The Art of Learning

THE ART OF LEARNING

Rizwana Atiq

(Lecturer Department of Business Administration, Integral University, Lucknow)

Asma Farooq

(Lecturer Department of Business Administration, Integral University, Lucknow)

Syed Mohd. Faisal

(Lecturer Department of Business Administration, Integral University, Lucknow)



Abstract

Learning is a sequence of mental events leading to changes in the learner.

Learning occupies an important place in the life of all individuals. Learning is not confined to a particular age but is a life long process. Learning is an enrichment experience. Without learning all efforts of individuals go waste. It is said that Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of reinforced practice. Often people think that they have learnt something but when the time arises to make use of it they can can’t recall. This article has made an attempt to discuss ways of improving the learning.

Need For Learning

A student attends all the classes, reads the entire course and still he gets in the grip of examination fever. Why? It is so because probably he has forgotten what he studied. A housewife sees a program on television which shows how to make delicious pudding. When that housewife goes in the kitchen, she forgets the ingredients and the exact process. Probably she too has forgotten what she had seen on the television. A manager decides to discuss various issues in the weekly meeting , but after the meeting he realizes that he forgot to discuss some of the issues.

Had the student, the housewife and the manager retained their respective things in their minds, they would definitely have succeeded in their endeavors.

Thus we see that learning is important both in the domestic and professional lives.

Types of Learning

1. Stimulus –Response Learning-This type of learning was explained by a Psychologist named of Ivan Pavlov. It deals with the association of one event with an another desired event resulting in a desired behavior. This desired behavior is learning. For example a teacher may show the map of Singapore along with the world "Singapore" written on it. The teacher says "Singapore" & asks the students to say Singapore every time the map is shown. After some time the world Singapore is not written on the map. Only the map is shown. The student will immediately recognize the map. Thus the student has learnt to recognize the map of Singapore. In this type of learning something happens and we react in a specific manner. It explains reflexive behavior.

2. Trial Error Learning

Many discoveries and inventions in various fields of knowledge are the result of trial & error. Trial & error can be effective if it is coupled with insight. Edision tried approximately 10,000 times while he was working on the times before he could learn to make it.

3. Chain Learning- Things can be learnt in a chain eg the task of driving a motor consists of several steps. These steps need to be learned in a chain linking one with the other.

4. Concept learning – There is need to form concepts by finding out what is common between 2 or more things. Tomato and Brinjal, tobacco, red chillies and potato belong to the same plant family. It is very difficult to learn about the individual members of the plant family. Therefore if we learn the common features of the plant family, Solonaceae followed by minor differences that exist between the individual members, then this will help learning in all the features of all the members.

5. Observational Learning –It is the result of watching the behavior of another person and appraising the consequences of that behavior. When Tina sees the teacher praising Meena for being attentive in class then Tina also learns to be attentive.

6. Operant learning -Under this type of learning, past experiences play an important role. Behavior is repeated if consequences are favorable. If a manager wants to influence the behavior he needs to manipulate the consequences. For example an employee always comes late to office. When he reaches the manager who otherwise always a cheerful disposition just looks at the late coming employee without his normal cheerfulness. The employee will realize the cause of this attitude and will decide to be on time in future. Thus he will learn to be on time. Thus the consequence has made the employee change his behavior.

No Progress in Learning

Often we keep trying to learn but even after several attempts there is progress in learning.

Practice is going on but without any improvement such a situation arises on account of the following factors:-

- Lack of interest

- Difficult subject matter.

- Habit of pausing too frequently in reading a line.

- Bad posture

- Fatigue

- Lack of maturity of the learner in relation to the complexity of the task.

- Concept met clear.

These and many more factors cause hindrance in the process of learn. It is necessary to overcome such problems else it may lead to induce stress.

Improve your Learning

It is said that you can take the horse to water but can't force him to drink. Same is the case with all individuals. No one can force some one to learn unless the individual him/herself has the desire to learn.

• Nature of learning material- Meaningful matter is better retained than material which is confusing.

• Vividness-Things which are vivid strike the eye and reach the brain easily

• Mnemonics

• Speak, Hear & see

• Interest- Interest is the mother of attention and attention is the mother of learning. It energizes the learner.

• Meaning full organization- Approach to learning should be logical-cum-psychological

• Recitation- This helps in easy detection of errors.

• Whole method - small things should be learnt as a whole.

• Part Method- Large amount of study material should be sloughed in part.

• Association-One tends to learn easily by forming associations.

• Exercise -The more frequently we go through the learning material, the better the connection is formed.

