Incredible Human Mind- How do We Learn?


Learning theories can be defined as an organized set of principles explaining how individuals acquire, retain, and recall knowledge. In order to build a learning theory; results, means and inputs are the required components. There are different approaches to learning each representing a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Behaviorists discuss that learning is a passive absorption and could be fully understood in terms of observable events whereas cognivitists believes that learning is an active assimilation and accommodation of new information to existing cognitive structures. The third approach, social constructivism, argues that learning is a social enterprise and dependent on the individuals' interactions with their culture and society. Despite the differences in learning theories they all share the idea that learning causes a persisting change in human performance or performance potential.

The polar opposite of objectivism is interpretivism and its associated learning theory is constructivism. Interpretists believe that reality is constructed, multiple and holistic. Interpretists suggest that source of knowledge is reason and reality is internal to the organism, the meaning is dependent on individual understanding. An alternative to both objectivism and interpretivism is pragmatism. According to the pragmatists reality is interpreted, negotiated and consensual. In other words pragmatists also suggest that reality is constructed, however, the meaning derived by individuals is believed to be negotiated within a social context. Unlike interpretists, the source of knowledge is not only reason but also it is experience. Art and philosophy can be regarded as the subjects that interpretivist learning theory can be strongly associated with. The third learning theory is Pragmatists, this epistemological tradition indicate that prior knowledge structures and interactions with the environment and with others are the fundamental aspects in learning. The pioneer of pragmatism is John Dewey and his philosophy widely shaped the education system in 20th century. Dewey viewed knowledge as arising from an active adaptation of the human organism to its environment and suggested that students’ life experiences should help determine what is taught and learned.
It can be concluded that assumptions about the nature of knowlegde influence the view of learning and epistomological beliefs determine the education system of the nation.

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