The Concept of Learning Process - Essay Example

You’re Name Professor Course 03 June 2006 The Learning Process: How A Teacher is Aware Students are Learning The concept of learning is a multifaceted process, one that depends upon the student, teacher, and parents to ensure the proper environment is in place for students to reach their educational goals. Once the right type of atmosphere is established for the learning process then of course it moves on to the next phase, being the teacher’s awareness of the students’ knowledge levels and learning capabilities. There are many ways in which a teacher can perceive upon how his or her students are actually going about the learning process. However, each individual student has their very own unique trait within their learning style. Some might put their hand to their head, others might chew on the end of their pencil and yet others might twiddle their finger tips on their desk top during concentration of a specific problem. It is very varied yet the teacher can be certain the students are learning by each and every action that they present during the educational activities that they are engaged in I personally observed a primary school teacher going about the various interactions of teaching school children about a specific subject, which was focused on history and war. The learning lesson that was utilized was compiled to demonstrate how well the students comprehended the material and what they could draw away from it during discussion. The example study exemplified how a learning lesson defines various ways in which a teacher can be assured that the students are highly engaged in the learning process and are definitely taking prudent information away from what they are studying and absorbing from it and thereby hardily learning about it. This will be discussing history (as was stated) and how it was supervised and facilitated so that the atmosphere and the environment were just right for the students to be highly interested in the subject that they were discussing and interacting in. Again, it focused on war and the history of war. The questions that the students were required to answer varied from, which war began first, who started it, to the history and meaning in behind war. One of the main focuses was on WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War. The students were highly interactive in the whole lesson on war which was carried out for a period of two weeks. As was stated, the learning process was varied from pupil to pupil and I will give examples of how this was noted. There are various cognitive approaches that can be defined in the learning process. The first of course, which was observed, had to do with visual awareness of the subject. Videos were used to give a visual interpretation of history and war. It was requested that the students take notes during the films on war so that afterwards there could be more of an in-depth discussion on what they had seen and heard. Many of the students did take notes while others however did not. The ones that did not take notes appeared to have good recall abilities which seemed to me that their ability to pull stored information from their short term and long term memory was excellent. Nevertheless the students that took notes also did well and showed that they were learning just as much as those that did not take notes. However, in a cognitive sense it would seem to me, the observer that those who decided to take notes perhaps did not have as good of a recall of what they visually saw as they did from reading material. This is a common occurrence as some students work better through a visual awareness while others work better through a literary one. Either way both are very strategic elements in the learning process and prove that students are learning whether they are writing, reading, listening, or visually watching whatever material is being presented to them in the classroom. After the videos and the film were played the discussion on the subject of war began. The teacher was found to have the control of the discussion and provided the lead into the learning process of it. It began with an initial question being raised about why there appears to be a need for war with the students then raising their hands and the teacher simultaneously picking different students to answer various questions. It was intriguing to see how anxious the students were to respond to the teachers’ questions as it appeared to be that they had learned quite a bit from simply watching the videos and the note taking that they had done. The first set of questions was focused more on the causative factors of war with many students having different opinions about this. This showed that although they all had watched the same video’s their ideas were apparently differentiating, showing that they each had used their own learning process to analyze the material that they had been watching. While some students stated that war was a necessity to keep international peace others felt that it was a way to force dominance upon other cultures and to quell uprisings. This was split 50/50. However the main idea that many of the students seemed to gain from the films on war was the fact that the United States seems compelled to drive its own behaviors and ideas into other countries. Many students perceived this to be the reason so many wars had transpired throughout history, due to the fact that countries such as the United States forced their beliefs and view points onto others. There was quite the debate on this subject because although a good percentage of the classroom felt this way others did not. The teacher played the referee it appeared because anytime there is a discussion on history and war; even students have high emotions on the subject. However, what can be seen from this is the fact that many of the students seemed aware of the issue of war due to their own personal feelings that they had gained through family members as some of the opinions that were voiced were not pertaining to the video’s at all but rather more of a personal type of interpretation more recent than historic. This of course shows that within the theory of knowledge and learning there are many different characteristics that are noticeable among individuals that depicts their individuality in the scheme of the learning process. Any learning model shows that there are various cognitive styles of learning that are used and implemented in an educational environment. Many of these are flexible to allow for an individual approach since no two students learn exactly alike as this personal research on the subject is showing. The idea of flexible learning in particular is presumed to be meant to try and exhibit some form of unity in the learning process, such as with watching videos and then having discussion, etc. It depicts the different cognitive styles that exist as well as again, each student is going to organize their learning materials in a specific way and follow their own instructional