 Understanding Learning
science fiction author Robert Heinlein
"Learning is not compulsory but neither is
survival." so said W. Edwards Deming. It
now appears that this bit of folk wisdom is truer than we might like to
think. New evidence from the field of neuroscience reveals that the
reason that brains tend to atrophy, as humans get older, is because
they stop learning new things. I don't suppose we should be too
surprised about this. After all, every other part of our bodies that we
fail to use, we lose. Why not our brains? It turns out that
not learning causes brain damage.
"Study
after study has shown that intelligence, good education, literacy and
high status jobs all seem to protect people from mental ravages of old
age and provide some some resistance to the symptoms, if not the brain
shrinkage, of dementia. New Scientist, 03/06/06
Learning and neuroscience.
Michael Merzenich is a the inventor of numerous
techniques for staving off dementia, enabling brain injured people to
relearn functions such as language, and helping people stave off old
age. In his book
"The Brain that Changes Itself" Norman Doidge has the
following to say about Merzenich:
"Merzenich thinks our neglect of intensive
learning as we age leads the systems in the brain that modulate,
regulate and control plasticity to waste away."
When trying to ward off aging, the best kind of
learning seems to be the learning of physical skills, especially the
learning of something that stretches both the body and the mind.
Learning a skill that exercises the body has a double effect. It keeps
the the system that regulates and controls brain plasticity in fine
order and also keeps the brain well supplied with oxygen. Learning new
dances could be a good way of saying mentally young. In his book
"Brain Rules" John Medina supplies the following as his first
brain rule:
"Our brains were built for walking - 12
miles a day! Exercise gets blood to your brain bringing it glucose for
energy and oxygen to soak up toxic electrons that are left over. It
also stimulates the protein that keeps neurons connecting."
What is learning?
Learning is the most
important thing that living
creatures do. As far as any living creature is concerned, any action
that does not involve learning is pretty much a waste of time. This is
especially so for a human one. An organism cannot properly animate
itself without first learning how to. Humans, before they can satisfy
their own needs, first have to learn how to do it. Although the
difference between a baby at birth and a fully grow adult human, is
thought of as growth, most of that growth would be entirely useless
without accompanying learning. In his book
"Brain Rules" John Medina points out that how the brain grows
is entirely dependent on what is learned. It seems fairly safe to say,
"No learning, no brain growth". Yet despite the seeming essentiality of
learning to life, the fact is that most adult humans tend to learn less
and less as they get older.
So
learning is essential to life, but what really is learning? It
is suggested herein, that learning is that which enables living things
to grow, survive and realize their potential. It is further suggested,
that learning is accommodating our view of the world to be consonant
with contradictions of that view as they occur. Or to put it another
way, it is the revision of our theories about the world to conform to
an objective reality as presented by events that refute those theories.
It is as Piaget might say, the assimilation of non contradictory data
into our model of reality, adding to it, and the accommodation of
contradictory data into our model of reality, thus changing it. From an
evolutionary perspective learning is change in us, for the betterment
of ourselves and our species. Ultimately learning is how we can better
both ourselves and humanity generally.
"Change is the end result of all true
learning. Change involves three things: First, a dissatisfaction with
self -- a felt void or need; second, a decision to change to fill the
void or need; and third, a conscious dedication to the process of
growth and change -- the willful act of making the change, doing
something." Leo Buscagilia
Interest and
access.
Boiled down to its most
minimal constraints,
learning is ultimately concerned about two limiting or expanding
conditions. These two conditions are interest in learning and access to
learning. If this site manages to do its job well, it will explain how
to create interest in learning and how to improve access to resources
for learning.
Learning theories.
Man has sort, over time, to
reach an
understanding of learning so that it can be accomplished in an
increasingly efficient manner. There are many theories of learning, and
experts do not entirely agree with one another, but they do all agree
that it is a vital objective. By reading further you will gain an
understanding of what great and diverse minds like Maslow, Kelly,
Popper, Skinner, Piaget, Deci, Ryan and Dweck came up with, and in
addition, how such ideas can be woven together into a whole which
applies to everyday life situations.
What is not Learning?