• Spaced Repetition-If one times to in something by studying it continuously for a long time then learning will not be effective. It is so because the learning curve starts declining & monotony causes boredom, which in turn results into loss in learning. Therefore things should be learnt by spaced recitation i.e. by taking rest.

• Learning by doing- We tend to learn better if we actually do something.

• Mental State-If the mind is at peace then learning takes place easily. Positive mental set is an essential conduction for learning to take place.

• Clear Concepts- Concept is basic unit of all types of learning. If you know the concept that in words endings like _ic, _tion, _cian, _sion, the syllable before the ending is stressed, then you will never commit error in pronouncing the following words like economic, geometric, beautician, information & impression.

• Analogy – Partial similarity can be helpful in learning. If you are learning the functioning of the heart then you can relate it to the functioning of the pump.

• Self-Motivation- Arjun was the most competent pupil of Dronacharya. The same teacher taught all the students but someone learnt better than the others. It was so because one was more attentive and self-motivated than the others. Learning motivation is easy once you know how to do it. Motivation has to come from inside. It's natural to be influenced by other people, but if you really want to accomplish your goals, that motivation has to come from you. But what if you lack motivation? These three tips will help you get started.

Transfer of Learning

The primary aim of learning should be not to learn theories and facts but to learn the art of learning. The aim of learning should not be simply to read and in the books for passing the exams, Learning can be useful only if we use that learning in our daily life.

The idea of transfer for of learning is basically to educate. Education is a preparation for life what we study in colleges is worth while only if we apply that learning to live better.

We study economics as a subject. Under it we study that "Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternate uses". We also know that economics is of importance to individuals because individuals face the problems of scarcity & choice making. If we simply earn this then we may get good marks in the exam but we apply this to Solve the ends-means problem in our life then we can say that transfer of learning has taken place. This transfer helps in making life more comfortable.



Facilitating the transfer of learning



1. It will be easy to transfer the learning if we find a similarity between two tasks.

2. When an individual does something all by him/herself then transfer can take place easily. Generalization helps in transfer of learning. If we are trying to build good habits of study or work, it should be done in such a way that these are applicable in all subjects & not merely to one subject.

3. It we want to transfer the learning of physics to our daily life, then this transfer well be effective only if the first task i.e. the learning of physics has been done effectively. The better the first task has been learnt the more likely it is that the learning will be transferred to the new situation.

4. Simply the presence of similarity between two tasks is not sufficient. It is necessary that the learners should be able to realize that similarity. There is similarity between Sanskrit & German. So one who has learnt Sanskrit can easily learn German. This is possible only when the learner is perception enough to recognize the similarity between the two.

5. Transfer through Insights which are developed in one learning situation are employed as a whole in other situations in which they are applicable.



Importance of Insight in Learning

Insight means quick changes in our perception when the solution comes to us all of sudden when we are struggling with a problem learning takes place when we use our thinking power & also the power of observations. We can learn easily of the act like discoverers.

Why and How should be the keynote of the learning process simply cramming does not result in effective learning.

The contents of a subject should not be treated as a mere collection of isolated facts. They should be closely integrated into a whole.

If an individual monist to learn the parts of flower then he will be able to learn the parts properly if he first see the complete flower and then goes into the details of the individual parts then the it will create a better perception in his minds & we will be able to retain in our memory for a longer time.

The initial efforts in the form of trial and error open the way of insight learning.

It is necessary to observe things carefully in order for insight to develop. Once Insight has developed things are easily retained in memory.

Present is the result of past experience. It helps in making a connectivity between the past & the present.

This continuation helps in efficient learn a solution of we learn in physics that if we heat a solution of water in salt then water will evaporate & salt will be left behind in the vessel. If we have understand this concept & have observed this phenomenon properly then it will develop insight in us when we think of individuals feeling uneasy on hot day. On a hot day we sweet. This sweat has water and salt. The heat gradually evaporates the water of the sweat & leaves the salt of the sweat on the body. The deposition of salt tinder hinders the passing of air in the human body, thus individually tend to feel uneasy. This second aspect selected to sweating & uneasiness can only be understood of we had observed the fist process of mater evaporation & salt deposition when we studied physics. An individual must perceive the total situation & relationship among all the parts of the problem before insight can occur in solving a problem.



Conclusion

It can be concluded that it is possible to learn a lot under the sun provided we know the proper way of learning. We have seen that it is definitely possible to improve our learning. Simply learning is not sufficient but its transfer in daily domestic and professional life can help us lead a balanced and unstressed life



References

• A genesis of Behavioral Science, Niraj Kumar, Gyan Publishing House

• Industrial Economics and Principles of Management, T.N. Chhabra, Dhanpat Rai and Company

• Essential of Educational Psychology, J.C. Agarwal, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.