Learning Process

1. Learning Process
Dr. Manju N D
Assistant Professor
SVK National College of Education
Kuvempu University, Shivamogga

2. Meaning and concept of learning:
• In psychology, Learning is the process by which a
relatively lasting change in potential behaviour
occurs because of practice or experience.
• Learning is also a process of acquiring modifications
in existing knowledge, skills, habits, or
tendencies through experience, practice, or
exercise.
• It is a relative permanent change in behavior or
mental state based on experience.
• Learning may occur consciously or unconsciously.

3. Definitions of learning:
• According to Gates and others ―Learning is the
modification of behaviour through experience.
‖
• Henry, P Smith ―Learning is the acquisition of new
behaviour or strengthening or weakening of old
behaviour as a result of experience‖.
• Skinner ―Learning is the process of progressive
behaviour adaptation.‖

4. • Crow and Crow ―Learning is the acquisition of
habits, knowledge and attitudes. It involves new
ways of doing things, and it operates in an
individual‘s attempt to overcome obstacles or to
adjust to new situations.‖
• Munn ―To learn is to modify behaviour and
experience.‖
• M. L. Bigge ―Learning may be considered as
change in insights, behaviour, perception,
motivation or a combination of these.‖

5. The above definitions emphasize four
attributes of learning...
• learning is the Process and permanent change in
behaviour.
• It does not include change due to illness, fatigue,
maturation and use of intoxicant.
• The learning is not directly observable but
manifests in the activities of the individual.
• Learning depends on practice and experience.

6. Nature of Learning:
1 . Learning is adaptation or adjustment:
All persons continuously interact with their
environment. We often make adjustment and adapt
to our social environment. Through a process of
continuous learning, the individual prepares himself
for necessary adjustment or adaptation. That is why
learning is also described as a process of
progressive adjustment to ever changing conditions,
which one encounters.

7. 2. Learning is improvement:
Learning is often considered as a process of
improvement with practice or training. We learn many
things, which help us to improve our performance.
3. Learning is organizing experience:
Learning is not mere addition of knowledge. It is the
reorganization of experience.
4. Learning brings behavioural changes:
Whatever the direction of the changes may be,
learning brings progressive changes in the behaviour
of an individual. That is why he is able to adjust to
changing situations.

8. 5. Learning is active:
Learning does not take place without a purpose and
self-activity. In any teaching learning process, the
activity of the learner counts more than the activity of
a teacher.
6. Learning is goal directed:
When the aim and purpose of learning is clear, an
individual learns immediately. It is the purpose or goal,
which determines what, the learner sees in the learning
situations and how he acts. If there is no purpose or
goal, learning can hardly be seen.
7. Learning is universal and continuous:
All living creatures learn. Every moment the
individual engages himself to learn more and more.
Right from the birth of a child till the death, learning
continues.

9. CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING
Learning is growth, adjustment, organization of
experience, purposeful, both individual and social
product of the environment.
Learning has the following characteristics.
1. Learning is a continuous modification of behavi
our which continues throughout life
2. Learning is pervasive. It reaches into all aspects of
human life.
3. Learning involves the whole person, socially,
emotionally & intellectually.

10. 4. Learning is often a change in the organisation of
behaviour.
5. Learning is development. Time is one of its
dimensions.
6. Learning is responsive to incentives. In most
cases positive incentives such as rewards are
most effective than negative incentives such as
punishments.
7. Learning is always concerned with goals. These
goals can be expressed in terms of observable
behaviour.

11. 8. Interest & learning are positively related. The
individual learns best those things, which he is
interested in learning. Most boys find learning to
play football easier than learning to add
fractions.
9. Learning depends on maturation and
motivation.

12. PROCESS OF LEARNING
• Learning is a process. It is carried out through
steps.
Learning process involves –
a. A motive or a drive.
b. An attractive goal.
c. A block to the attainment of the goal.