Some people, even
scientists, confuse memorizing
with learning. They say that a person, who has memorized a list of
nonsense words, has learned something. Surely this is not so. If we
learn something we will certainly remember it, but if we memorize
something we may not have learned anything. Learning is about fitting
things in with what we already know or changing what we know to fit in
with things. If we learn a language we do not just memorize words, we
fit those words together like pieces in a fantastic jigsaw puzzle with
almost infinite relationships between each one and all the others. Even
memorizing lines for a play is not just memorizing words in sequence,
but rather, an exquisite interplay of words and emotions, that result
in the unique creation and presentation of the play.
However, in western society,
another bigger problem with what we understand 'learning' to be, is
that we tend to think of it as education. Although we confuse these
ideas one with the other, their meanings are in fact quite different.
Webster's Dictionary informs us that learning is:
- a : to gain knowledge or
understanding of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience
(learn a trade) b : Memorize (learn the lines of a play) c : to come to
be able (learn to dance) d : to come to realize (learned that honesty
paid)
- To be informed of something
- To come to know to acquire
knowledge or skill or a behavioral tendency
Webster's Dictionary informs
us that educating is:
- a : to provide schooling for
b : to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially
in a skill, trade, or profession
- a : to develop mentally,
morally, or aesthetically especially by instruction b : to provide with
information : (inform)
- a : to persuade or condition
to feel, believe, or act in a desired way (educate the public to
support our position) intransitive senses b : to educate a person or
thing
Educating is something that
you do to somebody else but learning is something you do to yourself.
If we are to understand what learning actually is and how it is
actualized, it requires a contextual shift in our public and private
perception. We have mistakenly come to see it as something that is done
to people (education?) but we must come to see it as something that
each person does for him or herself (learning!). To continue to further
discussion of meanings click here.
Who is this Site for?
The methodology of learning
should apply to all
things we attempt; so this site should be helpful to everyone. But more
particularly, this site is for those wishing to learn, and those
wishing to design learning environments, that is teachers. It is not
claimed that very much of what is set out herein is original, rather
this is an attempt to synthesize and coalesce the ideas of others into
a cohesive useful whole.
The Four Aspects of Learning
-
Rational Learning Method. This
aspect is concerned with the way in which living things and man in
particular can learn what is consistent with reality.
-
Instinctoid Needs. This
aspect is concerned with natural needs in living things and man in
particular, that provide the problems to be solved by learning.
-
Environmental Anticipation. This
aspect is concerned with the wants created by the environment of living
things and man in particular, that also provide problems to be solved
by learning.
-
Personal Maps of Reality This
aspect is concerned with the way in which living things and man in
particular, can extrapolate from what they learn by forming mental
patterns so that every single thing does not have to be learned from
external input. Also, this aspect is concerned with the extension or
growth of these patterns, where by, a lot of external input can be
accepted into the mind without trial and error review.
  Rational
Learning Method [Karl Popper]
Karl Popper, a philosopher,
has constructed a method which conceivably shows how all organisms
learn by forming conjecture and then testing it. (The testing is not
usually an effort to prove the conjecture wrong but rather the
inevitable outcome of its use in the trial solution to problems.)
Popper had difficulty with induction (the inferring of general law from
particular instances). He eventually discarded induction in favor of
his own system which is similar to and most appropriate for scientific
method. Popper reasons that there is no induction. He shows our
perceptions are only experienced through the theories that we hold and
that we cannot begin to perceive anything without first forming a
theory. So where do the conjectures come from? Popper reasons that they
come from us, that we invent them. How? They are a hope, a guess or an
intuitive leap.
Under Popper's
interpretation, actions which we see men and animals perform are part
of the process of forming conjectures. These actions are not
repetitions of the same action but rather trials in an effort to solve
a problem by application of a conjecture, guess or intuition or to find
the limits in which a conjecture works. Such a conjecture may be simply
that we want something to be true or it may be the result of a
correlation of old knowledge, or a correlation may be sparked by new
information possibly disconfirming an older theory. The active part of
trying to discover what is consistent with reality for each organism,
is that of trials performed as tentative solutions to problems and the
elimination errors in those solutions by restructuring them.
Popper says that all
learning is theory formation, that is the formation of expectations.
This he goes on to show has a dogmatic phase and then usually a
critical phase where the dogma can collapse under pressure of
disappointed expectations through refutations. If the dogmas do not
collapse, it is not because we have proved them to be correct, but
rather, that we have been unable to prove them wrong.
