ASSIGNMENT TWO (011)

Assignment Two (011)

Question 1: Option 1

Learning

Learning is the process of receiving and processing sensory data, which we encode as memories within the neural structures of our brain and retrieve them later for subsequent use (Omrod & Davis, 2004). There is a wide range of information that is stored in these memories. Learning is often defined as a process leading to a relatively permanent change of behaviour. In psychology, the concept has drawn considerable attention and there are various theorists who have proposed their theories regarding the concept of learning and various aspects surrounding it. These theories provide an understanding of the specific processes and instances in which learning occurs or in other words those that contribute to the learning process.

Despite the fact that different theorists have proposed different theories and contrasting views on learning, they generally agree on the facts that learning is an active process, it occurs throughout a person's lifetime and the experiences of a person influence the learning process. The process of learning can be explained by two approaches i.e. behaviourism and cognitivist theories. These two theories provide contrasting school of thoughts with various theorists contributing to the two respective positions.

Behaviourism

Behaviourism can be traced back to the year 1913 with Watson drawing on the work of Pavlov conditioned a young child to fear a white rat which was so ingrained in his behaviour that he started fearing other white furry objects and white hair of Watson (Mills, 2000, p. 75). Skinner was the next psychologist who worked in this direction and proposed that it was not a reaction to the environment that learning occurred but also a reaction to the environment based on prior experiences (Skinner, 1954). With this began an exploration on behaviour and theorists described various aspects surrounding learning after studying that change in behaviour.

These changes in behaviour according to the theorists belonging to this school of thought occur as a result of imitation, practice, feedback on success and habit formation. Behaviourists believe that children come into the world with a 'tabula rasa' a clean slate bearing no preconceived notions about the world or about language, and these children are then shaped by their environment, slowly conditioned through various schedules of reinforcement.

Theorists in this paradigm suggest learning as a process by which a particular stimulus repeatedly associated with or conditioned by desirable or undesirable experiences generates a particular response (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007: 273). Learning is enhanced if learners are provided with appropriate stimuli and reinforcement.

Cognitivist theories

Cognitivist theories attempt to answer how and why people learn and focus on the process of cognitive activity. It was a deviation from the earlier theorists focusing on mental activities. They consider human mind as valuable and necessary to understand the learning process of humans. They explored the mental processes such as of thinking and problem solving etc. and see knowledge as schema or symbolic mental constructions. Learning is then considered as a change in the learner's schemata (Ertmer & Newby, ...