What is Learning???

Learning is the ability to gain an understanding of something. Knowledge of a particular thing. Whether it be something concrete like the exact lyrics of a particular song, or perhaps an abstract concept that is ever changing. There are many ways to learn. In fact we are constantly learning everyday... Whether it be reading a text book, instructions on a new recipe, practicing your volleyball serve, training your voice to be a better singer, an emotional experience or interaction, or perhaps doing nothing and just watching. Learning is a major part of our everyday life. whether good, or bad, we are all constantly learning something.

How does it Happen???

Like I said in the previous learning can happen in many ways. Here are some examples of different learning styles.

*Active/Reflective*

-Active Learners learn best by knowledge through experience. They like to actually immerse themselves in that particular activity in order to get a better understanding of it.

-Reflective Learners perfere to understand information by digesting it, and taking time out to think about it.

*Factual/Theoretical*

-Factual Learners like to learn from specific facts, or organized data and experimentation.

-Theoretical Learners find new and exciting concepts fascinating. They like and can interpret the use of symbol and grasp to understand the big picture of an idea.

*Visual/Verbal*

-Visual Learners like to intrepret information by the sense of sight. Whether it be watching a film documentory, studying diagrams, charts, or looking at a picture.

-Verbal Learners prefere to gain knowledge through lecture, reading, or perhaps participating in a discussion or debate.

*Linear/Holistic*

-Linear Learners prefer given steps and or detailed instructions to a process. For example following a recipe, or fixing a car from a car manual.

-Holistic Learners learn in a delicate process of opposites. When learning a new concept they might feel lost, or struggle for a while. However they then over time see the whole picture clearly. Usually in a creative way.

How do you know you have "Learned"???


You know you have learned something when you can sucessfully act out what it is you have learned, or can clearly explain the particular process to others. Lets say you want to train your dog to bark every time you say the word "Doggy Treat". This is your objective in teaching the dog this trick. You can train train train, but the dog hasn't really learned until your goal has been met. Once the dog barks consistently when you say the word, then you know it has learned this trick.

Another possible example could be this. Everyday you walk past a beautiful Cherry Tree. One day you are very hungry and decide to pick some cherries off the tree to eat. You bite into one of the cherries half way to test it out. You disgustingly notice the other half of the cherry has a worm in it. You break open a couple other cherries and they too have worms in them. From then on you have learned not to pick cherries off of that tree to eat. Unless of course you like the taste of worms. The next time you pass that tree you will not even think about putting one of those cherries in your mouth.

Another scenario might be you explaining the exact instructions on how to make a hemp macrame anklet. You give detailed instructions on every step of the process to your friend that wants to desparately learn how to do it. If your friend can sucessfully make the anklet off of your instructions, then you in theory should be able to do it yourself. Hence it is something you know how to do, and have been successful in teaching someone else the same process.

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