Learning Process

Learning Process

‘Learning never exhausts mind’

                                                        Leonardo da Vinci, Famous Renaissance.Architect (1452-1519)

Learning is a process through which we acquire or modify knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and behaviour. It involves more than remembering facts or mastering a technique. True learning occurs when new information influences how we think, how we make decisions and how we respond to situations. 

Though learning is an integral part of human life, we go through the process without any understanding from the time of birth. Initially family and social environment enable the learning process and as we grow older, curiosity, peer group that we associate with and attitude towards learning play an important role. During adolescent and adult stages, we do get struck, unable to decide on several occasions in life and are in need for guidance from seniors at home / society / workplace or experts in a specific domain. Thus, we try to learn constantly based on the perceived need for specific situations.

From the moment we are born, we begin to observe, explore, question and understand the world around us. Our five sensory organs play a major role till we develop our own sixth sense. But, as Prof. Peter Drucker, the management guru had said, ‘there is a theory behind every practice, whether the practitioner is aware of it or not’, though we are involved in learning, it may be just to suit the need that we perceive and our convenience.

As children, we learn through curiosity and experience. During our school and college years, we acquire knowledge through structured education. As adults, we learn, from our professional responsibilities, relationships, successes, failures and interactions with society. As we grow older, learning helps us remain intellectually active, emotionally balanced and receptive to new ideas. 

Learning process can be categorised into four types: 

1. Assisted learning 

2. Associative learning

3. Cognitive learning and 

4. Autonomous learning

Although all the four approaches for learning overlap each other, they differ in how the learning takes place, role of the learner, the process by which knowledge is acquired or retained.

Assisted learning is a process in which an individual learns with the guidance, support or intervention of another person or an external resource. Initially as we grow physically many aspects of life - language, walking, hygiene, etc., is taught to us by parent / family elder. One can learn faster with appropriate support than when we learn independently. However, as I recall I had initially learnt most of the things by copying others without assistance, including cycling. Whenever, I found it difficult, I used to give up. In the early years of life, many a times we do certain activities out of fear of punishment or failure. 

Associative learning takes place when we learn to establish association or connection between two events / experiences / behaviours. Repetition strengthens association. As school students from the pattern of the bell sound, we understood whether it is beginning and end of the school hours or change of subject period based on long one or a brief one. Many a time reward or punishments can influence the behaviour. During my school years, as I used to get prizes in debates, I used to eagerly participate in Inter-school debate competitions. This helped in improving my communication skills. 

In Cognitive learning, unlike in assisted learning (external guidance) or associative learning (repeated associations), emphasis is on what happens inside the mind. The diagram given below is self-explanatory. 

It involves thinking, reasoning, observation, understanding, memory, interpretation, problem-solving and decision-making. With great difficulty I learnt a few subjects in this process during my engineering education. Subsequently it helped me in my R & D job, later on in business to understand markets and subsequently in my social work to develop projects through Rotary platform. This approach supports creativity, judgement and informed decision-making.

Autonomous learning is driven by one's own curiosity, motivation and willingness to acquire new knowledge or skills rather than depending entirely on an external source. It is a self-directed learning process in which an individual takes responsibility for identifying learning needs, setting objectives, selecting appropriate resources and methods, and evaluating learning outcomes independently. Briefly, it is a process by which one takes charge of one's own learning journey.

As I was turning 50 years during the year when I was anointed as the President of Rotary club, I decided to do fifty service projects to motivate myself, my club board and members. This called for understanding the needs of the community, resources that are required and a timely implementation mechanism. As a team we could achieve this by thorough planning, raising the required resources in time and constant Intra-club communication through monthly News-letters reporting the achievements.  

All the four types contribute to human development. Assisted learning provides direction, associative learning builds experience and behavioural patterns, cognitive learning develops the capacity to understand and apply knowledge, while autonomous learning gives clarity of purpose and hence, satisfaction. Ultimately, the purpose of learning should not be merely to acquire information or develop skills. It should be to develop the ability to think independently, make sound judgements and adapt continuously to an evolving world.