  Instinctoid Needs
[Abraham Maslow]
Abraham Maslow's major
contribution to psychology was his development of a theory of
instinct-like needs that every human possesses. He put these needs in
an ascending hierarchy of importance and laid out how they relate to
our learning and growing. This is called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Although these needs are instinctual, satisfaction of them is not
automatic, it must be learned. These needs therefore, are one of the
forces within us, guiding what it is we will learn and want to learn.
What Abraham Maslow provided
us with was a clear alternative to the idea of drives. We must decide
whether we are in charge of our actions or whether we are victims of
forces beyond our control. The idea of drives pushing us or even
tormenting us into action has been a fundamental error in psychological
theory which Maslow takes to task. In his model we do not need to be
goaded into action, we are all ready in action. We are born with
certain expectations (primitive instincts) which are theories about how
our needs may be satisfied. By testing these theories we find the needs
are either satisfied or not. Revision of these expectations is both
learning and the fundamental motivation.
Maslow has been a huge force
in the development of psychology. His Hierarchy of Needs and other key
concepts he developed turned the focus of understanding away from
mental sickness and toward healthy realization of man's potential
through learning. His efforts also helped unify the humanistic
psychologies and made a start on unifying all branches of psychology.
To continue to learn about Maslow and his ideas click here.
  Environmental
Anticipation [B. F. Skinner]
Behavioral psychologists,
perhaps exemplified by B. F. Skinner, place great emphasis on the idea
that we learn and are guided in our learning by the simple mechanism of
pleasure and pain being associated with all other incoming sensory
input. Popper would explain that this can be viewed in terms of the
subject's expectations or anticipations. An animal as is usually the
case in such studies, can be shown to be expecting pleasure (food) or
pain (an electric shock) and that these conjectures are being subjected
to error elimination. These associations behaviorists say, cause us to
like and be attracted to some sensory input and dislike or be repulsed
by other sensory input. This could be interpreted more simply by saying
that animals and humans anticipate pleasure in the replication of some
actions and anticipate pain in the replication of other actions.
The behaviorist model of
learning (operant conditioning) uses these ideas of association to
predict and control behavior. They would say that an organism performs
an action (behavior) that is reinforced (rewarded), and that the
reinforcement (reward) increases the likelihood of the behavior
occurring again. Thus they say, the action or behavior has been
reinforced. These behaviorist psychologists go to great lengths to show
that the behavior of organisms can be modified (manipulated) by being
reinforced in this way. This, they believe, forms what they call a
conditioned reflex, which is automatic and inaccessible to
intelligence. They speak as if the subject's choice of action due to
expectation is unimportant and thinking is somehow bypassed.
Although subject matter
learning is not a behavior (in the sense that it is repeated in exactly
the same way) it still can, the behaviorists say, be generalized to
form associations. Part of the behaviorist theory implies that one
activity of learning is similar to another activity of learning. Thus
we can classify learning into a number of different categories. To the
extent that we consider learning in one category (such as say
horticulture) similar to another category (such as say biology) we can
generalize the associations formed with one to the other. In terms of
Popper's ideas on anticipation and expectations this generalizing can
be seen as the development of infectious interest. This is a reciprocal
arrangement, we can change the environment, and the environment can
change what we anticipate. Thus, it can be seen, that the forces of
interest and disinterest motivate us through our anticipation and this
along with hierarchical type needs provides all motivation.
The interpretation the
behaviorist school of psychology places on these reinforcement ideas,
and their particular emphasis on these ideas to the exclusion of other
ideas, need not deter us from combing their works for information. It
may be that behavioral psychology has much to say that is valuable in
understanding learning, but this site holds that it should be construed
in terms of our expectations if it is to be of use. To continue to
learn about Skinner and his ideas click here.
  A
Theory of Personal Constructs [George Kelly]
There is a process by which
organisms can accept an expectation without subjecting it to trials
which would eliminate error. If we had to subject every expectation to
trial and error before we could accept it, the whole process of
learning would take far too long and we would learn far too little.
