3.

1 Learning
Learning is a process in human behaviour, it occurs in everything we do or
think. It plays a control role in language we speak, our customs, our attitudes, our
beliefs, our goals, our personality traits, both adaptive, and maladaptive. Learning
can be defined as relatively permanent change in behaviour which occurs as a
result of practice or experience.

If we analyse this definition, we find three important factors or elements in

it:
1) Learning is change in behaviour which may be for worse or better.
2) This change occurs through practice or experience thus
distinguishing it from maturation
3) It is relatively permanent in its nature.
It may be considered as the resultant of an individuals’ attempt to solve a
specific problem. As a teacher, a manager, and a facilitator, we will be looking at
learning in this way. Learning is a process in which the person (student, parent,
yourself) interacts with the effective environment to produce a stable change in
the behaviours. If we analyse this definition we will find these four crucial
elements:
i) Person
ii) Interaction
iii) Environment and
iv) Behavioural change
These are four pre-requisites to learning. The challenge for us as teachers
is to develop ways to answer the following questions raised by Worell and
Stilwell (1981, p.225) in our classroom.

What is the appropriate learning strategy for this particular individual with
the distinctive educational goal in the different environment? For example, which
learning strategy will improve student driving skill? In our classroom activities,
we assess and balance learning strategies, student characteristics, educational
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goals, and uniqueness of classroom environment. This assessment can contribute
in planning to facilitate a particular student or group behaviour change. This plan
will be designed jointly and will challenge teachers abilities to manage, mediate,
or facilitate a change for a classroom or a student in a sensitive manner. It is a fact
that a teacher has to consider behaviour as well as behaviours. A person does not
perform a single behaviour because people demonstrate a sequence of behaviours,
often at the same time. Behaviour has a number of characteristics, understanding
of these, facilitate, the classroom management, meditation, and learning process.
The process of learning continues beyond the formal schooling. Worell and
Stilwell (1981, pp.225-227) have listed characteristics of behaviour as:
- Behaviour of learning
- Behaviour is predictable
- Behaviour may be overt or covert
- Behaviour may be learned
- Behaviour may be appropriate or inappropriate
- Behaviour may be unlearned
3.2 Maturation
Development in its most general psychological sense refers to changes that
occur in human beings from birth to death. This is applied to all those which
occur in orderly and remain for a long time. A temporary change for example due
to illness is not considered to be a development. Human development is broken
into number of aspects.
Some of these may be:
Physical development: It deals with changes in the body.
Cognitive development: It refers to changes the ways a person thinks.
Personal development: It is used for changes in individuals’
personality.
Social development: It refers to changes in the way a person deals
with others.

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 Many of the changes involved in human development are simply result of
growth and maturation. Maturation refers to the changes that occur maturely and
spontaneously and are to a large extent, genetically programmed. Such changes
are not usually affected by the environment but exception may be there, as
maturation may be adversely affected by severe malmaturation or illness. Much of
one’s physical growth falls in this category of maturation. Other changes are
brought with ones’ interaction with the environment. Such changes comprise of
persons’ social development. But what about the development of thinking and
personality? Most of the psychologists agree that both maturation and interaction
with environment plays important role in these areas of development.
During the development, individual may or may not be learning new
response patterns. Development includes what is learned from internal on external
stimulation but also physical and structural changes that take place as growth
proceeds towards maturity. Learning cannot occur until the appropriate physical
structure develops.
It is important to note that before we proceed further that patterns of
maturation for all children seem to essentially the same. However timing of
development may vary. The pattern of learning to walk, for example is orderly
sequence, i.e. creeping, crawling, standing-up, holding on to a chair or table,
standing alone and waling- but exact time at which one will walk vary. Usually
this time is about 15 months of age. If a child is very late in walk, his intelligence
may be low but this is a complex matter. At the same time gifted children may be
slow in walking if they lack motivation or not given chances to walk or over
weight etc.
All parts of a human being does not develop and mature at the same rate.
Growth follows a cycle where some areas develop more rapidly, some more
slowly, and some sport or increase dramatically, all in short time.

