PSYCHOLOGY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING :: FACTORS INFLUENCING IN LEARNING AND TRANSFER OF LEARNING.

We live in a world that is quickly changing and in this world of ours, the need of the hour is a lifelong learning. Learning is very important in today’s scenario because it boosts our confidence. It makes life enjoyable and provides happiness. Life need to be qualitative than quantitative. Hence, it leads to a better quality of life and finally leads to the total personal development. 

Learning is the process of acquiring new, or modifying existing, knowledge, behaviours, skills, values, or preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and even some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in some plants. 

Learning is not a passive absorption of knowledge but an active process. Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event, but much of the skill and knowledge accumulates from repeated experiences. Repeated experiences make learning really a piece of cake.  The process of learning involve the individuals who are learning a skill; the learners. 

Learning is the outcome of interaction between the learner and the environment, where learning occurs. This interaction effect may bring in qualitative and quantitative changes and developments in the learner. Understanding and managing the different personal and environmental factors influencing in learning process, helps in the better classroom management. Classroom management systems allow teachers to keep their class moving forward and stop disruptions from occurring.

FACTORS INFLUENICING THE LEARNING PROCESS:

Personal & Environmental Factors

Personal Factors:

Age of the learner: We learn from the day we are conceived in the womb of our mother. As a baby also from the moment we are born, we all learn till we grow. This explains the concept that the child is only physically developed with age but has not developed in social skills required for that age, emotional balance and intellectual operations of that age. Children need readiness to learn actively. The moment the readiness is achieved nothing can stop a child from learning, if the process is conducted properly.

Maturation: A child learns any task when it has attained maturity of that specific age. Academics learning involve not only maturation of one structure but many phases of maturation that may occur at different rates. 

Emotional Condition: Emotional and social climate in the home and school either promote or disturb the emotional health and social interests of the child. 

Needs: The learner is also motivated by conscious and unconscious needs and wants. Need stands for a force in the brain region that organizes perception further experiencing, following action.

Interest: Capitalizing on natural interests and cultivating new ones is the mark of a good educational programme. Intrinsic interest must be achieved.

Motivation: According to Mc Dougall, Leaning requires adequate motivation. The major problem of the curriculum maker and the classroom teacher is knowing and understanding the art and science of motivation. 

Abilities: Ability indicates the process of an individual to perform a task. The three important elements in a learning situation are the:

I.                   Learning material.

II.                Response to the learning material and

III.             The process of learning.

Learning process include both acquisition and retention of the learnt material. Higher abilities such as the ability of an individual to apply principles to new situations and to interpret data are retained over a period of time.

Aptitude: Aptitude indicates the power of an individual to learn and perform a task. Ability refers to a current state and aptitude to a future state. Aptitudes are special skills, knowledge and interest. Learners differ in their aptitudes. Educators use aptitude tests to determine pupils are ready to begin a formal learning programme to enhance their potentialities. 

Environmental Factors:

Natural Factors: Atmospheric conditions have a greater effect on learning. High temperature and humidity reduces efficiency. Productivity and creativeness of the pupils in hot regions is much lower than others. Morning time is the best for mastering difficult tasks. Night time is also better for learning. Poor ventilation and light also brings in fatigue. 

Social Factors: It includes home and school factors-

Home Factors: Parents, siblings and other members of the family and their educational background influence the learning process. Healthy diet, rest and stimulating environment with democratic atmosphere helps in positive learning. 

School Factors: School is a place for formal; education and learning outcomes. The school, its building, surrounding, the peer group influence and co-curricular and curricular activities play key role in the development of an individual. 

Cultural Factors: The way of life of people around the learners have influenced directly and indirectly. Learning societies inspire the learners. Child rearing practices, family life dependency, needs, motivational disposition at various stages of age, personality development. Development of values, ultimate aim of life, self-discipline, habits, lifestyle, eating and dressing etc form the culture. 

Learning Process and learning material:
Learning takes time and patience. It is a process — a journey. The learning process in incomplete without proper learning material. The manner of organization of the learning material and its meaningful presentation is very important for successful instruction. The learning material should have:

I.                   Proper language and presentation as per the maturity level of pupil.

II.                Content should be appropriate.

III.             Sequential presentation of the content.

IV.              Inclusion of real life situation and teaching.

V.                 Open the new dimensions of the knowledge.

VI.              Content presented in the form with pictures, figures, illustrations and tables.

Relationship with Parents:

Parental cooperation and encouragement to learners enhances a child’s learning process. Ambitious parents put too much of pressure. Where as critical parents, interfering parents and scolding parents create anxiety. 

