We use the term ‘learning' all the time in everyday life, but what does it mean? Different people will have alternative views on the definition. Commonly its described as the "step-by-step process in which an individual experiences permanent, lasting changes in knowledge, behaviour, or ways of processing the world" (study.com. Wind Goodfriend). Kolb defines individual learning as "the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience" (Kolb. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Page 2). This skill is something most people acquire at birth and carry with them throughout their life. Acquiring chunks of information at a time: knowledge, through tasks they've been assigned or, …show more content…
I found Kolb's (1984) model of experiential learning a useful way to summarize the process if individual learning. The cycle begins when we each experience the world through our senses. Kolb calls this step ‘concreate experience', to indicate that he does not mean the various experiences we have through books or plays, but real-world experiences. Examples of concrete experience could be as varied as sitting through a boring meeting or suffering the distress of losing a job. Kolb suggest that to learn from our experiences we must engage in a second step of consistency reflecting on what has occurred. This step he calls ‘reflective observation'. We are able to reflect on much less than what occurred in the actual experience. Reflection is selective and influenced by our expectations. The third step in the learning cycle is making sense of what we have experience. In other words, ‘abstract conceptualization'. The final step in Kolb's model is ‘active experimentation'. At this step, we test out the meaning that we have constructed by taking action in the world – which then leads to new experiences. Kolb has shown that over time we tend to get more proficient at some steps of the process that at others, thus we develop a learning style preference. Kolb has noted all the steps are necessary, the smallest alteration to any of these steps can make the learning process less
David Kolb published his learning styles theory, in 1984, after many years of development. His theory stated that people learn in two different steps, inputting information and processing information. How people do this is also different. Think of inputting information on a vertical line, one person may prefer concrete examples at the top and abstract concepts at the bottom. Processing information is on a horizontal line with active experimentation on the left and reflective observation on the right.
Learning is defined as a permanent change in attitude or behaviour that occurs as a result of repeated experience (Sims & Sims, 1995). Understanding one’s learning style has many advantages as it can help one to identify the learning method or activities that can help to optimise the learning experience. It has been suggested that the importance of one’s learning style has been identified through studies and research on how one can maximise the potential for success and further learning development (Honey & Mumford, 2006). Learning styles are unique to each individual and are developed in childhood (Chase, 2001). We all have different personalities; therefore we all have preferred learning styles that suit us best. The way one learns depends on preference. Some learn by observing, listening and imitating others and draw conclusions from their experience. There are several factors that affect our learning style; for example, background, culture, religion and environment can have a major influence on one’s learning.
What is learning? Learning is a process by which we change our behaviour and understanding. We learn in many ways. For instance, the cognitive orientation to learning, this could be said to be how children learn, (see child learning section). Secondly, there is the humanistic orientation to learning, this could be said to be a personal act to fulfil potential, through experience and reflection. Finally, we have the social/situational orientation to learning; this refers to the way we are pre-conditioned by society.
Learning is the process of attaining knowledge that can be obtained in a variety of ways. People learn through their own personal experiences, others experiences, actions, and by being taught. Over the year’s psychologist have categorized these different types of learning into more specific categories such as operant conditioning, vicarious learning and observational learning. These three methods of learning, though they all use different techniques, can affect a person’s behavior.
Learning is the act of acquiring new, or adapting and strengthening, existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, abilities, values, or feelings and may involve creating different types of information. The ability to learn is influenced by humans, animals, plants and some machines. Development over time tends to follow learning camber. It does not happen all at once, but builds upon and is shaped by previous knowledge. To that end, learning may be viewed as a process, rather than a collection of truthful and technical knowledge (Wikipedia.com). Learning is now part of our lives either in our home, school, in our work, even in our surroundings. Learning is what makes us excel to become better. The more we learn the better we acquire knowledge. The
Amongst reading the materials about the learning theories, I came to the conclusion that the three most important learning experiences in my life were: experiential learning, which is the “process of learning through experience, and is more specifically defined as learning through reflection on doing" (Patrick, 2011, p. 1003), workplace learning which “helps employees to increase their skills and become stronger performers in their company”, and Informal learning which is the unofficial, unscheduled and/or impromptu way, most of us learn to do our jobs. Informal learning “is like riding a bicycle: the rider chooses the destination and the route. The cyclist can take a detour at a moment 's notice to admire the scenery or help a fellow rider” (Cross, 2014). Many people in a company contribute to the availability of workplace learning, “including professional trainers, organizational development specialists, human resource personnel and managers” (Bianca, 2015). Everything that I learned and experienced with each of these learning theories have influenced my life differently.