13. (a) A motive or a drive:
• Motive is the dynamic force that energizes behaviour
and compels an individual to act.
• We do any activity because of our motives or our
needs. When our need is strong, enough we are
compelled to strive for its satisfaction.
• Learning takes place because of a response to some
stimulation.
• As long as our present behaviour, knowledge, skill
and performance are adequate to satisfy all our
needs, we do not feel any necessity to change our
behaviour or acquire new knowledge and skills.
• It is this requirement, which initiates a learner to
learn something.

14. (b) Goal:
• Every individual has to set a definite goal for
achievement.
• We should always have a definite goal for
achieving anything.
• If a definite goal is set then learning becomes
purposeful and interesting.

15. (c) Obstacle /block /barrier:
• The obstacle or block or the barrier is equally
important in the process of learning.
• The obstacle or the barriers keep us away from
attaining the goal.
• Now, how can the obstacle be important in the
process of learning?
• If one faces no difficulty of any kind in attaining
the goal, he will not bring any change in his
present behaviour or stock of knowledge or skills.
• Thus, the block or the barrier is an essential step
in the learning process.

16. Consider an example:
• Suppose you wish to be included in your college
hockey team.
• You want to have the esteem of your colleagues,
your teachers.
• You are also motivated to try interesting
experiences that you many enjoy.
• But you are blocked by your lack of skill in dodging,
tackling and handling the ball.
• The obstacles in the path of goal achievement will
set you make up your deficiency and acquire
essential skill through sufficient practice and
coaching

17. Maturation
 Maturation is the process by which we change, grow, and
develop throughout life.
 Developmental psychologists look at many different types of
maturation throughout the lifespan.
 S. Alexandra, “Maturation is essentially a process of
modification from ‘within’, an ‘innate’ or development of
the organism and growth in structure and function that
occurs by reason of forces inherent in the organism itself.”
According to Boldwin, “Maturation is an increase in competency
and adoptablity.”

18. • Gates and Jersild, “Maturation is growth that
proceeds regularly within a wide range of
environmental conditions, or that takes place
without special conditions of stimulation, such as
training and practice.”
• Garry and Kingsley, “Maturation is the process
whereby behaviour is modified as a result of
growth and development of physical structures.”

19. Characteristics of Maturation:
1. Sum of gene effects: Maturation is the net sum
of gene effects operating in a self-limiting life cycle.
It is based on heredity. It is the process of describing
underlying potential capacity of an individual.
2. Automatic process: Maturation is an automatic
process of somatic, physiological and mental
differentiation and integration.
3. Completion of growth: Maturation is a stage of
completion of growth and consolidating of mental,
social and emotional development.

20. 4. Growth and development: Maturation means
the growth and development that is necessary
either before any unlearned behaviour can occur
or before the learning of any particular
behaviour can take place. It involves both
structural and functional changes or
performance. It helps an individual with
structural change to reach at the stage of
functional readiness.
5. Modification from within: Maturation is
essentially a process of modification from within
and innate ripening and development of
capacities of the organism.

21. 6. Condition of learning: Maturation is an essential
condition of learning. It is the basis of learning and
learning is the only source that makes human
development complete.
7. Factors of maturation: Maturity has been considered
as the process of learning.
There are three factors underlying the process of
learning:
(i) Acquisition: Acquisition is helpful in modifying the
behaviour. It is the acquisition which determines the
meaning, nature and scope of learning. It makes the
learner mentally prepared to learn.
(ii) Retention: Without retention, the learner fails to
express the acquired trait.
(iii) Recall: It is only potential recall through which we
form opinion about the maturity and learning
behaviour of the learner.

22. 8. Essential for learning skill: Maturity is essential for
physical and mental training. Attainment of physical and
mental maturity is essential to get proficiency in any
work. As maturity is an automatic process, there is no
need of external arousing objects or stimulus.
9. Maturity and physical fitness: The development of
mature learning behaviour also depends on physical
fitness of the learner. Acquisition, retention and recall
perform their functions successfully only when body
apparatus is capable in making the development of these
factors properly. Physical deficiency or illness obstructs
the learning process of the child. Till the body apparatus
is not stout or muscles are not strong enough, expected
modification in behaviour of the child is not possible. In
this context, maturity has been named as physical fitness.

