What is learning?

Monday morning marked the first day of Semester 2. Picture this: 9am, cold, drizzly, grey, windy, soggy shoes and wet hair. Yuk. I've had better starts to the day, it has to be said. Then, to be presented with the philosophical question, ‘what is learning?' almost caused my brain to short circuit so early in the morning. My initial response was, "learning is to understand something new"; however, upon further reflection and engaging in group discussions we concluded that; learning is a continual process of acquiring and developing knowledge, skills and behaviours.

Arguably, as teachers, the most fundamental aspect of our jobs is to understand HOW our children learn and what we need to do in order to allow them to do so. Learning is complex and there are many theories aiming to classify the process in a particular way when in fact, teachers need to employ different approaches to teaching in order to promote different types of learning (Kelly, 2006 p.136). So what are these different types of learning? There are many theories surrounding the concept of learning; from behaviourists such as Watson, Skinner and Bandura to the likes of cognitivists such as Bruner and constructivists; Piaget and Vygotsky who believe that children need to construct their own knowledge (Bates, 2016 p.48).

Being that there are so many views about how knowledge, skills and understanding are aquired; could it be fair to say that we are still unsure, or that there is no singular way in which we do? However, one aspect that does seem to be consistent within successful learning is an interest and engagement. Barnes (2011 pp.9-10) highlights that deliberate teaching does not always result in learning; in order for children to learn they need to involved in motivating and relevant experiences (Johnston 2010). Therefore, another fundamental aspect for teachers to understand one they know how their children learn is how to capture their interest in order to create learning opportunities.

References:

Barnes, J. (2011) Cross-curricular learning 3-14. London: SAGE Publications.

Bates, B. (2016) Learning theories simplified. London: SAGE Publications.

Johnston, J. (2010) 'The Cross-Curricular approach in Key Stage 1', in Kerry, T. (ed.)

Cross-Curricular Teaching in the Primary School: Planning and Facilitating Imaginative Lessons. Abingdon: Routledge.

Kelly, P. (2006) ‘Organising the classroom’, in Arthur, J., Grainger, T. and Wray, D.

(ed.) Learning to teach in the primary school. London: Routledge.