Entry 1: What is Learning?
What is learning? The simplest definition would be that it is the acquiring of new knowledge. This definition, however, leaves something to be desired because it does not suggest how or why learning is done. It’d be more interesting and useful to say that learning occurs when you keep your eyes, ears, heart, mind, and soul open so that you can actively seek to better understand the world and your place in it.
There are two major ways in which learning takes place. The first is informational. We gain understanding by acquiring information in a raw form by reading books, watching films, listening to lectures, and hearing the ideas of the other people in our lives. An example would be a child reading a science textbook in order to learn more about gravity. This type of learning is usually intentional; we actively seek out the information and do our best to internalize it. In order to learn in this way, the learner has to care about the subject matter enough to seek it out and devote the time necessary to understanding. If a person finds a topic uninteresting, he will make little effort to pay it attention and will therefore learn minimally.
The second type of learning is experiential and it often occurs without our even realizing it. This is the type of learning gained through participation in the world. We act, our actions have results, and we learn from these results. An example would be a child walking across the floor, then tripping and falling. As a natural result of action, the child gains a better understanding of gravity by directly experiencing it. This type of learning occurs more often the more a person is exposed to novel experiences. If a person becomes too habitual, always staying in the same places, seeing the same people, and doing the same things, then this type of learning ceases to take place.
Learning can be good or bad. It can even be true or false. The change can be subtle or monumental, but if there is a mental change resulting in an idea that was not present before, then learning has taken place. And I’m an optimist, so I say change is good, and therefore so is learning.
What is learning? The simplest definition would be that it is the acquiring of new knowledge. This definition, however, leaves something to be desired because it does not suggest how or why learning is done. It’d be more interesting and useful to say that learning occurs when you keep your eyes, ears, heart, mind, and soul open so that you can actively seek to better understand the world and your place in it.
There are two major ways in which learning takes place. The first is informational. We gain understanding by acquiring information in a raw form by reading books, watching films, listening to lectures, and hearing the ideas of the other people in our lives. An example would be a child reading a science textbook in order to learn more about gravity. This type of learning is usually intentional; we actively seek out the information and do our best to internalize it. In order to learn in this way, the learner has to care about the subject matter enough to seek it out and devote the time necessary to understanding. If a person finds a topic uninteresting, he will make little effort to pay it attention and will therefore learn minimally.
The second type of learning is experiential and it often occurs without our even realizing it. This is the type of learning gained through participation in the world. We act, our actions have results, and we learn from these results. An example would be a child walking across the floor, then tripping and falling. As a natural result of action, the child gains a better understanding of gravity by directly experiencing it. This type of learning occurs more often the more a person is exposed to novel experiences. If a person becomes too habitual, always staying in the same places, seeing the same people, and doing the same things, then this type of learning ceases to take place.
Learning can be good or bad. It can even be true or false. The change can be subtle or monumental, but if there is a mental change resulting in an idea that was not present before, then learning has taken place. And I’m an optimist, so I say change is good, and therefore so is learning.