In week 4, we looked at definitions of what learning was. We started by coming up with our own definitions and then researching it a bit, discussing our findings and (sort of) coming to some conclusions.
Discussion (no hypothesis this week)
Most of our definitions revolved around it being an ongoing (iterative?) process that resulted in development i.e. an increase in knowledge, understanding, competence or skill or a change in behaviour or attitude. Especially with the last two, learning could result in a change in the perception of identity.
When researching definitions we were surprised at how few of them talked about gaining or acquiring knowlege and how many of them refered to social and participatory activities and outcomes. Many of these however were looking at learning from a specific angle or context and social and constructivist approach to teaching and learning has been academically in vogue for a while so it is not surprising that many definitions seemed biased in this way.
I personally like the definition in Wikipedia but of course that is a dirty word in academia. Anyway, here it is for rebuttal. "Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. [...] Human learning may occur as part of education, personal development, or training. It may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. [...] Learning may occur as a result of habituation or classical conditioning, seen in many animal species, or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in relatively intelligent animals. Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness."
Conclusion
There is no one definition of what learning is because it is complex, intangible, difficult to measure and open to conflicting interpretations.
What's in a word?
In week 4, we looked at definitions of what learning was. We started by coming up with our own definitions and then researching it a bit, discussing our findings and (sort of) coming to some conclusions.
Discussion (no hypothesis this week)
Most of our definitions revolved around it being an ongoing (iterative?) process that resulted in development i.e. an increase in knowledge, understanding, competence or skill or a change in behaviour or attitude. Especially with the last two, learning could result in a change in the perception of identity.
When researching definitions we were surprised at how few of them talked about gaining or acquiring knowlege and how many of them refered to social and participatory activities and outcomes. Many of these however were looking at learning from a specific angle or context and social and constructivist approach to teaching and learning has been academically in vogue for a while so it is not surprising that many definitions seemed biased in this way.
I personally like the definition in Wikipedia but of course that is a dirty word in academia. Anyway, here it is for rebuttal. "Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. [...] Human learning may occur as part of education, personal development, or training. It may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. [...] Learning may occur as a result of habituation or classical conditioning, seen in many animal species, or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in relatively intelligent animals. Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness."
Conclusion
There is no one definition of what learning is because it is complex, intangible, difficult to measure and open to conflicting interpretations.