How children learn

Learning and approaches to learning

We use the term ‘learning' every now and then. So what is learning?

Learning may be defined as a change in experience or behavior resulting from purposeful observation, overt activity or thinking and accompanied by motivational-emotional reactions (Arden Frandsen, How children learn: an educational psychology, p.43)

Learning is primarily an experience. We shall delve into this experience bit some other time.

How children (and the rest of us) learn

There are three approaches: conditioning, trial and error or insight.

In conditioning, a child sees a given reaction to a range of stimuli leading them to learn to make a given response when similar situations recur. For example, when crying is met on several occasions with a bottle of milk, a child may learn that if they want to eat, they cry.

In the trial and error approach, a child meets new situations in which they do not know how to respond. They then find out an appropriate response using a series of provisional tries. For instance, when a child is learning how to play with a new toy that makes sounds when pressed, they may begin by hitting it on the ground or putting it to the mouth until they press and it produces the unexpected sound.

The third approach usually starts out with trial and error and finishes in insight. Insight is achieved when a child sees the ‘point of a situation’ through organizing and reorganizing patterns in a situation in relation to a particular goal.

Scope

Here's an idea of the sorts of things we shall be dealing with on this blog. There will be a range of issues including the way a baby recognizes symbols, learns a new language, tells good food and learns about safety to matters of social relations and sportsmanship.

In the next article, we shall start out by describing the role of a parent in early learning.

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