Monday, January 23, 2012

What is learning? (revisited)


Based on class discussion, learning is not simply defined it is rather complex. From my previous blog, I would add more to the definition of learning.  Learning builds on prior knowledge and metacognition/reflection which was explained in Chapter 9 “How Students Learn”.

Also, for learning to occur there needs to be motivation behind it; meaning if a person wants to understand a concept in greater detail there needs to be a drive to go out and find more information on their own. When that learning occurs, then a transfer of that knowledge to the next application will potentially occur (How People Learn – Chapter 3). As an example, I use a graduate student. A graduate student reads a lot of literature to understand their project so that when a graduate student looks at their data there is a moment when there is a click in the brain. This is an understanding of why and how certain things are occurring in their data set.  This is because of the background knowledge that was read from the literatures.

For my definition, learning is a multiple process which builds on prior knowledge, is based on the individuals drive for information, incorporates metacognition, and incorporates new information.  

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