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9th Annual Meeting
July 14-19,
2005
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Abstract Category: Methods |
Poster ID: M5 |
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THREE PHASES OF HUMAN LEARNING: NATURE’S DOING, EDUCATION’S UNDOING Matthew C.E. Gwee*, Department of Pharmacology & Medical Education Unit, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 10 Medical Drive, SINGAPORE 117597. This communication proposes that most human learning occurs in three phases. Phase I is dominated by ‘Nature’s Learning Design’, the natural ability (instinct) to learn endowed on mankind by nature to ensure the survival of the species. Learning begins at birth as a baby starts to cry, take the first breath of life and then suckle on the mother’s breast for milk. The baby’s receptive brain continues to assimilate, process and embed, as experience, the daily stimuli received through the sense of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. This collective experience then triggers the learning process, i.e. the acquisition of: knowledge (e.g. of the faces and voices of the parents), psychomotor skills (e.g. tightly clasping objects presented) and some common attributes (e.g. crying for attention). In childhood the learning continues naturally, usually filled with fun, spontaneity, imagination and even creativity. At every opportunity presented to a child there is freedom and joy to learn; much of the learning occurs, not by design, but often naturally through play. Phase II is characterized by ‘Learning by Design in the Classroom’ with learning becoming increasingly regimented. From pre-school through college, an individual’s freedom to learn becomes somewhat increasingly curtailed, because of the need to learn in a formal classroom setting with set prescribed goals. Ultimately, there is just too little time to engage in learning other than the course materials required to pass the many examinations imposed in a formal system of education. In this phase, education seems to be undoing nature’s gift of an innate desire to learn. This poses the greatest challenge to educators who need to minimize the potentially negative impact of education’s ‘undoing’, and ensure that the education they provide will not de-skill, de-motivate and de-nature students by unwittingly suppressing their natural desire to learn. Phase III represents ‘Learning in the Work Environment’ with the option to (or not to) continue learning actively. Obtaining a college diploma (that often marks the end of almost twenty years of formal education) and then joining the workforce create three learning options: firstly, there is the opportunity to learn with freedom again, unencumbered by set course goals and the fear of failing examinations; secondly, to continue to learn actively in the pursuit of career development; thirdly, the erroneous notion that, with a college diploma, there is now a much lesser need to engage in active learning. The important educational implications in terms of learner-centered education, self-directed learning and lifelong learning will be reviewed and discussed in this context.
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