format that helps them to learn better (Sadler & Smith 2004, p. 395). Therefore even though there can be unison in conscious actions, such as all the students watching the history videos, there are still differences in the way that they organize what they learn. Either way the teacher is aware of the different styles among the students and as long as there is evidence of a form of learning occurring then the environment is kept in a flexible manner, allowing for each student to utilize the best way to learn for them in particular, which is how the learning process should be. Another issue that was observed in the learning process had to do with how well each student’s attention was to the subject that was being discussed also. Some students showed signs of inattention which did adversely affect the learning process. Therefore the issue of attention has been found to be crucial to the learning development of the students, if the assumptions made by many researchers are exact (Kruschke 2003, p. 172). The teacher that was observed made room for these various types of problems in regards to the attention each student expressed on the subject of study. For example, each student was found to express a different type of learning attention to the subject in the class room which some could be easily interpreted to be conditioned blocking of some of the learning cues while others highlighting complements of some of the subject material. Therefore the students seemed to choose what was most relevant in the subject matter that required paying special attention too. The teacher still had some form of control over this learning process but not as much as the direct approach she had in the discussion phase of it. Some of the students blocked some material in order to focus on the more pertinent aspects of the subject of war. For an example, while some students took notes of all that they were observing in the films others scratched out certain notes and made new ones, seemingly to block the material that they perceived to be irrelevant to the subject matter. This demonstrates an individual way of how students were digesting the information in front of them, but it is nothing new to the learning process as many people follow this type of instructional framework when they are learning new material. This of course could be defined as associative learning for many of the students (Kruschke 2003, p. 173). Of course these were not the only observed learning processes of the students. The behavior of the students had a great deal to do with how well the learning process of the subject was carried out as well. It is noteworthy to express however that many of the behaviors exhibited by the students showed a willingness to want to learn as they were found to be very in tuned to the material being presented to them and showed no tell-tale signs of fidgetiness that many primary school students normally do when they are bored with a certain subject. Furthermore it could be expressed that this very attentive behavior is what lead the teacher to believe that the subject material was achieving the desired result as it was definitely showing that learning was underway among many of the students in the classroom. This gives great reliable evidence that the students are exhibiting positive behaviors which show that they feel good about what they are learning and they are indeed intrigued with it as well. The discussion of the material afterwards fully validates these facts because if the students had not been attentive and observant of the films then they would not have had the inept ability to be able to answer the questions that the teacher asked after the films. Their answers showed that they learned quite a bit about the subject and were even eager in wanting to find out more from the teacher directly. Studies show that it is the willingness of the students to learn that gives the actual full embodiment to the whole educational process (Horn & Wilborne 2005, p. 745). This also gives a sense that rational learning is taking place in this class room as well. Rational learning is an idea that has a part to play in the attention and behavior of students. It also easily relates to character learning as well. When all of these states are corresponding together such as the behaviors, attitudes, and actions of the students are seen to be positive then a form of rational learning comes about. What this means is that students take away the more rational ideas from the learning that has been being carried out and analyze it in an individual way at times or it could be in groups as well, such as with the class discussion on the subject material. Learning in fact shapes rational behavior, for as was observed in the classroom the students were able to come up with rational answers to the teachers’ questions from the learning that had taken place before hand (Luntley 2005, p. 689). They took what they had learned from the videos and rationalized them with some students coming away with different ideas and concepts. However the point is they were all involved in a learning process which is what any teacher wants to see among her students. In conclusion this research has answered the questions in regards to students’ attitudes and behaviors of the learning process. There were many methods shown that gave the idea that students were indeed learning in the classroom. Their attention and behavior were two examples given to show that these two areas are crucial in ensuring the correct learning is taking place. Those students who have the wrong attitude and inattentiveness can not correctly learn as this observation research has pointed out. Also, all students are different and learn in various ways but it still can be proven that regardless of what techniques that they use in the learning process they are definitely acquiring knowledge that assists them in discovering more and learning more as well. The teacher plays the most crucial role in the learning process as it is he or she that guarantee’s the students understand the subject matter that they are being presented with as this teacher assuredly made certain of. In finality, learning is the key to future development and understanding later in life, especially in the college years. The primary education is the building point of all future learning and this research has shown that it is the key in developing the latter stages of acquiring knowledge on any subject matter. Works Cited Horn, Jim & Wilborne, Denise. “The Embodiment of Learning.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 37 (2005): 745-750. Kruschke, John. “Attention in Learning.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 12 (2003): 171-175. Luntley, Michael. “The Character of Learning.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 37 (2005): 689-710. Sadler, Eugene & Smith, Peter. “Strategies for Accommodating Individuals Styles and Preferences in Flexible Learning Programmes.” British Journal of Educational Technology 35 (2004): 395-412. Read More