Relationship with Teachers:  

Student teacher relationship matters a lot. The factors influencing learning process under this section are-

·         Teacher’s enthusiasm for teaching,

·         Concern for the students,

·         Clarity and variations in teaching,

·         Guidance to the needy,

·         Counselling the problems of the students,

·         Corrections related to academic weaknesses,

·         Constructive suggestions from the teacher,

·         Freedom given to the students.

 Relationship with Peer Group:

Learning atmosphere in a classroom is not only connected with the student and teacher rather is connected with other students of the class as well.  Self learning, proper learning and peer learning in groups apart from teaching can develop and sustain learning spirit. 

Media influence on learning:

Many topics of learning can be explained very well with the use of media. Use of charts, photos, T.V, computer, models, maps etc to help in proper understanding of the concept on the other hand addition to media is detrimental.

Negative Consequences of Media: 
One of the worst consequences is addiction to media itself. We have stopped using our brains and got addicted to network. Spending countless hours on the social sites can divert the focus and attention from a particular task. The increase in rusting minds, leading to decreased output of individuals. Anything in large quantity is not good for our body. Children are getting addicted and are negatively influenced by the bad content of the media. There is no control over the flow of data on net. The children can be greatly affected by these social networking sites if they are allowed to use them. The children are the future of our nation and the world as one. Gradual changes in the life styles of children and going back to the old days of learning and playing is a best option as compared to this present technological life of social media and gadgets.

TRANSFER OF LEARNING: CONCEPT & TYPES

Learning is transferable. If we keenly observe the process, it consists of many phases and experiences, which connect one kind of learning to the other. Learning experience facilitating other kinds of learning. The influence of previous learning on present learning is called as “transfer of learning”. The transfer of learning helps in optimizing the learning process. 

Transfer of learning is defined as the thinking, feeling, habit, knowledge and skill that are carried over from one learning task to another task. When we talk about the transfer of generalization, it is the extension of an idea to a new field. Transfer of learning is a phenomenon, in which positive transfer or negative transfer or both can occur. Positive transfer facilitates learning and negative transfer hinders the learning. It is the influence of previously learned information or task on new situation or tasks.

Based on the influence of the prior learned task on the new task, transfer of learning occur with the following three types-

Positive Transfer: A positive transfer takes place when the previously learned task facilitates the present learning task. For example, the knowledge of addition and subtraction in mathematics facilitates the learning of multiplication and division. The learning of Urdu facilitates learning of Hindi. In case of a child, learning pedalling of tricycle makes the pedalling of bicycle easy.

Negative Transfer: Transfer is negative when learning in one situation hinders, interferes or weakens the learning in another situation. For example, Left hand drive vehicles hindering the learning of right hand drive.

Zero Transfer: When one learning situation does not influence the learning in another situation significantly, it is said to be zero transfer. It is also called as neutral transfer. For example, learning of mathematics has no effect on the learning of swimming.  

THEORIES OF TRANSFER OF LEARNING: 

There are two important theories which explain transfer of learning. These are known as modern theories.

 Theory of identical elements: 

This theory has been developed by E.L.Thorndike. According to him most of transfer occurs from one situation to another in which there are most similar or identical elements.

This theory explains that carrying over from one situation to another is roughly proportional to the degree of resemblance in situation, in other words- more the similarity, more the transfer.

The degree of transfer increases as the similarity of elements increase. For example, learning to ride moped is easy after learning to ride a bicycle. Here, transfer is very fast because of identical elements in both vehicles.

Thorndike was convinced that the method used in guiding a pupil’s learning activities had a great effect upon the degree of transferability of his learning.

Theory of generalization of experience: 

This theory was developed by Charles Judd. Theory of generalization assumes that what is learnt in task ‘A’ transfers to task ‘B’, because in studying ‘A’, the learner develops a general principle which applies in part or completely in both ‘A’ and ‘B’.

Experiences, habits, knowledge gained in one situation help us to the extent to which they can be generalized and applied to another situation.

Generalization consists of perceiving and understanding what is common to a number of situations. The ability of individuals to generalize knowledge varies with the degree of their intelligence.