How Learning Works?
What is learning?
Learning is a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning.
Adapted from Mayer, 2002
Three critical components to this definition:
1. Learning is a process, not product.
2. Learning involves change in knowledge, beliefs, behaviors or attitudes.
3. Learning is a direct result of how students interpret and respond to their experiences – conscious and unconscious.
What does research tell us about learning?
Cognitive scientists and researchers, based on their twenty-nine years of experience consulting with faculty and intensive research on learning, have distilled seven principles, which are domain -independent (applicable across all subject areas), experience - independent (apply to all education level and teaching context) and cross-culturally relevant (resonated across students from different cultural backgrounds). Each principle crystallizes and highlights a key aspect of students' learning:
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1) Student's prior knowledge can help or hinder learning. |
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2) How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. |
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3) Students' motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn. |
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4) To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned. |
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5) Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students' learning. |
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6) Students' current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning. |
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7) To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning. |
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