Elements of Educational Psychology (Иностранный язык в профессиональной сфере — психология). Учебное пособие

Relationships or associations make ideas, things and events meaningful.Anew topic taught will be meaningful to pupils to the extent that it is rooted in their own experience of making different kinds of associations under different circumstances. It should be remembered that only a part of meaning to be found lies in the material itself. The other part lies in the relationship of associations to the learner. The new material or ideas to be learnt become more meaningful and clear to the learner if they are related to his needs, interests and abilities, if they are useful.

Recognition

Torecognizeistoidentifyan object and place of it in one’s system of memories. There are a few degrees of recognition. There may be a vague feeling of familiarity; we are conscious that we have been therebeforeorhaveseenthisorthat personthoughwemay not beable to give any details. Or there may be a very definite identification of the object, we are able to place it in our experience. Recognition in all these cases is the same; it differs only in degree, in specific details which place it more definitely in our experiences.

The feeling of familiarity is basic for recognition and plays an essential part in all acts of recognizing. But the act of recognition is more than the feeling of familiarity. It is not complete until the object recognized is definitely placed in our experience. Recognition is easier than recall as we may recognize a person without being able to recall his name. Repetition leads to greater familiarity and finally to recall.

Recognition is so prompt and spontaneous as an act that it is very difficult to say if it can be improved.

Individual Differences

There are great differences of memory among individuals. There are persons who work hard to learn and remember only to be disguised thattheyforgetimmediatelyafterlearning,andtherearefortunatepeople who acquire information easily and retain it for a long time with accuracy. Some acquire information readily but also forget it quickly,

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others acquire it with a great difficulty, but, once they acquire a thing, they never forget it.

Some people have a good memory for names, figures and dates and can remember them well; others easily can learn languages; still others have a good memory for faces, scenes or places. Most people can remember very well in the line of their special interests, but some people can remember anything that comes their way.

Summary

1.Retention is an act of filling up things in the brain in forms of some memory traces or impressions. It depends on heredity and is affected by the general as well as by cerebral health.

2.Recall is the process of reproducing things gained previously. So, it is dependent upon retention. Recall — amnesia results when we fail to recall despite proper retention.Associative interference, mental set or attitudes affect the process of recall.

3.Recognition means identification of materials in their physical existence at the cost of recall. Unlike recall, recognition is also affected by attitudes, emotions, motives etc.

Study questions and tasks

1.Dive the definition of the term “memory”.

2.What are the main factors that are involved in memory?

3.Speak about impressions. What is the value of repetition in it?

4.Compare retention and recall.

5.What can a teacher do to help efficient recall?

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Chapter 9

Remembering and Forgetting

Aseemingly paradoxical statement to remember that to remember well we must forget a great deal is very often made. Forgetfulness is very essential. If irrelevant details are forgotten, the relevant ones are remembered better. If after reading a chapter, you try to classify your material under selected class-heads, it will be easier to recall and reproduce the substance of that chapter.

If learning helps in instantaneous modification of behavior, then remembering helps in modification of behavior in subsequent occasions. Remembering is a somewhat passive source of stimulation that activates the organism, irrespective of any external and conspicuous directions.We remember things, stimulation etc. received from the environment in the course of our learning and living confounding these into rich experiences, capable of guiding, supervising and directing our subsequent kind of behavior.

The impressions, ideas, knowledge, conceptions, perceptions etc. inherited from the environmental surroundings are kept alive in the brain in the form of memory traces. These memory traces are nothing but certain marks, patterns or configurations printed in the conscious level of mind. Once memory traces are properly established, they are perpetuated even in some other forms in the mind. The memory trace cannot be observed directly. It is only an assumption or hypothetical construct contrived to explain the persistence of learning.

In the mechanism of information processing, our memory is divided into:

•short-term memory (STM);

•long-term memory (LTM).

The information, impressions or stimulation come to the STM first from the environment. Here at STM all these materials remain for about eight hours for coding. Coding means attributions, identifications or each discrete impression with certain symbols or formulae.

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Those things that are properly and distinctly coded in the STM are pushed into the LTM where they are stored up for a long span of time. Ontheotherhand,things,whicharepoorlycodedornotcoded,escape away or fade away in terms of forgetting. In other words, we remember information that is properly coded and rehearsed.

AccordingtoWoodworth,memoryorrememberinginvolvesfour factors: learning, retention, recall and recognition. Good remembering is judged by:

•rapidity of learning;

•durability of retention;

•promptness or swiftness in recall;

•accuracy in recognition.

