Learning — meaning, types, theories, transfer of learning, factors affecting learning, constructivist learning

Learning means a relatively permanent change in behaviour, knowledge, skill, understanding, habit, interest or attitude through experience and practice, and its main classroom types include verbal, motor, conceptual, problem-solving, associative, observational, insight and constructivist learning. According to the RPSC Senior Teacher syllabus, Paper I has 4 subject blocks, including Educational Psychology.

Learning is a central concept in educational psychology because teaching becomes meaningful only when it produces a worthwhile change in the learner. In a classroom sense, learning means a relatively permanent change in behaviour, knowledge, skill, understanding, habit, interest or attitude that occurs through experience, practice and interaction with the environment. The phrase relatively permanent is important. A child who remembers a poem only for five minutes after copying it has shown temporary performance; a child who can recall, recite and interpret it later has learned. A student who writes slowly because of fever or fatigue has not unlearned writing. Similarly, a teenager whose voice changes due to biological maturation has changed, but that change is not learning because it did not arise from practice or experience directed at a task.

Learning must therefore be separated from maturation, fatigue, accident and short-lived performance. Maturation is natural growth of the body and nervous system; it creates readiness for learning but is not itself taught learning. Fatigue may reduce performance even when learning is present. Temporary performance may result from prompting, fear, guessing, copying or immediate memory. In examinations, this distinction is often tested through examples: a child learning to ride a bicycle after repeated practice is learning; a child becoming taller is maturation; a child making more mistakes at the end of a long test may be tired, not less intelligent.

The main types of learning are best revised with classroom examples. Verbal learning involves words, symbols, definitions, poems, formulae, dates and explanations. Motor learning involves physical coordination, such as handwriting, drawing maps, laboratory handling, sports movements and pronunciation practice. Conceptual learning means understanding a class of objects or ideas, such as democracy, evaporation, noun, triangle or reinforcement. Problem-solving learning occurs when the learner uses knowledge and strategies to remove a difficulty, for example solving a geometry proof or planning how to reduce waste in school. Associative learning is learning through connection, such as linking a bell with recess or a word with its meaning. Observational or social learning happens when students learn by watching parents, teachers, peers or public models. Insight learning appears when the learner suddenly grasps the relation among parts of a problem. Constructivist learning emphasises that the learner actively builds meaning from prior knowledge, activity, language and social interaction.

These types overlap in real classrooms. Reading a science chapter includes verbal learning, concept learning and memory organisation. Preparing a model of the water cycle includes motor learning, conceptual learning, cooperation and problem solving. Learning respectful classroom behaviour can involve reinforcement, imitation and reflection. A senior teacher should not treat one type as sufficient for all learning. Verbal learning without understanding becomes rote recall; motor practice without feedback becomes mechanical repetition; observation without discussion may reproduce undesirable behaviour; problem tasks without support may frustrate weaker students. The teacher's task is to select the kind of learning demanded by the objective and then organise readiness, practice, examples, feedback and assessment around it.