What does it mean to learn? Explore this both in terms of the face value of the question but also in relation to how you conceptualize knowing and understanding.
Taken at face value, learning is a process. It is the process of creating new meaning/understanding in one's mind. Looking at the example of learning in a classroom setting, students learn as they synthesize information about the course, whether it is from reading a textbook, listening to a lecture, viewing a film or interacting with fellow students. Learning can stem from a variety of forms. Looking at it as a progression, it is the process of going from destination A to destination B. We go from one place of meaning/understanding and end up at a different place of meaning/understanding.
Knowing and understanding are closely related to learning. When we learn something, a transformation has occurred in some way. It takes the nuts and bolts (facts, if you will, but not necessarily scientific) of knowledge to understand something. After learning about understanding for the past could of weeks, the definition (or, understanding) that sticks in my mind is the ability to transfer knowledge from one area to the next. It's having that insightful "Eureka!" moment where you feel like you really "got" something. Learning is the process of that transformation.
Looking at a specific example, such as how to ride a bicycle, we start with the knowledge of how to ride. In order to ride, you know you have to do A, B and C - balance, pedal, steer, etc.. When you hop on a bike and start to work with this knowledge, you are in the process of learning how to ride. Once you have learned how to ride, you have arrived at an understanding about how to ride.
Here's (another) basic visual that can help explain how learning fits in the discussion of knowing, learning and understanding.
Knowing----Learning----Understanding
I also see it as a staircase that keeps going up with one step being beginning understanding, going up vertically (learning), with the next step being a new understanding, then learning again (up), new understanding (step), on up. Sorry, I wish I had the "know how" to post this visual!
It's funny that used the "Eureka" moment to describe what learning is. I used the "ah-ha" moment to describe learning. I agree that it occurs from a process that has a connection to knowing and understanding. However, my process includes knowing+understanding=learning. But I see how your model knowing-learning-understanding would work. Amber incorporated reinforcement in her explanation of learning. Since reading both of your posts I'm now thinking of learning as this:
ReplyDeleteKnowing+understanding+reinforcement=learning
and
Knowing+learning+reinforcement=understanding
and
Understanding+knowing+reinforcement=learning
and this combinations can on. What does everyone else think.
I think the combinations are endless, too. It seems like as soon as I go with one line of reasoning, I read something else and my thinking changes. All part of the learning process I suppose!
ReplyDeleteI like that you defined learning as a process of creating new meaning in the brain - this strict defining was missing from my post. However, I wonder about this idea that you can know something without having learned it, as indicated in your bicycle example and visual. I would say that you can learn the theory behind bicycle riding (your "knowledge" of how) without really learning or knowing how (body knowledge). I'm not sure learning is synonymous with understanding, even if a better type pf learning is.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps I am not fully understanding your distinction?
I thought about what you said and now I'm thinking about it as more of a cyclical cycle where there is learning, then knowledge, then understanding, re-learning, etc. Perhaps the learning process comes before knowledge. But, then, I just heard the Beatles song "It's All Too Much" (my son is in love with the Yellow Submarine) and there is a line that says "The more I learn, the less I know." which also got me thinking. As it stands right now, I think this cycle is in constant flux.
ReplyDelete