CAVITE STATE UNIVERSITY

Don Severino de las Alas Campus

Indang, Cavite, Philippines

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Teacher Education Department

Output Title: Assignment 1

Course: EDUC 38 – Facilitating Learning
Date Received:

Name of Student: Robin E. Mallari

Student Number: 201711060
Program & Year: BEE 2-1
Instructor: Mr. Jovan Alitagtag

Nature of Learning Process

Learning is a key process in human behaviour. All living is learning. If we

compare the simple, crude ways in which a child feels and behaves, with the
complex modes of adult behaviour, his skills, habits, thought, sentiments and the
like- we will know what difference learning has made to the individual.

The individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the

environment. This experience makes him to change or modify his behaviour in order
to deal effectively with it. Therefore, learning is a change in behaviour, influenced by
previous behaviour. As stated above the skills, knowledge, habits, attitudes, interests
and other personality characteristics are all the result of learning.

Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in behaviour that

occurs as a result of practice and experience”. This definition has three important
elements; Learning is a change in behavior (better or worse.) It is a change that
takes place through practice or experience, but changes due to growth or maturation
are not learning and this change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it
must last a fairly long time.

All learning involves activities. These activities involve either physical or

mental activities. They may be simple mental activities or complex, involving various
muscles, bones, etc. So also the mental activities may be very simple involving one
or two activities of mind or complex which involve higher mental activities.

What activities are learned by the individual refer to types of learning. For
example, habits, skills, facts, etc. There are different types of learning first is Motor
learning most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor activities. The
individual has to learn them in order to maintain his regular life, for example walking,
running, skating, driving, climbing, etc. All these activities involve the muscular
coordination.

Second is Verbal learning this type of learning involves the language we

speak, the communication devices we use. Signs, pictures, symbols, words, figures,
sounds, etc, are the tools used in such activities. We use words for communication.

Third is Concept learning it is the form of learning which requires higher order
mental processes like thinking, reasoning, intelligence, etc. we learn different
concepts from childhood. For example, when we see a dog and attach the term
‘dog’, we learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal. Concept learning
involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalization. This learning is very
useful in recognizing, identifying things.

Forth is Discrimination learning learning to differentiate between stimuli and

showing an appropriate response to these stimuli is called discrimination learning.
Example, sound horns of different vehicles like bus, car, ambulance, etc.

Fifth is Learning of principles individuals learn certain principles related to

science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to manage their work effectively.
These principles always show the relationship between two or more concepts.
Example: formulae, laws, associations, correlations, etc.

The next is Problem solving this is a higher order learning process. This
learning requires the use of cognitive abilities-such as thinking, reasoning,
observation, imagination, generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome difficult
problems encountered by the people.

And the last one is Attitude learning attitude is a predisposition which

determines and directs our behaviour. We develop different attitudes from our
childhood about the people, objects and everything we know. Our behaviour may be
positive or negative depending upon our attitudes. Example: attitudes of nurse
towards her profession, patients, etc.

Goals of the Learning Process

We love our children. We want the best for them. As soon as they are born
they start growing and the learning process begins. They go through many phases in
all areas of life: mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually. They have so much
to learn about life. Some of the phases can be challenging for your children….. and
for you. They start out expressing their physical needs of hunger and comfort. They
learn from experience, achievement, fun, bonding, curiosity, play, excitement,
laughter, communication, movement, social interaction, skill mastery, love, hugs and
more in the process of growing up.
There are many tools and resources available to help our children in this
process. There is so much to learn. Every child comes with a blank slate for every
experience. Every lesson is stored in the development of their brain. Growing means
learning.
What is the goal of “learning” and education in our school system? Is the goal
of learning to spell, to do math problems, how to read, how to write, how to
memorize information to do well on the tests, to make good grades and just to say
they made good grades? Is it learning how to sit down and be quiet for teacher-lead
instruction? What do we all want for our children? Why do parents spend time and
money on learning resources?
The end goal, I believe, is to have happy, successful, independent adults, with
skills to earn enough money to be self-supporting and make their own way in the
world. We want them to know basic life skills. We want them to know how to
manage their lives, their finances, have marketable skills and keep a job or start their
own business.
Kids nowadays are getting two educations: one from the culture and one from
school. The two are at odds and the students are caught in the middle. It seems that
“education from culture” is more profound than in any time since the start of the
industrial revolution.
 So what is a parent to do?
 Treat your children differently according to their personality.
 Limit their time on “screens” to spend more time in face-to-face communication and
interaction with adults.
 Gradually move away from parental control to personal responsibility.
 Treat your home as the best learning environment for your children to be successful.
The main responsibility for training your children is best not placed on the schools,
the community, or any religious organization. The one institution that has the most
influence on your children is their family, and especially YOU.
 Teach them practical day-to-day life skills.
 Help them discover their strengths, gifts and talents.
 Provide opportunities to practice maturity.
As parents, we have the opportunity for the implantation and development of
attitudes, values, philosophy of life, habits, temperaments, and sense of
responsibility, dependability, and more. The end goal and learning for your children
is to have happy, productive, and useful lives.

Construction of Knowledge

Construction of meaning completely differs from the previous meaning of

phenomenon emerged at the end of the construction process. Construction of new
meaning is related to full creation of the meaning that no one has created or caught
ever before. Construction of new meaning is based on individuals’ creativity,
imagination and intuitions. Individuals need freedom of creating, constructing and
reflecting their own meanings while creating and constructing their own meanings.
Construction of new meanings requires self-beings to become authentic beings to
reflect their uniqueness. The individual must not take any social and physical
condition and environment into account while creating and constructing knowledge.
However, creation and construction of meaning may not be handled by individuals
every time. Outer sources of knowledge may lead to psychological pressures upon
individuals and they cannot get out of these pressures. If individuals behave bravely,
they create their own meanings. If they are scared of pressures, they cannot create
new meanings because they do not cope with pressures and persuasion systems
from outer world.

