18 August 2002
Online e-Learning
tutorial
Instruction
Design
How Adults Learn:
An
Introduction
Learning can be defined
as the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skills. Memory
defines the capacity of storing, retrieving, and acting on that knowledge.
Learning helps us move
from novices to experts and allows us to gain new knowledge and abilities.
Learning also strengthens the brain by building new pathways and increasing
connections that we can rely on when we want to learn more. Definitions that
are more complex add words such as comprehension and mastery through
experience or study.
Physiologically, learning is the formation of cell assemblies and phase
sequences. Children learn by building these assemblies and sequences. Adults
spend more time making new arrangements than forming new sequences. Our
experience and background allow us to learn new concepts.
At the neurological level, any established knowledge (from experience and
background) appears to be made up of exceedingly intricate arrangements of
cell materials, electrical charges, and chemical elements. Learning requires
energy; re-learning and un-learning requires even more. We must access
higher brain functions to generate the much-needed energy and unbind the
old.
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Learning paths can be (1) any increase in knowledge, (2) memorizing information, (3) acquiring knowledge for practical use, (4) abstracting meaning from what we do, and (5) a process that allows us to understand. |
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