Walter Geerts & René van Kralingen - The Teachers' Handbook

1  How do students learn?

■■ intrapersonal : the student’s inner perceptions are well developed. He is keen ly aware of the way he experiences the world around him. He does a lot of thinking and has a vivid imagination.

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What is learning?

One common denominator in all definitions of learning is student activity. An other way of defining it is: learning can only take place once a student has gained new knowledge, which gives him the option of responding in new and different ways. A brief definition of learning would then be: Learning A mental process in which learning activities result in a relatively stable change in behaviour. There is a reason for the precise wording in this definition: ■■ A mental process is an internal process by which new knowledge, skills, atti tudes, motives and the ability to alter the learning process (learning to learn) are shaped. ■■ Learning activities refers to any activity that causes a student to learn. This can take shape in a variety of ways. The lesson on Dadaism is an example of a learning activity. Other examples would be first-hand experience, social inter action, going over something in one’s mind and processing a theory. ■■ Result indicates a causal relationship: the change in behaviour doesn’t come out of the blue, but is the result of learning activities. This is quite important as not every behavioural change is the result of a learning activity. Teenage behaviour, for example, is not always due to learning activities. On the other hand, you could state that there is a correlation between maturity and learn ing: the process of maturing also involves changes. This can make a person behave in a different way which in turn invites different reactions from those around him. Those changes in turn can lead to even more learning activities. Often, a student’s first job in the workplace motivates him to do better at school. The realisation dawns on him: if I don’t continue my education, I’ll never get out of being a shelf stacker! ■■ A relatively stable change in behaviour is the outcome of inner learning re sults reflected in behaviour. Those learning results could be new knowledge, skills, attitudes, motives or the ability to improve the learning process. Inner learning results form the basis which leads to different behaviour in different circumstances. Transfer is a crucial concept in this. Besides this knowledge transfer it can mean existing knowledge being applied in new situations as well: the more varied the situations in which knowledge can be applied dur-

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