George Kelly invented a theory that suggested that as information is
absorbed, it in turn provides an extension to a template through which
the world is construed by that person. Kelly's theory is called the
Theory of Personal Constructs. Kelly's theory calls for numerous
bipolar dimensions, called constructs, that build into each person's
personal construction system. This personal construction system can be
seen as a kind of map of reality that not only allows anticipation but
provides a template for understanding or construing the world. It also
provides a way of anticipating and thus accessing the acceptability of
new information, making trial and error conformation of much new
information unnecessary. To continue to learn about Kelly and his ideas
click here.
Personal maps of
reality. Although this site is not entirely happy with
Kelly's idea of a personal construction system, no other theory of a
personal model of reality seemed to exist. Ultimately Kelly prefers the
idea of a more 'whole mind construction' that acts as a sort of
holistic lens through which the world is perceived and construed. To
this end we have conceived the idea of what will henceforth be referred
to as each person's 'personal map of reality'. Each
of these maps I suggest has holes in it, in much the same way a jigsaw
puzzle has holes in it before its completion. When we put a piece into
a jigsaw, sometimes we are not sure if we have put in the right piece
and sometimes we are very sure we have put in the right piece because
it completes a part of the picture. This surely is what happens with
the mind. We are able to make accurate conjecture and thus have
accurate expectations without ever seeing the same problem before
because it completes part of a picture and is thus consistent with the
other theories in our mind. Popper would call these bits that make up
our map of reality; dogma, conjectures or theories. Kelly calls them
constructs. Like Popper, Kelly holds that there is an objective reality
and like Popper he holds that we cannot know it because we construe
events through our constructs.
Our interest in such a
structure as an inner map of reality, is in how it might enable us to
make guesses and have intuitions which are much better than random. In
children this map of reality is less complete, the younger they are,
and so as we might expect, they are less able to make accurate guesses
or predictions. It is suggested that there is a direct connection
between our ability to make guesses or form theories and the
development of this inner map. As the internal map becomes more
consistent with reality, it enables the person to make better and
faster predictions that are more likely to be validated by subsequent
events. The learning carried out by young children is therefore more
characterized by error elimination, and in adults, more characterized
by uncritical acceptance of what seems to fit. Of course if the adult
finds the new information does not fit with their current map of
reality, a return to critical trials to eliminate error becomes
necessary though painful experience. Long before our map of reality is
fully formed, we are able to take in scientific theories (subject to
real scientific method) without trial and error, and accept them as
part of our map of reality.
 Losing Our Way.
The supporters of
traditional education such as David P. Ausubel point out that adults
should have a clear advantage over children with regard to learning
because they no longer have to refer to concrete operations and can
manipulate logic at the highest abstract levels. The way this site sees
it, is that adults have a fully functioning map of reality and this
should give them an enormous advantage over children as to learning.
The fact is of course, that despite this, children often seem to
outshine adults in learning, doing it both faster and with better
understanding and less memory loss. Ausubel himself is well aware that
children have some advantages which he presents quite fairly in his
book
"Educational Psychology a Cognitive View" as follows.
Many reasons exist for
believing that under certain conditions young children can learn more
efficiently than older and intellectually more mature persons. In the
first place, older individuals, particularly if miseducated, must often
unlearn what they have been previously taught before they are ready for
new learning. This is frequently the case when a student's knowledge is
unclear, unstable, or disorganized because of a prior history of rote
or nonmeaningful learning. Second, older individuals are more likely to
have "emotional blocks" with respect to particular subject-matter
areas. Third, their intellectual abilities tend to be more highly
differentiated. Finally, there is a marked falling off of intellectual
enthusiasm, venturesomeness, and flexibility as children move up the
academic ladder.
Ausubel accepts this as a
fact of life but just glosses over it, as though nothing can be done
about it, when it may well be central to the learning process. Clearly
in adults something is missing and by laying it out in this manner
Ausubel has identified what it is that is lost along the way. This site
maintains that if human learning deteriorates, as it obviously does,
then something is seriously amiss with the method of learning.
Firstly, as Ausubel points
out, quite often adults have to unlearn previous teaching. Unlearning
is usually necessary because, what has been taught, has been taught as
if it is 'The Truth', instead of being presented as
a theory. Ausubel also correctly identified other important reasons
that necessitate unlearning, namely, rote learning and other forms of
non meaningful learning. It is suggested herein that unlearning should
not be necessary and we have set out to determine why certain types of
material are ever allowed to enter the human mind (then requiring
removal) and how to prevent such instances from ever having happened.
