What is Learning

I have started studying again early on we were asked a question, how do you define learning? I’d been a teacher for over ten years and involved in the world of education for about fifteen and in that and I don’t think I have ever really asked myself this question- I’m a bit embarrassed by that really.

Learning is a given or shared idea, a thought or an action or an observed action that you read, listen, observe and internalise. The learning offered (intentionally or unintentionally) and it is in the learner that it is internalised, filtered, tested, taken on board and then put into context. From there it might be tested on a formal or informal basis in an educational or personal manner. I note, you can take the ‘educational’ to the learner, but you can’t force them what to take away.

The implication would be that if the method of delivery is not right, the ‘learning’ will not be taken in, if the environment, or student is not ready, if the teacher’s not the right fit, if there are learning needs in the way, the learning won’t be taken in, there seems (in my definition) to be a crucial and fragile point of learning.

I started in the dictionary looking for a definition on what learning might be and the result seemed quite straight forward and satisfactory ‘ the acquisition of knowledge through study, experience, or being taught’. Learning was often described as a ‘transformative process’ or a ‘permanent change’ or ‘process that leads to change’ but those quotes describe the result of learning but not the how the learning takes place.

One definition stated that learning came through ‘experience, instruction or study’ which I agree with, another definition said ‘learning itself cannot be measured, but its results can be’– which I agree with but also disagree with, as that puts focus on the testing the outcome and not the process. Another definition stated ‘learning is simple it’s a process of moving information to inside our heads and making that knowledge our own‘. I like this point, however it does by-pass how this is done, but perhaps that’s the point, that might be different for each learner.

Using the internet I changed the mode of my question and got slightly different responses. This point added something to the mix. ‘Learning occurs on top of old learning, learning nests with other learning, we learn better moving between different contexts and environments’. When researching this area you could see clearly the range of similar and contrasting views on how we learn and how to learn

Returning to my personal definition of learning I find that the dictionary definition matches in many ways the thoughts on learning I wrote down. My notions of learning were more about how the learning is processed or retained, but in essence it is about acquiring learning. How can you make someone learn if they don’t want to acquire, collect, observe or extract the learning opportunity?

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