LEARNING THEORIES
Learning is defined as the permanent change in an individual’s mind, voluntary or involuntary. It
occurs through an experience that can bring about a relatively permanent change in an
individual’s knowledge or behavior. Learning involves obtaining and modifying knowledge,
skills, strategies, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors to understand old or new information.
Individuals learn skills from experiences that tend to take the form of social interactions,
linguistic or motor skills.
Learning happens every day to every individual, it doesn’t only happen in the classrooms,
colleges or universities buildings but it can happen anywhere and every day. Learning can occur
through interacting with others, observing or simply as just listening to a conversation. It
happens through experiences good and bad, or ones that can provoke an emotional response or
simply offer a moment of revelation. Learning occurs in different ways, scientists believe that
learning is the key concept of living whether it’s intentional or unintentional which is why they
came up with the learning theories. Learning theories are considered theoretical frameworks in
describing how information is contain, refined and maintain during learning. Learning is an
important activity in the lives of individuals; it is the core of our educational process, even
though learning begins out of the classroom.
The first theory is the Behavioral Theory. This approach generally assumes that the outcome of
learning is the change in behavior and emphasizes the effects of internal events on an individual.
They believe that individuals are born with a clean slate and that behaviors can be learned from
the environment. Next is the Cognitive theory.
This theory focuses on the inner activities of the mind. The cognitive theory states that
knowledge is learned and the changes in knowledge make the changes in behavior possible. The
cognitive approach suggests an important element in the learning process is the knowledge an
individual has towards a situation. Cognitive theorists believe that they information we already
know determines what we will perceive, learn, remember and forget.
The constructivism learning theory is defined as how learners or individuals construct knowledge
from previous experiences. This theory argues that individuals can generate knowledge from
interactions between experiences and ideas.
Teachers and educators should asses learning styles so that I can meet every student needs within
the classroom so as they can learn gradually