Perception of Learning
I’ve been looking through the homework I was supposed to do over the holidays. The first activity asks us for our definition of learning. Having spent my first semester of this degree being inundated with ‘definitions’ of learning, several immediately popped into my mind. The one I’ve had most exposure to has been along the lines of ‘learning is shown as a a change in an individual’s behaviour’.
However, I think that this explanation lacks something. While learning a skill can result in using the skill, which is a change of behaviour, and acquiring an attitude can change what we say, do or think, also a change in behaviour, I think that we can learn something without actually demonstrating it.
For instance, I can learn a certain drawing technique (a skill) by watching someone else use the technique. Demonstrating that I can use it is only proving that learning has occurred and is not the sole way I can learn. I may learn a technique, but then realise that I have no opportunity to use it. I have still learnt it, just not applied it. I can learn about a political view, but I don’t have to adopt their attitude in order to do so.
I think that for me, ‘learning’ should not be made explicit – this is, in effect, boxing and restricting what learning consists of if the academic world. Learning is not a mathematical problem, with one single correct solution and therefore should not be boxed into one specific ‘definition’.
However, if I had to give a definition, I would say that learning is the process of acquiring a piece of knowledge, a skill or an attitude, whether this is through formal instruction, discovery, reflection or other means.
