University of Ghardaia

Faculty of Letters and Languages

English Department

Lectures of the First Semester

Module: Research Techniques

Level: 2nd Year Licence
Lecturer: Dr. Fatima Yahia

Academic year: 2023/2024

Research Techniques Dr. Fatima Yahia

Learning

1. Definition of Learning in Education

We know that the human brain is immensely complex and still somewhat of a mystery.
It follows then, that we understand learning—a primary function of the brain—in many
different ways. If you are searching for a definition of learning, these ten explanations
show the multitude of ways that learning can be understood and described.

2. Some Definitions

1. “A change in human disposition or capability that persists over a period of time and
is not simply ascribable to processes of growth.”
— From The Conditions of Learning by Robert Gagne

2. “Learning is the relatively permanent change in a person’s knowledge or behavior

due to experience. This definition has three components: 1) the duration of the
change is long-term rather than short-term; 2) the locus of the change is the content
and structure of knowledge in memory or the behavior of the learner; 3) the cause
of the change is the learner’s experience in the environment rather than fatigue,
motivation, drugs, physical condition or physiologic intervention.”
–From Learning in Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Richard E. Mayer

3. “We define learning as the transformative process of taking in information that—

when internalized and mixed with what we have experienced—changes what we
know and builds on what we do. It’s based on input, process, and reflection. It is
what changes us.”
–From The New Social Learning by Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner

4. “It has been suggested that the term learning defies precise definition because it is
put to multiple uses. Learning is used to refer to (1) the acquisition and mastery of
what is already known about something, (2) the extension and clarification of
meaning of one’s experience, or (3) an organized, intentional process of testing
ideas relevant to problems. In other words, it is used to describe a product, a
process, or a function.”
–From Learning How to Learn: Applied Theory for Adults by R.M. Smith

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Research Techniques Dr. Fatima Yahia

5. “Acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory
so you can make sense of future problems and opportunities.”

-From Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry
L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel

6. “A process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and

increases the potential of improved performance and future learning.”
From How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching
by Susan Ambrose, et al.

7. “The process of gaining knowledge and expertise.”

From The Adult Learner by Malcolm Knowles

8. “Learning involves strengthening correct responses and weakening incorrect

responses. Learning involves adding new information to your memory. Learning
involves making sense of the presented material by attending to relevant
information, mentally reorganizing it, and connecting it with what you already
know.”
From eLearning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth C. Clark and Richard E.
Mayer

9. “A persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which]

must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the
world.”
From Psychology of Learning for Instruction by M. Driscoll

10. “Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core
elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as
actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a
database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the
connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state
of knowing.”
-From Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Seimens

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Research Techniques Dr. Fatima Yahia

Over the last thirty years or so, ‘learning’ has become one of the most used words in the
field of education. Adult education became lifelong learning; students became learners,
teachers facilitators of learning; schools are now learning environments; and learning
outcomes are carefully monitored. This learnification of the language and practice of
education (Biesta 2009, 2018: 245) is in part due to the rise of individualizing neoliberal
policies. Developments in learning theory have also contributed.

Yet, for all the talk of ‘learning’, there has been little questioning about what it is, and
what it entails. As Jan De Hower et. al. (2013) noted, ‘questions about learning are
addressed in virtually all areas of psychology. It is therefore surprising to see that
researchers are rarely explicit about what they mean by the term’. There has been a similar
situation in the field of education. It is almost as if ‘learning’ is something unproblematic
and can be taken for granted. Get the instructional regime right, the message seems to be,
and learning (as measured by tests and assessment regimes) will follow.

The reality is that learning, as Lynda Kelly (2002) put it, ‘is a very individual, complex,
and, to some degree, an indescribable process: something we just do, without ever thinking
too much about it’. It is also a complex social activity. Perhaps the most striking result of
recent research around learning in childhood and adolescence is that very little comes
through conscious and deliberate teaching (Gopnik 2016: 60). It comes from participation
in life.

Other kinds of social learning are more sophisticated, and more fundamental. They are
evolutionarily deeper, developmentally earlier, and more pervasive than schooling. They
have been much more important across a wide range of historical periods and cultural
traditions. Children learn by watching and imitating the people around them.
Psychologists call this observational learning. And they learn by listening to what other
people say about how the world works—what psychologists call learning from testimony.
(Gopnik 2016: 89) In this article we go back to basics – and begin by examining learning
as a product and as a process. We also look at Alan Roger’s (2003) helpful discussion of
task-conscious or acquisition learning, and learning-conscious or formalized learning.