LEARNERS' NEEDS

Learners' Needs



Learners' Needs

This work examines the integral nexus of teacher and student, suggesting that efforts, resources, and human resource functions can and should intentionally focus on the relationship as paramount. Other aspects of learning potential are de minimus if teacher-student interaction is not efficient and affective. School leadership, learning paradigms, and hiring should focus on student-centered approaches that require collective efficacy, teachers becoming significant others in their student's lives, and development of resiliency in student intellectual attitudes. Refraining of the human resource function to recruit and retain life-enhancing educators who initiate rigorous and relevant learning, facilitate mastery, and incite intellectual curiosity for its own sake within students is called for. A suggested administrative interview and training examples are provided.

The fields of neurology and physics, along with nature itself provide profound insights into the essence of learning. From a neurological perspective, careful analysis of the manner by which nerves operate yields strong implications for effective learning. Specifically, as the dendrite of a nerve receives the electrical impulse traveling through the axon (information or a fact in an analogy to learning), it is converted to a chemical neurotransmitter that, if successful, travels across the opening, or synapse (teachable moment), to a receptor (student comprehension) on an adjoining dendrite. Depending on the amount of neurotransmitter, inhibitors or catalysts in the synapse and the ability of the receptor to "uptake" the chemical, the impulse is conveyed, conveyed without sensation that we detect (like when taking aspirin to mask pain), slowed down (in the case of THC-cannabis sativa use) or canceled. Learning follows similar procedures where a teacher may have facts to convey. However, if the relationship is not established, the student may not be receptive, may acquire only a portion of the message or refuse to "take up," process, and store the new knowledge. Concisely, the relationship matters more than the facts, the teacher provider, and/or the student. To maximise performance success, astute teachers understand the value of the relationship or teachable moment.

Yet another example from physics confirms the value of relationships when examining molecules comprised of atoms that share electrons. They never actually touch, element to element. The sharing of space in which electrons rotate, bonding, is a connection essential to life's continuance. Once again, the relationship or bond is of higher priority than the elements connected. A practical example — when the sun is shining and people are at the beach, some type of sun block is applied to deter the relationship of UV rays and human skin. The sun rays and human skin are independently neutral. However, when the relationship of UV rays to skin occurs, sunburn can result to varying degrees or be blocked, thus prohibiting UV burns just as absence of a neurotransmitter postpones ongoing firing of nerves and bonding permits compounds to form, or vice-versa.

In a similar fashion, learning can occur efficiently and affectively when the relationship of teacher and student is enhanced. When the student's relationship to content is enabled and the relative and rigorous educational setting promotes ...