There are four steps in the process of modeling for observational learning. They are attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. Attention is when you focus on what the person you are observing is doing. Retention is remembering what you observed. Reproduction is performing the behavior you observed, and motivation is wanting to actually do the behavior.(www.courses.lumenlearning.com) The psychologist that most strongly identifies with observational learning is Albert Bandura. He believed that observational learning was the result of cognitive processes that are, “actively judgemental and constructive,” not merely “mechanical copying.”(Bandura) According to Bandura there are three different models to observational learning. They are live model which is behavior in person, verbal model which is not doing a behavior but explaining or describing it, and symbolic model is when people or fictional characters demonstrating behaviors in books,
He stated that people learn in two different steps, inputting information and process information. The Learning Theory defines experiential learning as: ‘the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience’ and is continuous (Kolb 1984). (Chan, 2012) In this cycle, there are four cycles. Concrete Experience (CE) Participates in an experience, Reflective Observation (RO) Makes sense of the experience, Abstract Conceptualization (AC) Makes generalizations, develops theories, Active Experimentation (AE) Implements new action experiments with new ways. Also, there are four definition types of learning. Accommodators (CE/AE) Learn primarily by hands-on, Diverger (CE/RO) Observe rather than take action, Assimilators (AC/RO) Focus more on abstract ideas and concepts than people, and Converger (AE) Practical application of
According to me learning is the way of getting new knowledge or modifying existing knowledge and skills. Learning can bring change in an individual. Learning starts from birth. As we grow watching our parents we adapt or learn their habits. We observe our parents and we try to behave in similar ways.
Based on my practice of the theory, experiential learning is far more stimulating and rewarding than the conventional classroom learning that I am used to. With this cycle, I am in charge of what I want to learn, and I am also responsible for obtaining results. When I came to a conclusion based on my reflections, I felt a sense of accomplishment.
Learning to me use to mean sitting down in a desk in a classroom, listening to a lecture, taking notes,and being able to regurgitate what was needed for a test. After taking this class I have learned that learning is much more, it involves being able to decode the text into a simpler format. While being able to think critically, about what is being said in the text. While bringing that information to my test and assignments I 'm sure that I will be more successful as I continue my education to obtaining my degree. While explaining learning to someone else I would explain it as stop over thinking about what your studying, take a few moments to look over the textbook, try and make it relate to something that you enjoy. Whether that be drawing,
Thought out our lives, we are faced with many different learning experiences. Some of these experiences have made a better impact than others. This can be attributed to everyone’s different multiple intelligences or learning styles. A persons learning style is the method though which they gain information about their environment. As a teacher, it is our responsibility to know these styles, so we can reach each of our students and use all of the necessary methods.
All throughout my life I have learned many things, just by experiencing them myself. I feel like you can hear people talk about something and then watch them do it all you want, but you will not truly learn until you experience it for yourself. For example, you learn how to ride your bike by listening to the instructions, watching someone do it, and then you get on the bike and peddle it yourself. Learning by experience relates and has helped me learn in my English class tremendously. I signed up and experienced previous dual enrollment English courses when I was in high school, just so that I could get some college experience and prepare myself for this course. In this course, I am learning by experience, as well. For example, we wrote an autoethnography and I was able to learn how to write this type of paper because I listened to the professor’s directions, the professor provided examples to go by, and then I was assigned to write the autoethnography. I wrote the autoethnography and I gained experience on this type of writing. I am able to master a new subject, such as writing an autoethnography, by active
Yogi Berra says, "Life is a learning experience, only if you learn" (qtd. in Reid). People continue to say this famous quote in their conversations, and they use it to say that people learn something new every day in their lives. Learning is not only in schools or in universities because life for any person is like a big university and full of good and bad experiences. Individuals learn from both of them. Everyone will learn each day new skills or knowledge, from birth to death. In this time, populace ask themselves what learning is, and how they learn. "We define learning as a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning,"
Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and skills through personal experience. It results in a relatively permanent change in behavior which psychology can explain in different ways by a variety of different approaches. For example, the cognitive approach argues that mental processes shape an individual’s behaviour, whereas the behavioural approach proposes that behaviour is simply nothing more than a product of past experience and personal circumstances. Through the continuous process of learning we end up perceiving our environment differently, leading to a change in the way we interpret incoming stimuli, and hence therefore determines the way we interact and behave (Heffner, 2016).