Definition of Learning

1. Learning is the gradual process as you gain new knowledge or skills. It can develop naturally and autonomously or be acquired through formal instruction.

2. Psychology. Conquest of a new aptitude through experiences capable of transforming the behavior of an individual.

Etymology: Based on the term apprentice, based on the verb to learn, from the Latin apprehendĕre, adprehendĕremarked by the prefix ad-as far as ‘toward’, ‘for’, ‘forward’, followed by the verb prehendĕrefrom ‘prender’, ‘tomar’, the component -iz-, as a linguistic derivation agent, in combination with the suffix -aje, according to the support with property of action.

Grammatical category: masculine noun
in syllables: learning.

Learning

In general, learning can be defined as a more or less permanent transformation of behavior, or of associations or mental representations, which is the result of a certain experience. However, not every experience that causes a change in behavior is considered as learning, but rather, to be characterized in this way, said change must present some voluntary or active dimension.

For example, learning is considered the incorporation of the steps to follow to tie the shoelaces, or the incorporation of a second language; but the alteration of behaviors as a consequence of a disease is not considered learning. However, even so, in certain cases some learning occurs in a not entirely conscious way, for example, when newborns incorporate their mother tongue or when young children learn to walk.

Not only human beings have the capacity to learn, but all living beings learn to adapt their behavior to the environment that surrounds them. In the same sense, it should be noted that learning is not only reduced to educational contexts, but also occurs in various areas of life.

learning theories

Around the 17th century, the study of learning was assumed within the scientific field by different disciplines, such as psychology. Within this field of knowledge, two major theoretical currents can be mentioned in a general way: on the one hand, behaviorism, which understands learning in terms of an observable modification of the behavior of individuals; and, on the other hand, cognitivism, according to which learning is explained solely in terms of the thought processes carried out by individuals. A third current is made up of psychosocial theory, which postulates learning as a result of interactions between the individual and the social environment.

constructivist theory

Following the approach of the pedagogue Jean Pieaget (1896-1980), learning is the result of processes of accommodation and assimilation, through which individuals build new knowledge taking experience as a starting point. When the experience coincides with the internal representations of the world, then said experience is assimilated into an already existing cognitive framework.

behavioral theory

For its part, the behaviorist theory, whose main referent is the psychologist BF Skinner (1904-1990), proposes certain general laws that govern the behavior of living beings. Learning, from this point of view, consists of an observable change in behavior, which is conditioned through rewards or reinforcement.

When a neutral stimulus is followed by another, the first is reinforced or conditioned by the second, by virtue of the association principle, which connects both stimuli. Thus, faced with a certain stimulus, if it is associated with a positive reinforcement, it is learned that the first leads to the second, in such a way that, later, the behavior is shaped in such a way that it is oriented towards the search for said first stimulus. , to get the second.

Conversely, when the first stimulus is followed by negative reinforcement, the behavior will then be shaped in such a way as to avoid that stimulus. The behaviorist theory has been widely criticized, since it focuses on the environmental determinants of behaviors, while the subject’s agency over his actions is diminished.

teaching and learning

Learning, in the educational context, cannot be separated from teaching, to the extent that a mutual relationship is established between both processes. Teaching is understood as the deliberate arrangement of instructions that facilitate an individual to acquire a learning goal, which may consist of knowledge, skills, ways of doing things, strategies, procedures, attitudes, values.

In educational contexts —formal educational institutions, such as schools or universities, or informal ones, such as autonomous training spaces—, teachers present certain stimuli adjusted to the learning process of students, through which they reach certain previously outlined learning objectives.

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