This document outlines key factors that influence learning, including personal, social, cultural, cognitive, physical, and sensory abilities. It discusses how learning is impacted by an individual's environment and relationships as well as their internal cognitive skills. The document also examines various learning theories and how educators can apply these theories to promote inclusion. Educators should consider students' diverse backgrounds, needs, and learning styles to establish an inclusive learning environment where all students can fully participate.

1. Introduction
• In this chapter, we will consider how important physical, sensory,
cognitive, social and cultural factors are to learning, particularly in
relation to education. These factors are often underpinned by
learning theories and understanding those theories and their
application to teaching context can help us to appreciate how
individuals learn and the role of the educator within the learning
process, not least within the context of inclusive practice.

2. Factors which Influence Learning

3. Learning Outcomes for the Module
Chapter 1: Factors Influencing Learning
• 1.1 Review the impact of personal, social, and cultural factors on
learning.
• 1.2 Review the impact of different cognitive, physical, and sensory
abilities on learning.
Chapter 2: Policy and Regulatory Frameworks
• 2.1 Summarise policy and regulatory frameworks relating to
inclusive practice.
• 2.2 Explain how policy and regulatory frameworks influence
organisational policies relating to inclusive practice.
• 2.3 Explain how policy and regulatory frameworks influence own
inclusive practice
Chapter 3: Roles and Responsibilities
• 3.1 Summarise own role and responsibilities relating to inclusive
practice.
• 3.2 Explain the relationship between own role and the roles of
other professionals involved in inclusive practice.
• 3.3 Identify points of referral available to meet individual learning
needs
Chapter 4: Creating an Inclusive Environment
• 4.1 Review key features and benefits of an inclusive learning
environment.
• 4.2 Analyse ways to promote equality and value diversity.
• 4.3 Analyse ways to promote inclusion.
• 4.4 Review strategies for effective liaison between professionals
involved in inclusive practice.
Chapter 5: Reflecting on your Inclusive Practice
• 5.1 Review the effectiveness of own inclusive practice.
• inclusive practice.
• 5.2 Identify own strengths and areas for improvement in relation
to inclusive practice.
• 5.3 Plan opportunities to improve own skills in inclusive practice.

4. Learning Outcomes: In this chapter you will cover the following
learning outcomes
Factors which Influence Learning:
• 1.1 Review the impact of personal, social, and cultural
factors on learning.
• 1.2 Review the impact of different cognitive, physical, and
sensory abilities on learning.

5. Personal, Social and Cultural Factors on Learning
• Social, cultural and emotional learning forms a key role
within educational settings.
• These are essential life skills that support a child’s ability to
cope with difficulties, build resilience, learn how to manage
feelings, manage friendships and solve problems.
• Some of the important social and emotional skills that might
contribute to children’s learning might include, though not
limited to,:
• Self-awareness
• Developing a sense of social awareness
• Self-management
• Social relationships and communication
• Theory of mind and intentionality (e.g. recognising that
others may have different opinions and thoughts)
• Responsible decision-making
• Question: As a practitioner, how do you promote the
development of social and emotional skills within the your
own curriculum and classroom delivery?
• Watch the following video, produced by an Australian mental
health organisation called ‘Kids Matter’, which outlines 5
social and emotional competencies for learning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=pWZeR1bB038

6. Personal, Social and Cultural Factors on Learning
• Social and situational learning theories play a key role when
we consider the wider social and cultural importance for
learning and development.
• From your training and professional practice you will have
encountered a range of learning theories, for example:
• Learning theories which emphasise the social and cultural
contexts affect learning emphasises social interactions among
children. Purpose of education, in this context, would be to
encourage full, active participation in learning activities
which fosters social and cultural relationships.
• Social and emotional learning seeks to improve pupils’
interaction with others and self-management of emotions,
rather than focusing directly on the academic or cognitive
elements of learning. Educational interventions might focus
on the ways in which students work with (and alongside)
their peers, teachers, family or community.
• From an educational perspective, teachers need to work to
establish communities of practice in which conversation and
participation can occur. This can be achieved by:
• Considering the impact of different cultures, environments
and belief systems on learning
• Accommodating different abilities and/or needs (including
one-to-one, paired work, small group teaching, whole group
teaching)
• Promote collaborative learning through peer learning,
discursive assessments and online discussion activities
• Incorporate culturally diverse topics and issues
• Recognising and identifying ways to minimise potential
institutional/social/cultural/personal barriers to learning
• Fostering collaborative learning approaches to create social
working relationships in the classroom.

