University of M'sila Department of English Language and Literature

/Lecturer: Berkani Master One Classes TEFL Credits

? LESSON FOUR: WHAT IS LEARNING

Definition of Learning.1

Before we dive into understanding the relevant science behind the learning process, let’s ground
ourselves in a definition of learning that is drawn from research.
Learning is a process that:
1-is active process of engaging and manipulating objects, experiences, and conversations in order to
build mental models of the world (Dewey, 1938; Piaget, 1964; Vygotsky, 1986). Learners build
knowledge as they explore the world around them, observe and interact with phenomena, converse
and engage with others, and make connections between new ideas and prior understandings.
2-builds on prior knowledge and involves enriching, building on, and changing existing
understanding, where “one’s knowledge base is a scaffold that supports the construction of all future
learning” (Alexander, 1996, p. 89).
3-occurs in a complex social environment - and thus should not be limited to being examined or
perceived as something that happens on an individual level. Instead, it is necessary to think of
learning as a social activity involving people, the things they use, the words they speak, the cultural
context they’re in, and the actions they take (Bransford, et al., 2006; Rogoff, 1998), and that
knowledge is built by members in the activity (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006).
4-is situated in an authentic context - provides learners with the opportunity to engage with specific
ideas and concepts on a need-to-know or want-to-know basis (Greeno, 2006; Kolodner, 2006).
5-requires learners’ motivation and cognitive engagement to be sustained when learning complex
ideas, because considerable mental effort and persistence are necessary.
The conditions for inputs to learning are clear, but the process is incomplete without making sense of
what outputs constitute learning has taken place. At the core, learning is a process that results in a
change in knowledge or behavior as a result of experience. Understanding what it takes to get that
knowledge in and out (or promote behavioral change of a specific kind) can help optimize learning.
We use the term 'learning' all the time in everyday life. But within the field of educational psychology,
the term learning is actually a specific term. Different people use different words to define learning
within educational psychology, but in general, we're talking about a step-by-step process in which an
individual experiences permanent, lasting changes in knowledge, behaviors, or ways of processing the
world.

2.Characteristics of Learning

Psychologists generally agree on some characteristics of learning. The instructor should

understand these and turn them to good use.

1-Learning is Purposeful :

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 Each student sees a learning situation from a different viewpoint. Each student is a unique individual
whose past experience affects readiness to learn and understanding of those requirements involved. Most
people have fairly definite ideas about what they want to do and achieve. Goals sometimes are short
term, a matter of days or weeks. On the other hand, some goals may be carefully planned for a career or
a lifetime. Each student has specific purposes and goals. Some of those purposes and goals may be
shared by fellow students. Students learn from any activity that tends to further their purposes. Their
individual needs and attitudes may determine what they learn as much as what the instructor is doing to
get them to learn. In the process of learning, the learner’s purpose is of paramount significance. The
effective instructor seeks ways to relate new learning to the student’s goals.

2. Learning Comes Through Experience

Learning is an individual process. The instructor cannot do it for the student; knowledge cannot be
poured into the student’s head. The student can learn only from individual experiences. “Learning” and
“knowledge” cannot exist apart from a person. A person’s knowledge is a result of individual
experience. Even when observing the same event, two people react differently. They learn different
things from it, according to the manner in which the situation affects their individual needs. Previous
experience conditions a person to respond to some things and to ignore others.
All learning is by experience, but it takes place in different forms and in varying degrees of richness and
depth. Therefore, the instructor is faced with the problem of providing experiences that are meaningful
only if they understand them well enough to apply them correctly to real situations. If an experience
challenges the learner, requires involvement with feelings, thoughts, memory of past experiences and
physical activity, it is more effective than an experience in which all the
learner has to do is commit something to memory. It seems clear enough that the learning of a physical
skill requires actual experience in performing that skill. Mental habits are also learned through practice.
If students are to use sound judgment and solve problems well, they must have had learning experiences
in which they have exercised judgment and applied their knowledge of general principles in the solving
of realistic problems.

Learning is Multifaceted .3
If instructors see their objective as being only to train their student’s memory and muscles ,they
underestimate the potential of the teaching situation. Students may have learned much that the instructor
had not intended. Students do not leave their thinking minds or feeling at home, just because they were
not included in the instructor’s plan. Psychologists sometimes classify learning by types: verbal,
conceptual, perceptual, motor, problem solving and emotional. However useful these divisions may be,
they are artificial. For example, a class learning to apply the scientific method of problem-solving may
learn the method by trying to solve real problems. But in doing so, it also engages in “verbal learning”
and “sensory perception” at the same time. Each student approaches the task with preconceived ideas
and feelings, and for many students these ideas change as a result of experience. The learning process
may include verbal elements and elements of problem-solving all taking place at once. Learning is
—multifaceted in still another sense. Students may be developing attitudes about hunting—good or bad

depending on what they experience. Under a skillful instructor, they may learn self-reliance. The list is
seemingly endless. This learning is sometimes called “incidental,” but it may have great impact on the
.total development of the student
Learning is an Active Process .4

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 Students do not soak up knowledge like a sponge absorbs water. The instructor cannot assume that
students remember something just because they were present in the classroom when the instructor
“taught” it. Neither can the instructor assume that the students can apply what they know because they
can quote the correct answer from the book. For students to learn, they must react and respond,
outwardly, or inwardly, emotionally or intellectually. If learning is a process of
changing behavior, clearly that process must be an active one.

