Learning: Concepts and Theories What Makes Us

Learning: Concepts and Theories

What makes us human? Many would say it is our opposing thumb, but others would posit the fact that we are intelligent thinkers. Our ability to learn from the world around us is what separates us from many of the other creatures in the animal kingdom. We can learn from our experiences in order to create a better world for ourselves. Yet, the concept of how we learn is often still mysterious, even despite generations of fundamental research on the topic. There are a number of theories that present the process of learning as being much different; yet, they all still share some common principles that give us a more detailed idea of how we learn.

If learning a one of our most successful attributes, how can we best define it for proper course of study? Essentially, learning is the training process in which we train our brain to understand and cope with the outside world around us. Our ability to learn helps us get through the many obstacles we face in this very uncertain life. Without strong physical features to give us a competitive edge, we must often rely on our heightened rational abilities to solve complicated problems and generate the methods for fulfilling the needs of our survival. We learn from our experiences; utilizing our prior knowledge to build upon what we know and learn more and more things about the external environment in which we live our lives. Learning is a process that begins almost the second we open our eyes at birth. The first few years of our development are filled with intense earning, as we learn to behave, think, and speak in our social world. Yet, learning does not stop after we can talk and walk. It continues well into childhood, and even well into adulthood. It never really stops, as the learner continues to adapt and change to meet the demands of his or her surroundings.

Learning and performing are not at all the same process. They are definitely intimately intertwined, but must be differentiated based on their individual processes. Learning is the process where external stimuli is acknowledged and accepted. This is the process by which the learner begins to understand more and more about the world around them. Performing is then the actions that are taken after learning has been conducted. According to the research, "learning promotes performance" (Singer & Edmondson, 2006, p 3).

There are many different conceptual approaches to the study of learning. One such approach was designed by psychologist Jerome Bruner, and is known as concept learning. In this genre of study, learning occurs through classifying objects and concepts into our already established set of schemas that we use to understand the external world around us (Rouder & Ratcliff, 2006). The learner uses the concepts he or she already knows as a comparison to newly introduced experiences and stimuli in order to arrange that new material into a concept that fits in with what is already known. Here, the learner is constantly classifying objects and phenomenon and thus that object or phenomenon can be known through comparison of what is already known. Thus, the concept learning approach also taps into the developmental theories of Jean Piaget in his psychological development theories. Piaget presented the concept of learning as a comparison to other schemas within the young infants mind. Here, a new phenomenon would present itself, and the learner wither assimilates this new phenomenon into the already existing set of schemas, or accommodates what he or she knows to meet the new requirements of a new phenomenon that cannot be explained by the schemas already present (DeVries, 2005). This works with many other theories that state that the learner uses his or her experience to gain further knowledge and understanding of the world. However, it does differ slightly from other theories by placing so much emphasis on the process of comparison and categorization that is seen within the theory.