7. Cognitive, Physical and Sensory Abilities on Learning
• Cognitive abilities are brain-based skills we need to carry out any
task from the simplest to the most complex. They have more to
do with the mechanisms of how we learn, remember, problem-
solve, and pay attention, rather than with any actual knowledge.
• For instance, responding to a phone call involves perception
(hearing the ring tone), decision taking (answering or not), motor
skill (lifting the receiver), language skills (talking and
understanding language), social skills (interpreting tone of voice
and interacting properly with another human being).
• Cognitive skills also, to a large extent, determine learning ability.
For example,
• Motor skills
• Language,
• Visual and spatial processing
• Concentration
• Perception
• Thinking and Memory
• Logical thinking
• Reasoning
• Executive functions
• There will be physical and cognitive processes involved in all
aspects of learning and these will definitely differ from one
individual to another.
• However, physical skills or cognitive skills should not be seen
in complete isolation. These physical, sensory and internal
cognitive processes are affected by, and are in a dynamic
relationship with, wider social and environmental factors.
• Therefore, social relationships, and different cultural factors,
can impact on how and why information is learned and
where this learning takes place.

8. Cognitive, Physical and Sensory Abilities on Learning
• You have already considered some of the key learning
theories in your first module. Let us consider how those
theories relate to include practice and education.
• Learning theories (andragogy, cognitivism), for example, play
a key role in emphasising, to varying degrees, the extent to
internal cognitive abilities, like thinking, speaking, reasoning
and understanding .
• Cognitive teaching and learning models help learners to
process information, build concepts and rules, generate and
test hypotheses and think creatively.
• With cognitivism, the locus of learning is the Internal
cognitive structuring and how students internalise and store
new information. With regards to education, this concerns
how they develop the capacity and skills to learn better
• From an educators role, the focus should be on how to
structure the content of learning activity and the kinds of
information that needs to be developed.
• From an educational perspective, teachers need to establish
the kinds of teaching content that needs to be delivered and
how students may learn new information. This can be
achieved by:
• Adopting a multi-sensory approach to teaching practice to
support a whole institutional inclusive
• Structuring information in a way that can be understood,
remember and articulated
• Accommodating different learning preferences and learning
styles.
• Adopt physical approaches to learning by incorporating
materials and objects
• Tailoring teaching strategies to accommodate students'
sensory learning styles (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic)
• Considering the physical environment of school and
classroom, and potential barriers this may place on learning

9. Application of Learning Theories to Education
Learning theories Behaviorist, e.g. Pavlov,
Watson, Skinner
Cognitivist, e.g. Piaget, Bruner Humanist, e.g. Maslow,
Rogers
Social and Situational, e.g. Bandura
View of the
learning process
Change in behaviour Internal mental process (including
insight, information processing,
memory, perception)
A personal act to fulfil
potential
Interaction / observation in social contexts.
Movement from the periphery to the centre of a
community of
Practice
Locus of learning Stimuli in external
environment
Internal cognitive
structuring
Affective and cognitive
needs
Learning is in relationship between people and
environment.
Purpose in
education
Produce behavioural change
in desired direction
Develop capacity
and skills to learn
better
Become self-actualized,
autonomous
Full participation in communities of practice and
utilisation of
resources
Educator's role Arranges environment to
elicit desired response
Structures content
of learning activity
Facilitates development of
the whole person
Works to establish communities of practice in
which conversation and
participation can occur.
Manifestations in
adult learning
Behavioural objectives
Competency-based
education
Skill development/training
Cognitive development
Intelligence, learning and memory
as a function of age
Learning how to learn
Andragogy
Self-directed learning
Social participation
Socialisation
Conversation
Questions:
What theories of learning influence your professional practice? Are there any theories of learning or ideas relating to
education in general, which we can draw on to help us develop understanding about our own teaching practices and
attitudes?
Taken from: http://www.incurriculum.org.uk/files/1281472677/inclusive_learning_in_practice_v1.pdf