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 waist away."
When trying to ward
of 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."
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