3.Types of Learning

Several types of learning exist. The most basic form is associative learning, i.e., making a new
association between events in the environment. There are two forms of associative learning: classical
conditioning (made famous by Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with dogs) and operant conditioning.

3.1.Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning (learning by association)

Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the
capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus. The most important thing
to remember is that classical conditioning involves automatic or reflexive responses, and not voluntary
behavior .i.e. the only responses that can be elicited out of a classical conditioning paradigm are ones
that rely on responses that are naturally made by the animal (or human) that is being trained. Also, it
means that the response you hope to elicit must occur below the level of conscious awareness - for
example, salivation, nausea, increased or decreased heart rate, pupil dilation or constriction, or even a
reflexive motor response (such as recoiling from a painful stimulus). In other words, these sorts of
responses are involuntary

3.1.1. PAVLOV’S DOGS

In the early twentieth century, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov did Nobel prize-winning work on
digestion. While studying the role of saliva in dogs’ digestive processes, he stumbled upon a
phenomenon he labeled “psychic reflexes.” While an accidental discovery, he had the foresight to see
the importance of it. Pavlov’s dogs, restrained in an experimental chamber, were presented with meat
powder and they had their saliva collected via a surgically implanted tube in their saliva glands. Over
time, he noticed that his dogs who begin salivation before the meat powder was even presented, whether
it was by the presence of the handler or merely by a clicking noise produced by the device that
distributed the meat powder.
Fascinated by this finding, Pavlov paired the meat powder with various stimuli such as the ringing of a
bell. After the meat powder and bell (auditory stimulus) were presented together several times, the bell
was used alone. Pavlov’s dogs, as predicted, responded by salivating to the sound of the bell (without
the food). The bell began as a neutral stimulus (i.e. the bell itself did not produce the dogs’ salivation).
However, by pairing the bell with the stimulus that did produce the salivation response, the bell was able
to acquire the ability to trigger the salivation response. Pavlov therefore demonstrated how stimulus-
response bonds (which some consider as the basic building blocks of learning) are formed. He dedicated
much of the rest of his career further exploring this finding.
In technical terms, the meat powder is considered an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the dog’s
salivation is the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell is a neutral stimulus until the dog learns to
associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) which produces the
conditioned response (CR) of salivation after repeated pairings between the bell and food.

3.1.2. JOHN B. WATSON: EARLY CLASSICAL CONDITIONING WITH HUMANS

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 John B. Watson further extended Pavlov’s work and applied it to human beings. .In 1921, Watson
studied Albert, an 11 month old infant child. The goal of the study was to condition Albert to become
afraid of a white rat by pairing the white rat with a very loud, jarring noise (UCS). At first, Albert
showed no sign of fear when he was presented with rats, but once the rat was repeatedly paired with the
loud noise (UCS), Albert developed a fear of rats. It could be said that the loud noise (UCS) induced fear
(UCR).
John Watson proposed that the process of classical conditioning (based on Pavlov’s observations) was
able to explain all aspects of human psychology. Everything from speech to emotional responses was
simply patterns of stimulus and response. Watson denied completely the existence of the mind or
consciousness. Watson believed that all individual differences in behavior were due to different
experiences of learning. He famously said:
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select -
doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and the race of his ancestors” (Watson, 1924, p. 104).

3.1.2. INSTRUMENTAL ( OPERANT) CONDITIONING

It is a learning process first described by B. F. Skinner. In instrumental conditioning, reinforcement

or punishment are used to either increase or decrease the probability that a behavior will occur again in
the future.

 E.g. If a student is rewarded with praise every time she raises her hand in class, she becomes
more likely to raise her hand again in the future. If she is also scolded when she speaks out of
turn, she becomes less likely to interrupt the class. In these examples, the teacher is using
reinforcement to strengthen the hand-raising behavior and punishment to weaken the talking out
of turn behavior.

Instrumental conditioning is often used in animal training as well. For example, training a dog to shake
hands would involve offering a reward every time the desired behavior occurs.

 How It Works?