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3.3 Learning and Maturation
Maturation emphasises the influence of variables which are internal to the
organism while learning always results from interaction with the environmental
conditions. Learning is a change in performance as a function of practice and this
is in the direction which satisfy the present motivating conditions of the individual
cognition in human development. It is broad and inclusive concept that refers to
the mental abilities involved in acquisition, processing, organising and use of
knowledge. Major processes, that fall under these, are according to Mussan et-al
(1984, p.219) detecting, interpreting classifying and remembering information,
evaluating ideas, inferring principles, deducing rules, imaging possibilities,
generating strategies, fantasizing and dreaming. The developmental psychologists
ask two major questions in this regard.
(i) What major changes in cognitive function occur as children grow?
(ii) What factors, account for these changes?

There are two different theoretical approaches to these questions. First is

piaget influential theory which is problem solving and gives attention to
perception, memory, fantasy and dreaming. The second is usually called
information process approach. This approach focuses on age changes in
perception, memory, inference, evaluation, and use of rules.
It is a fact that maturation of brain cannot be separated from consequence
of active experiences. Jean Piaget, mentioned four stages of cognitive
development. These include:
Sensorimotor stage 0-18 months
Pre operational stage 18 months- 7 years
Concrete operational stage 7-12 years
Formal operational stage above 12 years
These age limits are approximate but all children go through these. No
child skips from sensorimotor stage to concrete operational stage. This is because
each stage builds on, and is derivative of, accomplishment of the previous one. At
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each stage, more different, more adaptive cognitive capabilities are added to what
has previously been achieved.
3.4 Maturation and Learning in Human Infant
Human infant grows so rapidly that some patterns of behaviour emerge
almost overnight. As infant cannot remove himself from restricted environment, it
is relatively easy to control experimentally many of environment impacts which
he might receive otherwise.
McGraw Theory of Maturation interprets that behaviour patterns of human
infants are controlled by following developmental levels in neuromuscular
maturation.
1) Behaviour mediated by subcortical or nuclear mechanisms.
2) Diminution of overt behaviour as a result of cortical inhibition.
3) Voluntary behaviour as cortical control centres more complete.
4) Smooth performance as various neural centres become integrated.
From these theoretical interpretations the following principles are drawn:
1) Training in any particular activity before neural mechanisms have
reached a certain state of readiness is futile.

2) Exercise of newly developing function is inherent in the process of

growth, and if ample opportunity is afforded at the proper time,
specific achievements can be advanced beyond the stage normally
expected.
3) Periods of transition from one type of neuromuscular organization
to another are inherent part of development and are often
characterized by disorganization and confusion.
4) Sports, regression, frustrations and inhibitions are an integral part
of organic growth, and there is reason to believe that they also
function in the development of complex behaviour activities.

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 5) Maturation and learning are not different processes, merely
different facts of fundamental process of growth.
6) Evidence that a child is ready for a particular educational subject is
to be found in certain behaviour signals, or behaviour syndromes,
which reflect the maturity of neural mechanisms. (Thomposon,
1962, pp.115-116).
3.5 Maturation and Learning in Pre-school Aged Children
Human behaviour becomes more complex as age increases, maturational
processes are more highly differentiated and environmental factors increase. All
these make it difficult to identify the factors of maturation and learning as infant
moves into pre-school age group. In our culture it is not possible to conduct
environmental restriction experiments with older students which have sufficient
duration so effects of maturation alone can be traced out.
A number of experts suggest that children go through critical period
during which learning opportunities are specially effective and beyond which are
less effective, innate releasing mechanisms become functional on maturational
basis. If opportunities to learn during a given developmental period do not occur,
children may fail to learn a given behaviour pattern.
3.6 Maturation and Learning in Elementary School Children
As children become older, individual differences in abilities are
magnified, different rates of psychological growth result in larger absolute
differences in achievement levels as children grow. This increasing divergence in
abilities with advancing chronological age by itself a poorer and poorer criterion
for approximating the maturational – experiential level of older children. As child
becomes older, need for special scales becomes more and more apparent so that
his developmental status can be determined in various aspects of psychological
growth. This includes intelligence tests, social maturity, motor abilities, reading
readiness, academic achievements, and emotional maturity etc. Such instruments
measure a combination of maturational status and experimental background.
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