How Do We Learn?

As I embark on this journey of learning all there is to know about Instructional Design, my first assignment is to understand learning theories and learning styles that play a part in how I learn.  In reading the article, Learning Theory, I am focused on how the author connects ‘learning as a product’ and ‘learning as a process’ (Smith, M.K. (1009). 

The author discusses how the product of learning is change.  If one sees change, then the desired outcome has been achieved.  I believe you can see the product of ‘learning’ only if the person changes due to understanding what it was to be learned. Here is where the learning as a process comes into play.  How the information is presented affects the outcome – will the learner grasp what is needed to perform?

The product of learning is often on the display in many of our school systems. Children are consistently tested to assess if they have been ‘changed’ by what has been presented.  Teachers are assessed on the processes applied in presenting what is needed to be learned and if their students have a true understanding of the content – did their students pass the test?

 In an adult learning environment, learners’ assessment of the training received is often evident if they are able to apply what they is learned once they return to the job.  Did what they learn in training produce a ‘change’ in how they perform a process, participate on a project or lead a team of their peers?  Was the presentation of the learning presented in an environment for the learner to comprehend?  

Smith references Professor Roger Saljo’s research around how adult learners understand through learning. Saljo took the responses from his research and put them into five categories: 1) learning as a quantitative increase of knowledge, 2) memorizing, 3) acquiring facts, skills, and methods to be retained and used, 4) making sense, and 5) interpreting and understanding in a different way (Ramsden 1992:26).  Saljo’s categorization of the responses he captured show just how many different ways individuals learn, process what they learn and understand what they learn.

Ramsden, P. (1992) Learning to Teach in Higher Education London: Routledge. 290 + xiv pages.

Smith, M. K. (1999) 'Learning theory', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/b-learn.htm, Last update: September 03, 2009

Saljo, R. (1979) ‘Learning in the learner’s perspective. I. Some common-sense conceptions’, Reports from the Institute of Education, University of Gothenburg, 76.