Skinner identified two key types of behaviors. The first type is respondent behaviors. These are
simply actions that occur reflexively without any learning. If you touch something hot, you will
immediately draw your hand back in response. Classical conditioning focuses on these respondent
behaviors. In Pavlov's classic experiments with dogs, salivating to the presentation of food was the
respondent behavior. By forming an association between the sound of a bell and the presentation of
food, however, Pavlov was able to train dogs to actually salivate simply at the sound of that bell.

Skinner realized that while classical conditioning could explain how respondent behaviors could lead to
learning, it could not account for every type of learning. Instead, he suggested that it was the
consequences of voluntary actions that lead to the greatest amount of learning.

The second type of behaviors is what Skinner referred to as operant behaviors. He defined these as any
and every voluntary behavior that acts upon the environment to create a response. These are the
voluntary behaviors that are under our conscious control. These are also actions that can be learned. The
consequences of our actions play an important role in the learning process.

 Reinforcement and Punishment

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 Skinner identified two key aspects of the operant conditioning process. Reinforcement serves to
increase the behavior while punishment serves to decrease the behavior.

There are also two different types of reinforcement and two different types of punishment. Positive
reinforcement involves presenting a favorable outcome, such as giving a child a treat after she cleans her
room. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of an unpleasant stimulus, like telling a child that if
she eats all her potatoes then she won’t have to eat her broccoli. Since the child considers broccoli an
unpleasant consequence and eating the potatoes leads to the removal of this undesirable consequence,
eating the potatoes is then negatively reinforced.

 Positive punishment means applying an unpleasant event after a behavior. Spanking, for
example, is a common example of positive punishment. This type of punishment is often referred
to as punishment by application. A negative consequence is directly applied to reduce the
unwanted behavior.

 Negative punishment involves taking away something pleasant after a behavior occurs. For
example, if a child fails to clean her room, her parents might tell her that she cannot go to the
mall with her friends. Taking away the desirable activity acts as a negative punisher on the
preceding behavior.

3.2.Observational Learning

It is a form of learning that takes place by observing others. Earlier this form of learning was called
imitation. Bandura and his colleagues in a series of experimental studies investigated observational
learning in detail. In this kind of learning, human beings learn social behaviours, therefore, it is
sometimes called social learning. In many situations individuals do not know how to behave. They
observe others and emulate their behaviour. This form of learning is called modeling.

Examples of observational learning abound in our social life. Fashion designers employ tall, pretty,
and gracious young girls and tall, smart, and well-built young boys for popularising clothes of different
designs and fabrics. People observe them on televised fashion shows and advertisements in magazines
and newspapers. They imitate these models. Observing superiors and likeable persons and then
emulating their behavior in a novel social situation is a common experience.

Children learn most of the social behaviours by observing and emulating adults. The way to put on
clothes, dress one’s hair, and conduct oneself in society are learned through observing others. It has also
been shown that children learn and develop various personality characteristics through observational
learning. Aggressiveness, prosocial behaviour, courtesy, politeness,diligence, and indolence are acquired
by this method of learning

3.3.Cognitive Learning

“Cognitive” refers to “cognition”, which the Oxford dictionary defines as “the mental action or
process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.”
Webster’s Dictionary defines learning as “knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study”. The
concept of cognitive learning unites these two ideas, and defines the processes that intervene when
processing information, which goes from sensory input, passes through the cognitive system, and
reaches the response.
The idea of learning may be the action that has most set humans apart throughout our history. We are the
living proof of the continuous, meaningful learning at has allowed for the human life as we know it
today.

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 Bloom (Check Bloom's taxonomy) established that in cognitive learning the domains involve
knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. This includes recalling or recognizing facts,
patterns, procedures, concepts that help develop intellectual abilities. For him the six major categories of
cognitive processes are:
 Knowledge
 Comprehension
 Application
 Analysis
 Synthesis
 Evaluation
The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first ones must normally be
mastered before the next one can take place.

The brain is what guides and directs our learning, and as human beings have evolved and advanced,
we have learned more and more information, skills, and ideas that have helped us become more
intelligent. However, the brain has not actually become more sophisticated as we advanced over time,
but rather, we have changed how we learn. The more scientists learn about the brain, the easier it is to
take advantage of how it works and its characteristics and make it easier for us to learn.

3.4.Concept Learning

The world, in which we live, consists of innumerable objects, events and living beings. These
objects and events are different in their structures and functions. One of the many things human beings
have to do is to organize the objects, events, animals, etc., into categories so that within the category,
objects are treated as equivalent even though they are different in their features. Such categorizations
involve concept learning.

A concept is a category that is used to refer to a number of objects and events. Animal, fruit, building,
and crowd are examples of concepts or categories.

Learning is “A persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must

come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world.”
From Psychology of Learning for Instruction by M. Driscoll