experiences has on the individual.

“Two factors strongly influence whether the brain initially attends to arriving information and whether

this attention will be sustained. These two factors are meaning and emotion, and over these we do have

some control” (Wolfe, 2001). Thus, providing meaning and creating emotion are powerful tools for

educators to utilize in initial learning.

Prior knowledge: According to Jean Piaget, accessing prior knowledge is how children make sense of

the world. They attempt to take new information and fit it into existing knowledge in order to create a

schema, or mental map that fits into a specific category. This makes the information more accessible

because it is more memorable. When they make connections, it allows them to find the information using
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this network. Teachers should make every effort to encourage children to access their previously learned

knowledge to help them to better understand academics, structure and social dynamics. In order to take

advantage of a student's prior knowledge, teachers should use tools such as graphic organizers and

techniques to help them access what they know and make connections to the learned material

(Banikowski, 1999). Teachers should also be sure to build on a topic in order to make it personal for the

student. “Having prior knowledge or experience which relates to the current learning enhances memory”

(Banikowski, 1999).  

Transfer: “Some kind of learning experiences result in effective memory but poor transfer, other produce

effective memory plus positive transfer” (Bransford, 200). Transfer of learning is a phenomenon of

learning more quickly and developing a deeper understanding of the task if we bring some knowledge or

skills from previous learning. Therefore, to produce positive transfer of learning, we need to practice

under a variety of conditions. Knowledge transfer seeks to organize, create, capture or distribute

knowledge and ensure its availability for future users. Transfer of learning depends on the learning task

and the transfer task being identical, also known as 'identical elements'. There is a close relationship

between transfer of learning and problem solving, since transfer of learning generally occurs when

previous knowledge is applied to solve a problem in a new situation. For example; “Petal around the

Rose” activity is the one that frustrate me. Some people understand the puzzle right away. However, most

of students needed some hints to help them solve the game. This activity taught us how to transfer our

prior knowledge (math) to solve this game and develop our knowledge in order to enhance the memory.

What are three elements are most inhibitory for initial learning to occur and/or retained?

The three elements that most inhibitory for initial learning to occur I believe are; cognitive

blockers, negative transfer, and negative motivation.

Cognitive Blockers: Cognition is inhibited when students are not guided to identify the understanding, or

concept that should be the focus of the learning. Without this focus, students cannot differentiate between

relevant and irrelevant information so critical details are not identified, analyzed, hypothesized, evaluated,

or compared to personal experiences. The inability to apply these cognitive functions causes a "cognitive
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wall" in the comprehension of the students, limiting the depth of understanding needed to expand and

articulate ideas and make personal links to infer meaning.

Negative transfer: It occurs when previous learning or experience inhibits or interferes with learning or

performance in a new context. It is a concern for educators when introducing new knowledge to be built

on previous learning experience. Bransford in how people learn suggests that previous experiences or

learning can hinder the learning of new concepts. He provides the example of where the prior experience

of learning to walk upright, on what appears to be a flat earth, hinder the learning of concepts in physics

and astronomy (Bransford, 2000).

Negative motivation: While negative motivation may be useful in certain situations, characteristically it

is not as effective in promoting efficient learning as positive motivation. Negative  motivation,  however,

often  destroys  morale; and  effectiveness  will  decline  as  morale  declines. Long-term or frequent use

of negative motivation it self-defeating. Negative incentives are used as a last resort, but  you  should

first  study  the  situation  carefully to try to avoid them.

5- Professional Goal:

Well, I am not a teacher, yet. But I believe it is important for teachers to consider themselves when

thinking about goals. Improvement of self will lead to a healthier teacher, who is better equipped both

emotionally and physically to handle the challenges that come up each day.  In my second years as a

graduate student in education, I would like to learn more about the various pedagogical approaches to

teaching.  I will be a lifelong learner.  Using my learning background in my future job/study will enhance

and develop it to be more effective.

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Summary:

Throughout this course, we have been introduced to learning through cognition and instructional

matter. This course revealed the big ideas around learning, not as reading, writing, and math, but as

memory and transfer. This course also refers to how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding

of his or her world through the interaction of learned factors. Among the areas of cognitive and

instructional development are information processing, intelligence, reasoning, language development, and

memory. Memory and transfer are an essential building our learning and allow us to solve wide rang of

problems that we encounter daily. Piaget and Vygotsky present great theories that explain the way we

learn and mentally grow plays a central role in our learning processes and abilities. Both were interested

in the relationship of thinking and language learning. I believe all studies and elements we learned will

allow us in the future to become more expert, intelligent, predictor, and dependable in life.
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References:

Banikowski, A. K. (1999). Strategies to enhance memory based on brain research. Focus on exceptional

children, (2nd ed, vol.32).

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R.R., (2000). How people learn. Washington, D.C,: National

academy press.

Meek, P. Cognitive development: Piaget full notes. EPSY 5240, Course notes. p. 113-115.

Meek, P. Vygotsky theory: EPSY 5240, Course notes. p. 128-130.

Wolfe, P. (2001). Brain matter: Translating research into classroom practice. Alexandria, VA:

Association for supervision and curriculum development.

Woolfolk, Anita. (2004).  Educational Psychology. (9th ed). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.