Learning is supposed to be the gateway of remembering. Only things that are properly learnt and understood become amenable for remembering.

Depending on the nature and quality of learning, it can be divided into two groups, namely,

•verbal learning;

•motor learning.

Verbal learning includes letters, words, vocabulary, symbols, formulae, sentences, compositions etc., whereas motor learning includes skills in motor coordination e.g. typing, cycling, rowing, driving, jumping, dancing, drawing, painting, forming or creating etc.

Certain factors affect the process of learning. They are:

•the nature of the materials;

•the sense mortality;

•the age of the learner;

•motivation of the learners;

•methods of learning etc.

The nature of the materials. If the materials to be learnt are highly meaningful, the learning of them becomes easier and quicker. Things that are vague, ambiguous, abstract and irrelevant are not learnt properly.

The sense mortality. If from different senses the material is treated as insignificant or unimportant, the interest in it will be lost.

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The age of the learners. The age and maturity level of the learners goes a long way in determining the quantity of the learning material. There is always a positive correlation between the maturity level of the learners and the extent of learning for a specific learning task. Things that are hard, intricate, complex and complicated lie above the maturity level of the learners and are not properly learnt.

Motivation of the learners. It is being the central factor for any kind of activity and also for learning. The lack of motivation over the task will never result in good learning, irrespective of any conductive circumstances.

Methods of learning. The learning capability of an individual is greatly influenced by the methods of learning he adopts.

Individuals who use and apply their memory fund in a conductive fashion are capable of remembering more than those who are not serious about it. Memory depends on the nature, quality, and quantity of learning. On the other hand, learning is directly related to the method of teaching and instruction.

Summary

1.Rememberingistheprocessofhoardinginformationinthe mind forfutureuse.Thevariousimpressionsthatarereceivedfromtheenvironment are kept alive in the brain through memory traces, which are nothing but certain patterns, marks, symbols or configurations; these stored up materials are made use of in subsequent occasions for initiating, directing and controlling behavior.

2.Learning is affected by the factors like the nature of the materials, the sense mortality, the age of the learner, motivation of the learners, methods of learning etc. There may be completely and partial learning, meaningful learning or rote learning and the practice may be spaced or unspotted.

3.Forgetting is also a phenomenon of the cognitive structure that stands against remembering. Forgetting means failure at any time to recall an experience when attempting to do so or to perform an action previously learnt. Sometimes it is desirable when we have to forget the painful experiences and sometimes it penalizes heavily when we

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have to recall important things. Forgetting is divided into two types — normal or active forgetting and abnormal or passive forgetting.

There are some of the measures that can improve remembering power of the learners: multi sensory approach, association, practice and exercises, discouraging roting and etc.

Study questions and tasks

1.What is remembering? Discuss the factors that mostly affect it.

2.What is forgetting? State the types of forgetting.

3.How can the teacher improve the remembering power of his learners?

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Chapter 10

The Learning Process

All living is learning. The individual is in active relations with his environment. The modifications of behavior that result from this interaction, activity and experience, are what we understand by learning.

Learning is a change. It is a change of a behavior influenced by the previous behavior. It covers all those processes by which individuals acquire new forms of thinking, feeling and willing. It is more than school learning. It means knowledge, skill, habits, virtues, beliefs, and attitudes, in brief all that makes up our character and personality. It is any activity that leaves a more or a less permanent effect on our later activity.

Learning is treated as the focal area of psychology as it deals with an individual’s behavior. Our schools, colleges, academies etc. are meant for accomplishing this process by better and beneficial patterns of behavioral trends. Such learning is supposed to help children lead a meaningful and successful living style.

The Concept of Learning

The concept of learning is so vast that it defies all our attempts to confine it to a precise definition. First of all, the teacher needs to have profound knowledge about the concept and the process of learning as it is the main agenda of his profession. After having sufficient understanding of the process, he can effectively initiate, control and guide the behavior of learners in a proper manner.

The Nature of Learning

What elements are common to various types of learning? Learning may be defined as changing one’s ways of perceiving; thinking and doing through experiences partially motor, partially perceptual, partially intellectual and partially emotional.

First, learning is always multiple involving perception, knowledge, thinking, feeling and doing. For the purposes of close study

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psychologists may divide learning into motor, emotional and intel­ lectual, but these are only several aspects of one process of learning.