It is seen in Fig. 1 that sources of construction refer to individualistic bases

composed of individuals’ experiences. Thus, inner sources of knowledge are
dominant in creation and construction of knowledge. Inner sources of knowledge are
dominant compared to the outer sources of knowledge while constructing meaning.
At the end of creation and construction process, some of the new knowledge may
become highly complex at a theoretical or practical level and it becomes alien for
other individuals. Creation and construction of totally new knowledge may be very
different, new and strange for other individuals. This type of knowledge has some
risks for individuals to comprehend in life-world. There are some problems about
reflecting and sharing new meaning with others. Thus, most of the knowledge cannot
be understood at the creation and construction time and is mostly rejected. The way
of constructing knowledge can be seen in Fig. 1 in summary.

Characteristics of construction of knowledge

Construction of knowledge can be defined as catching totally new or different

meanings about phenomenon. Intuitions, imaginations, creativities, freedom of
experiences and reflections, past and present experiences and future experiences
are the main sources of construction of knowledge. Construction of knowledge
mainly takes individuals’ activities into account, but it also regards past and present
experiences of individuals and others. Construction of knowledge is rooted in
individualistic inner world and creation process may follow individuals’ future
experiences. Future experiences of individuals are totally authentic and unique. It
means that outer and inner world of individuals can lead to creation of new
knowledge.
 It is known that Piaget and Vygotsky developed well known constructivist
theories related to psychology and education. According to Piaget, creation and
construction of knowledge by means of a mental and organized process, results in
new meaning about phenomenon based on free search for meaning. Vygotsky
stated that an individual constructs knowledge as a result of interaction with socio-
cultural environment. According to Billett (1995, 14), “the Piagetian perspective
places greater emphasis on learning being self-regulated and intra-individual (within
in individual), whereas Vygotsky viewed learning as being social or inter-individual
(between individuals).” Learning theories strongly indicated that construction of
knowledge may be utilized by means of free search of individuals. However, in
reality, the implementation of education shows that construction of knowledge is not
learners’ responsibility. Teachers, decision-makers, specialists, writers and other
mature persons, instead of students, are responsible for the construction of
knowledge in educational context. Individuals cannot think about and follow their own
learning paths, but somebody else designs individuals’ pathways of learning. This is
the main dilemma related to learning in educational system.

Construction of knowledge purely refers to meaning-making and self-

organization of knowledge. According to Davis (1995), meaning is always in the
subject, not in the object and individuals describe phenomenon depending on their
consciousness. Individuals’ perception of phenomenon in life-world is not important.
Meaning-making can be defined as constitutions of new individualistic web by the
use of individual’s perception. Every individual’s web refers to his/her learning so
individual plays role as a meaning-maker while organizing his/her own web. Creation
of knowledge leads to reconstruction of mental life of individuals. Wright (2001)
stated that constructing meaning from experiences is based on individuals’ own
histories and they place their own constructions on what occurs.

The authentic experiences and reflections must be based on freedom of

human mind (Smeyers and Hogan 2005) and this must be the main responsibility
and characteristic of educational system. The concept of “freedom of human mind”
refers to freedom of learning in individualistic bases and characteristic of education
system. Education system establishes improvement of human learning in institutional
structure, but the institutional education aims at establishing too strict rules to build
up certain types of human mind instead of supporting freedom of human mind. This
creates a dilemma between individualistic freedom of learning and intuitional
intentionality about learning.

Construction of knowledge must follow different pathways such as the ones in

Fig. 2. It presents the pathway of individualistic search for meaning that is the
creation and construction of knowledge. According to Fig. 2, creation and
construction of knowledge “may be explained in seven layers such as spirituality, will
to know, intuition, perception, imagination, creativity and knowledge” (Selvi 2010, 8).

Figure 3 refers to subjective knowledge of individuals and it is known that

subjective knowledge is more important than individuals’ knowledge during the
creation and construction of knowledge. If phenomenon becomes clear and visible
for individuals to some extent, it will be the potential to turn into knowledge. If
phenomenon is not visible for individuals, it means that individuals are unaware of
the knowledge and it will not carry any possibilities to turn into knowledge. Figure 3
presents that first person perspective is very important in the creation and
construction of knowledge. The first person perspective is highly creative and based
on unique experiences of individuals. This layer is strongly connected with “inner
speech” of individuals. According to Vygotsky (cited in Ikere 2008, 18), “inner speech
is to a large extent thinking in pure meaning” of phenomenon. If we analyze the
seven layers in Fig. 3, it is clearly seen that inner speeches occur in all layers. Only
reaching physical appearances of phenomenon is not adequate for full development
of individuals. Comprehensive meaning of phenomenon and individuals’ perceptions
of it are required. Individuals’ this type of experience is based on phenomenological
inquiry that is phenomenological way of thinking. The layers of search for meaning
can be explained as individuals’ attempts for self-inquiry. This attempt for self-inquiry
follows different pathways or processes, but it needs to define or explain individuals’
awareness of creation and construction of knowledge. Moreover, it needs to discuss
and clarify openness of individuals’ minds and encourage individuals to find their
own layers of search for meaning.