We explain what learning is and the characteristics of each type of learning. Also, what does it mean to learn to learn.
What is learning?
For him verb learning means, simply put, acquiring or incorporating new knowledge, abilities, skills, values or behaviors, whether it is the result of experience lived, or also the study and instruction. It is one of the capabilities most important mental human being, which allows you to adapt your behavior to the most diverse situations that arise, successfully solving any problems that may arise.
The learning, that is, the ability to learn, is considered a key feature of all intelligent life and especially of human reasoning. For this reason, it is a reason for study by numerous professional disciplines, such as education, the psychology and the anthropology, many of which have postulated different theories around education and learning.
Unlike animals, humans have developed methods increasingly complex of teaching and transmission of knowledge, taking advantage of our ability to learn so that future generations will have more and more knowledge at their disposal.
Like other aspects of life, learning has a social, cultural and behavioral side, of which we are more or less aware, and a neurological, physiological and bodily side, which takes place in the brain through composition and recomposition of synaptic connections between neurons.
Thus, certain knowledge remains "active" or present in our mind, when its neural connections are strengthened, and instead are forgotten or abandoned when those same connections are weakened.
Human beings are continually learning, although our capacities to absorb new knowledge diminish as we age. This learning does not refer only to the memorization of information or the repetition of behaviors, but also to reflection on the content learned, on the very fact of learning, and on the experience of existing in its various and complicated facets.
Learn and apprehend
These two words mean totally different things, even though they share their etymological origin. Both come from the Latin verb apprehendere, composed of the voices ad ("toward"), prae ("before and I will cleave ("Catch" or "grab").
Originally it was used with both meanings: that of the policeman who manages to find the thief, or that of the student who manages to find the knowledge. But due to processes of vulgarization of the Roman language (as Romance languages were born), the verb ended up being I will turn on, where "learning" comes from, and both senses ended up separating.
Thus, today, we distinguish:
- To apprehend: to capture, to chase, to lay the gauntlet on something or someone.
- Learn: acquire new knowledge or skills.
Learn to learn
Things that excite us tend to be learned faster.
The formula “learn to learn” (abbreviated as Aaa) is often used to refer to a metacognitive activity, which involves the design of strategies more convenient to allow or facilitate learning.
More easily said, learning to learn means knowing the ideal way in which we can learn something and designing a strategy that helps us to do it, something that is at the heart of the self-taught learning experience: those who learn something without the need for teachers or formal teaching.
This involves not only cognitive or mental elements, but also social, emotional and affective ones, since the act of learning, as has been proven, is connected with different areas of the personality and the mind, not only with the strictly logical. Thus, for example, we tend to learn what excites us faster than what is indifferent to us.
On the other hand, the same learning system is not always the same for everyone, and learning to learn can reveal the clues necessary to find the ideal model for oneself.
Learning types
As we just said, there are many different ways of learning, depending on each person, and depending on the strategies that are put in place during the acquisition of new knowledge. Thus, the most common classification of learning is the one that distinguishes between:
- Receptive learning, in which the subject captures the content, being able to reproduce it later, simply by understanding it from the start. But in doing so, he does not discover anything new.
- Learning by discovery, quite the opposite of the previous case, consists of the subject obtaining knowledge in an active way, rearranging it so that it fits with their mental patterns.
- Repetitive learning, is one that consists of the reiteration of the content until it is fixed on the memoryeven if you don't fully understand it. It is the oldest and most inefficient model of learning that exists.
- Meaningful learning, is instead that which occurs when the subject integrates the new knowledge with those that he already manages, giving them meaning within his individual world scheme.
- Observational learning is that which is carried out only by observing the behavior of another person, that is, by looking at the model.
- Learning by trial and error, that is, learning by doing, which takes place on the fly, continually trying something until it succeeds.
- Dialogical learning, in which conversation and dialogue are the main foundation, using arguments to convince the place of authority dynamics.
- Creative learning, which consists of the more or less free exploration of a topic until the learner himself finds the necessary structures to learn on his own, taking an active position in front of the trouble, to propose solutions, alternatives, etc.