Secondly, as Ausubel points
out, adults frequently have to deal with emotional blocks with respect
to particular subject matters. This sounds like psychological mumbo
jumbo, but what it means is, that unpleasantness has been associated
with some subject matter as to render it uninteresting and even
distasteful to learn. Such situations should never come into existence
and we have set out to discover why they occur and how to avoid such.
Finally as Ausubel points
out there is a marked falling off in intellectual enthusiasm,
venturesomeness and flexibility as children move up the academic
ladder. Our aim herein then becomes one of ensuring that enthusiasm,
venturesomeness and flexibility should not be lost, and this website
tries to determine why these reductions occur, and offers suggestions
how this vitality can be maintained. To continue to where the answers
to these questions are fully reviewed click here.
 Exit.
Finding Our Way. 
So there it is. This site
will attempt to answer
the above questions and more, it will try to survey what is currently
known about learning and synthesize all that information into a whole
understandable structure. This is a very big task. It is our contention
however, that this is possible because the information is there, and
that most of it has been there for a long time.
Why?
The question is why learn? Learning is changing ourselves and others
into something better. That in itself should be enough. But learning is
also enjoyable. In fact learning is the most enjoyable thing that non
creative people can do, and it may be the most enjoyable part of
creation.
Knowledge
snobs.
There are always some people in the world who wish to hoard knowledge
for one reason or another and they are the knowledge snobs. They
believe that knowledge should only go to those who are willing to fight
for it, for those who are able to stand up and snatch knowledge from
those who are hiding it. They believe that knowledge is only for those
who will want it despite society's and nature's efforts to make it
exclusive. Such people do not have the welfare of humanity at heart,
and instead want to maintain a kind of exclusive club, that acts as the
ruling and controlling force in the world. The sharing of knowledge is
what enables a truly democratic world where any person may rise to the
top.
This
site holds that it is possible to enable all people to desire
knowledge, to desire to learn and change throughout their lives, and
that this can be done by providing an environment where learning is
always enjoyable or at least as enjoyable as is possible. It is just a
matter of providing this environment as early as possible, as soon as
the child is born or earlier.
Life
long learning.
This site holds that all people should have the opportunity and desire
to learn all their lives. We hold that learning is always a good thing,
not only for the individual, but also for the community (society) in
which they dwell. There is a tendency to lose interest in learning new
things as we get older and to weaken in our ability to learn. However,
it is the overcoming of this natural tenancy, that makes humans the
truly remarkable creatures that they are. Also, this site holds that it
is the right of all humans, not only to have access to knowledge, but
also the right to desire to have that knowledge. A society that
deprives people of access to knowledge, is certainly wrong, and a
society that tries to convince some people that they do not deserve, or
should not have knowledge, is worse. Finally, this site holds that a
society that discourages learning after people are a certain age, or
after they leave school, or that turns learning from a enjoyable
experience into one of drudgery is also a society to be deeply
deplored. Why? Because it is only through the sharing of knowledge and
and a life long love of learning that the world has a chance of
surviving the many crises that beset us.
This
whole process of lifelong learning, it turns out, has the amazing bonus
of making people mentally healthier. What has become clear is that
people who continue to learn throughout their lives are better
protected against mental decline. Science is as yet not certain, why
this is the case, but it seems likely that the effort of learning new
actions and material may trigger neurogenesis, or assist the brain in
compensating (through neural migration) for its own breakdown. So we
should continue to learn throughout our lives. We should all become
lifelong learners. Perhaps Carol Dweck said it best in her Book
"Mindset":
"Every day presents
you with ways to grow and help the people you care about grow." [Here's
what you ask.]
"What are the
opportunities for learning and growth today? For myself? For the people
around me?"
"Change can be
tough, but I've never heard anyone say it wasn't worth it. Maybe
they're just rationalizing, the way people who've gone through a
painful situation say it was worth it. But people who've changed can
tell how their lives have been enhanced. They can tell you about things
they have now that they wouldn't have had, and ways they feel now that
they wouldn't have felt."
|
