The document discusses the evolution of learning theories, tracing insights from Greek philosophers to modern educators and psychologists. It highlights the importance of understanding how people learn through various approaches, including behavioral and cognitive psychology, and presents strategies for improving reading skills. Tips for effective reading are provided, emphasizing the significance of context, purpose, and techniques such as skimming and noting key concepts.

1. Essential / Improving Study Skills
1. How do people learn?
2. Study skills
3. SQ3R
S. Mohan Raj
Ph.D Research Scholar, English
School of Social Sciences and Languages
VIT, Vellore
rajmohan251@gmail.com
9751660760

2. How do People Learn?
I believe that (the) educational process has two sides—one psychological
and one sociological. . . Profound differences, in theory, are never gratuitous or
invented. They grow out of conflicting elements in a genuine problem.
John Dewey, In Dworkin, M. (1959) Dewey on Education pp. 20, 91
1. Philosophy-based Learning theory
2. Psychology-based Learning theory
3. Progressive Learning theory

3. People have been trying to understand learning for over 2000
years as far back as the Greek philosophers, Socrates (469 –399 B.C.),
Plato (427 – 347 B.C.), and Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C).
1. Plato, as a rationalist, developed the belief that knowledge and truth
can be discovered by self-reflection.
2. Aristotle, the empiricist, used his senses to look for truth and
knowledge in the world outside of him. From his empirical base,
Aristotle developed a scientific method of gathering data to study
the world around him.
3. Socrates developed the dialectic method of discovering truth
through conversations with fellow citizens (Monroe, 1925).
1. Philosophy-based Learning theory

4. 2. Psychology-based Learning theory
1. The nineteenth-century brought about the scientific study of learning.
2. Working from the thoughts of Descartes and Kant, and especially the
influence of Charles Darwin, psychologists began conducting objective tests
to study how people learn, and to discover the best approach to teaching.
3. The 20th-century debate on how people learn has focused largely on
behaviourist vs. cognitive psychology.
1. Edward Thorndike (1874 – 1949) is considered by many to be the first modern
education psychologist who believed that learning was incremental and that
people learned through a trial and error approach.
2. The father of modern behaviourism, B. F. Skinner (1904 – 1990), considered
learning to be the production of desired behaviours and denied any influence
of mental processes.

5. 1. Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) was the first to state that learning is a
developmental cognitive process, that students create knowledge rather than
receive knowledge from the teacher.
2. He recognized that students construct knowledge based on their experiences
and that how they do so is related to their biological, physical, and mental stage
of development.
1. The Russian scientist Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) extended Piaget’s developmental
theory of cognitive abilities.
2. Vygotsky proposed the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD)
which suggested that students learn subjects best just beyond their range of
existing experience.
Psychology-based Learning theory...

6. 3. Progressive Learning theory
1. The Progressives embraced Piaget’s ideas about child development, Vygotsky’s
ideas about socially situated learning and the construction of knowledge.
2. John Dewey (1859 – 1952) agreed in part with Rousseau that education should
not be separate from life itself, that education should be child-centered, guided
by a well-trained teacher who is grounded in pedagogical and subject
knowledge.
3. Dewey, who established the first laboratory school, was one of the first to
suggest that learning was a situated activity.
1. Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952), introduced a liberated concept of early
childhood education that provided more opportunity for free expression,
moving children away from their desks, providing them with activities, and
respecting children as individuals.
2. Like Dewey, she believed that students learn through carefully chosen
activities.

7. The Learning Process
1. The Brain Plays a Role
2. The Learning Environment Makes a Difference
3. Learning is Based on Associations
4. Learning Occurs in Cultural and Social Contexts

16. Reading skill are specific abilities which enable a reader:
 to read the written form as meaningful language.
 to read anything written independence, comprehension and fluency, and
 to mentally interact with the message.

17. Acquiring a reading skill is related to numerous inter-related skill.
They are:
1. Word recognition.
2. Phrase meaning.
3. Retention of meaning.
4. Sentence meaning.
5. Reading the context.
6. Paragraph meaning.
7. Recognize the structural clues and comprehend structural
patterns.
8. Skimming.
9. Scanning.
10. Reading for an organization (Note making and Summarizing).
11. Draw conclusions, make inferences and read between the lines.
12. Critical reading.
13. Reading Charts, Maps and Graphs.
14. Reading to follow directions.
15. Reading to answer questions.
(Emerald V. Dechant, 1969:354); (Gurrey, 1970:84)

19. The following are some of the important components of reading skill.
1. Recognition of the graphemes.
2. Recognition of the correlation of graphemes within words.
3. Recognizing word boundaries and sentence boundary.
4. Recognizing the meaning of words and their relationship in a sentence.
5. Recognizing the relationship between and among sentences in discourse.
6. Deducing meaning of unfamiliar words.
7. Inferring implicit and explicit information and ideas of the text, etc.

20. The reading skill consists of three important components:
1. Recognition of the graphic marks.
2. Correlation of the graphic marks with formal linguistic elements.
3. Correlation of the above with meanings.
Reading skill can be improved – Scanning, Skimming and Concept Mapping.
These can be deployed depending upon the context and also on the purpose of reading.

21. 1. Find out what you want to know and for that, you need to cut through the clutter.
2. At the same time assess what is to be skipped from reading.
3. Question yourself whether you are reading for any specific purpose or for pleasure
because at times the intention is more important than action.
4. Always lay emphasis on contents and contexts but not on the style or flow or
delivery of the material.
5. It is always important to stress on qualitative, not quantitative reading.
6. Cultivate a positive attitude towards reading. Nancy Collin aptly said, “The only way
to improve reading skill is to read”.
7. Before you read, find out 2 Ws i.e. why you are reading and what you are reading?
8. Check your biological clock and read so that the degree of absorbability and
assimilation of the material is higher.
Tips for Effective Reading

22. 9. Keep the dictionary beside when you go for reading. If the meaning of a word is
not known it will help you to know instantly.
10. In every sentence, there are keywords to be focused on. When the meaning of
the keywords is known then it becomes easier to understand and memorize the
material.
11. If you get boredom, give a break and restart reading so that you can grasp better.
12. Surround yourself with various kinds of books.
13. Learn to underline the key parts/words/concepts for further references.
14. Develop the habit of paraphrasing the contents.
15. Transfer the material from textbook to notebook so that the best part of the
material is with you. By this, you can separate the chaff from the grain. And when
you write then, the degree of retentivity is higher.
Tips for Effective Reading

23. 16. Create your own shorthand stuff from the material.
17. While reading, new ideas and concepts will flash in the mind and the same
may be added on the margin side of the book. Failure to do will lead to missing
the beautiful ideas.
18. Don’t focus on filler words in the sentences. The words like “is” and “the” can
be avoided while reading as it takes longer time and not of much significance
for understanding the contents.
19. Try to recall the contents repeatedly which are in third person’s mind and
summarize the same and write down either on the margin of the textbook or
in the notebook.
20. If he/she can generate a few examples from the textbook in a given context it
will help he/she to enhance retentivity. And also link the contents of the
material with real-life events, examples and accidents.
Tips for Effective Reading

25. References:
1. Essential Study Skills.
https://www.talanx.com/~/media/Files/T/Talanx/pdfcontent/karriere/ebooks/esse
ntial-study-skills.pdf
2. How People Learn: Introduction To Learning Theories.
https://web.stanford.edu/class/ed269/hplintrochapter.pdf
3. Reading Skill.
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/51418/7/07_chapter3.pdf