Learning comes only through experience. Knowledge cannot be given directly as a whole; it is the result of the learner’s s own perception and thinking. This is the basis of the common phrase “learning by doing”. Learning cannot be imposed from outside, the teacher can control it to the extent of his control of experience. Such things as making decisions, cooperating or controlling the expression of strong emotions, can be learnt by the taughts only through facing situations in which they must take a decision, cooperate or control their emotions, certainly not by simple advice or reading.

Learning is always purposeful. It is only in the satisfaction of the needs and interests that young people learn. They have had certain experiences and on their basis they have acquired goals and purposes, ideas about their own abilities and proficiency, about what is expected of them by their parents, teachers and classmates. In the several studies made of learning processes in the classroom and laboratories by psychologists there is no evidence for the common belief that the more bitter the medicine the better it is for the patient.

Characteristics of Learning

The following characteristic features isolate learning from the rest of the process in the universe:

•learning is goal oriented;

•prerogative art of the living beings;

•cumulative in nature;

•it is a continuous and relatively permanent process;

•it depends on the physical and mental maturity;

•the rate of it is irregular at various stages;

•it is indirectly observed from the displayed behaviour of the individual.

In learning, either the innate, inherited modes of behavior are modified or new forms of behavior are acquired. The most part of the process of pupils’learning consists of modifying, adapting and developingtheiroriginalnature.Latertheindividualsacquirenew forms

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of behavior. All this is done to meet new situations, to adjust to a changing environment. This is why learning is often described as adjustment. Learning is universal. Every creature that lives learns.

But of all creatures man learns most. Human children have the longest period of immaturity and helplessness and hence the longest period and opportunity for learning. The human nervous system is very complex, so are human reactions and human acquisitions.

Learning is a growth, but it is a never-ending growth. There is hardly anybody, a man or an animal, who has no more to learn.At each stage, the learner acquires new visions of his future growth and new ideals of achievement in the directions of his effort. Every achievementmadebecomesthebasisofafreshendeavorandthustheconstant urge of his soul to newer and higher ideals of work and achievement is progressively fulfilled.

But should this learning be haphazard and aimless? Should there be no direction to the learning process? Young people may learn bad things as well as good ones; they may acquire vices as well as virtues, inefficient ways of acting and wrong modes of thought. It is the res­ ponsibility of education to direct them into desirable and efficient learning process.

Types of Learning

Learning covers a wide range. It is present in simple forms of animal behavior as also in the complex types of adult human behavior. The difference between the simple and the complex is not of kind but of degree. Let us describe the main types of learning.

Learning by Conditioned Response. The simplest and the most rudimentarytypeoflearningisthatofconditionedresponse.Itisa process of substituting the original stimulus by a new one and connecting the response with it. The learned response is called a conditioned­ response because it is dependent upon condition and the process is referred to as conditioning.

In learning by a conditioned response, repetition of the association between the new stimuli with the response is necessary and much time should not pass between the presentation of the stimulus and

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the response. In course of time, the stimulus is generalized. Learning by conditioning is learning by association.

But in learning by conditioning there is neither choice nor freedom, not any consideration of the use or good of learning. Practice and repetition strengthens the bonds of conditioning and the lack of it weakens them.

Learning by Trial and Error. This is another simple form of learning. The random movements are not limited at once. At the first attempt, their number is very large, at the second one, the number of errors diminishes and the range of activity becomes narrower. Gradually the individual learns to proceed straight to the goal without any error. Improvement generally takes place through repetition.

Although this method is very common, it is not economical. It is slow, tiresome and aimless. It needs a greater energy than higher types of learning. Why?

At first, the essential nature of trial and error learning is that the learner is unable to foresee what movements are important and what is the right way of making them. It is learning by blundering, by trying something and succeeding or failing.

Secondly, at least among animals the element of deliberation is absent though there is a considerable trial and error activity in thinking itself. In the solution of problems, we often follow the try out method in reasoning.

Thirdly, the learner has greater freedom in this type of learning, he can move about at will and go along his own pace; when he is unable to solve the problem, he is quiet and normal.

Fourthly, he learns by doing, through activity and self-direction.

This is a very effective manner of learning, actually living through experiences.

Lastly, the presence of goals and purposes, drives and motives stimulates the process of learning.

We can sum up: in the trial and error learning the learner has a motive; the motive leads to varied types of activity in which the learner tries various types of responses, some of them later are rewarded. The success and the satisfaction of the motive and the responses not

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