Psychology of a learner

Psychology of a learner

Firstly , when speaking about learning and learner's psychology we have to understand what is meant by learning process and what part a learner plays in it.Learning is a process of gaining or modifying new or existing knowledge, skills, values or behaviors and ,of course, different types of information. People, animals and even some machines have the ability to learn. As we are talking about people we have to mention that learning is a complicated process and does not happen at once, but is built step by step and shaped on the knowledge you have already got.Learner is a person who participates in this process, puts his/her efforts to learn, has motivation, aims to learn,tries to achieve personal development. A learner is educated, trained at school, university or learns by himself using different information sources. A learner gains knowledge, fixes it, memorizes and later puts it in practice and builds practical skills.

Learner's psychology has been developed throughout (per)centuries and a lot of research has been done.There have been established learner- centered psychological principles. These principles are based on what learner undergoes in learning process in real world situations. There are 14 principles.They are understood like an organized group not individual principles . The 14 principles are divided into cognitive and metacognitive, motivational and effective, developmental and social. They are all connected and affect learners, teachers,administration, community workers,parents- all people involved in learning and teaching process.

A successful learner has to create goals for learning, aims for achieving something in life.I think this principle is very important as, we learners, have set our goals, know what speciality we want to have in life and this motivates us to learn.Moreover, short-term goals have to be set.For example, in my first year I have to learn this and this, in my first semester I have to know this and this.Linking new information to existing is also very important.If new knowledge is not integrated into existing it becomes isolated and cannot be used effectively in new tasks.In order to go forward in learning process, fresh and new knowledge must be added to existing already.Moreover, a successful learner must know strategies how to learn- he/she selects or chooses strategies.It could be to repeat, to observe, to check what you learnt already,to get feedback.

Also, there are mental operations like critical thinking, creative thinking that are important in learning process.We all think that thinking is natural processes for us and it is our nature to do so.But critical thinking is an art to evaluate and analyze thinking with the view of improving it. A critical thinker gathers and assesses information, puts relevant, clear questions,comes to well- reasoned conclusions and solutions, communicates effectively. Creative thinking is mostly developed in brain storming situations.

Learning process is held in environment, community,classroom, like groups of students. Learning is also affected by modern technologies,culture. For example, learning in a multicultural group of students you can know more on different backgrounds, you need tolerance to put up with some cultural and behavioral differences.Besides , a learner has to be curious to know and it increases motivation. Curiosity is a need for cognition. Curiosity is connected with personal interests, choice of profession, goals and aims in life. Curiosity helps to know , to learn and it requires put some efforts too. If a person is curious to know it is necessary to put some efforts to achieve it.Putting effort is commitment to learn, our personal determination what to learn and using proper learning strategies to achieve it.

When learning we develop social skills. We put our physical, intellectual, emotional strengths, develop our social factors.We are affected by schooling, home,culture and other environment we are learning in. We are learning among other students with different abilities and skills.We also communicate with others, interact, collaborate, do various tasks together , work in pairs and groups.The best place to learn is in positive and friendly environment where we can develop respect to each other, self-respect, tolerance to different opinions, beliefs. We also develop our relationship, provide support to each other, understanding, help, trust and stability.When learning we share ideas, actively participate in learning process, create our learning community. This is how we become socially active people. However, we are all different individuals and sometimes it is difficult to communicate in learning process. Our social background, religion, beliefs, cultural differences have to be taken into account as well and usually our teachers, professors help us to develop positive social learning environment.We have to remember , that every learning step has to be checked, tested. Without checking what we have learnt there is no progress.The knowledge assessment is an ongoing process in learning- from time to time we write tests,show our results, present our tasks done.We learn from our mistakes and know the progress results. Therefore, we can make decisions what to learn more, what to know better, where our weak points are.

To sum up, a learner has to undergo all mentioned psychological principles in order to learn effectively. Learning is not a day's process it is a long life hard work that brings positive results and satisfaction after we put lots of our effort.

References

http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/learner_centered.php

http://www.jodypaul.com/lct/LCT.PsychPrinc.html

http://people.howstuffworks.com/elearning2.htm

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