23. 10. Training before maturity is useless:Training
imparted before maturity is useless to learn any
activity. Physical maturity is as important as
mental maturity. Hence, before imparting
training to the child, it is the foremost duty of the
parents and the teachers to see that the child is
fully matured or not, from the point of view of
his physical and mental maturity. Disobedience
of the norm will result into disappointment.
Maturation and learning have been considered
as two different aspects of the same process.

24. Educational Implications of Maturation:
1. The role of maturation and learning helps the
parents or the teacher to know what and when to
begin training.
2. The knowledge of the role played by maturation
suggests that if the child is not old or mature enough to
profit by teaching, it has little value for him and mere
time and effort on the part of the teacher is wasted.
3. Thus if learning precedes maturation, there is more
wastage of time and energy. Learning should begin
when the child is ready to learn. If the child is ready to
learn and he is not given guidance or training, his
interest is likely to wave.
4. Maturation comes with learning not necessarily with
age.
Riesen has aptly remarked, “Maturation is necessary
but not a sufficient condition for life.”

25. Relationship between learning and maturation :
Learning starts at birth and continues till death.
But a small infant cannot learn whatever we want
him to learn. Learning depends on the maturation
of central nervous system and other physiological
system of the body, e.g. 6 months old baby cannot
be made to walk or write because his system has
not achieved the maturity for these tasks. If an
individual reaches the required level of maturation
learning will be effective and efficient.
1. Individual differences in attitudes, interest,
ambitions and personality patterns are not due to
maturation alone but due to maturation and
learning. If development is the result of maturation
alone, there would not have been individual
personalities.

26. • Maturation is an important factor which
influences learning. Maturation is a natural
process. For maturation an external stimulus is
not necessary and its sequence is biologically
predetermined. On the other hand, learning is
a change in the individual. It is a process
which takes place as a result of 'stimuli' from
'without'.

27. • The changes are not classified as learning. The
swimming of tadpoles and the flying of birds can
be attributed to primarily to maturation. But in
the case of human beings, it is not easy to
decide whether the activities result from
maturation of learning.
• The child learns to talk only .When he reaches a
certain stage or age in maturation. Again he
does not learn the language just because he
attains that age. The language which he learns is
that which he hears. Thus the two processes
maturation and learning are closely related to
each-other.

28. • Maturation facilitates the process of learning. Learning
becomes effective when appropriate maturity has been
attained. Learning takes place only if the stage for that
type of learning has been achieved through a process of
maturation.
• A teacher should know how to differentiate between
maturation developments with that of changes due to
learning. For example-Our typical human brain develops
with age. It is a maturation process.
• But our knowledge, our habits are acquired though
stimulus-response activities or in at her words learning.
Maturation is important for learning. Before we learn
anything, our sensory, motor and nervous structures
should attain a certain level of maturity.

29. • For example, we cannot make an infant run
simply because he has not acquired the
appropriate maturity. So until a certain level of
maturation is acquired by the child, training (or
learning) may be of no avail.
• We should bear in mind that during the early
development period of the child, greater level
of maturity brings more efficient learning, and
learning of complex skills requires a higher level
of maturity.

30. • Maturation sets limits beyond which developments cannot
progress even with the most favourable learning methods
and the strongest motivation on the part of the learner
(Gessell) The point has been stressed by Cattell and others
when they said, “All learning and adjustment is limited by
inherent properties of the organism.”
• Inter-relationship between maturation and learning
establishes a “timetable” for learning. The individual
cannot learn until he is ready Development readiness
provides the “teachable moment” when the task should be
learned.
• As Scott has pointed out, “Any attempt to teach a child or
animal at too early a period of development may result in
his learning bad habits or simply in his learning “not to
learn” either of which results may greatly handicap him in
later life.”

31. • Trying to teach a child to read, for example,
before his spontaneous vocalisations have
developed will often dampen his interest in
reading. Similarly forced toilet training often
results in enuresis. Many under achievers in
schools and colleges are the products of forced
learning on the part of every zealous parents.