Learning as Concept

II.1 Learning as concept

In term of definition, there are many different definitions of learning.

Behaviorism focus only on behaviour and Lachman (1997) pointed out that most of definitions of learning from the behaviorism are similar to: Learning refers to a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of practice or experience (such as Atkinson et al 1996, Baron 1996 and Feldman 1996 ...) or Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior, or potential behavior, that results from experience (such as Hulse et al 1980, Gordon 1986 ...) with the phrase of potential behavior in addition to change in behavior. These definitions focus on behaviour as results of practice or experience, or the outcomes or products of learning.

Kolb (1984) stated that "learning Is Best Conceived as a Process, Not in Terms of Outcomes" (Kolb 1984: 26) and defined that "Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience" (Kolb 1984: 38). Kolb's definition of learning focuses on the process of learning rather than the products of learning.

Lachman (1997) pointed out some limitation of definitions of Behaviorism such as the process and the behavioral results of the process should be distinguished, and learning does not necessarily produce a change in behaviour. He defined that "Learning is the process by which a relatively stable modification in stimulus-respond relations is developed as a consequence of functional environment interaction via the senses". This definition focuses on not only the process but also the outcomes or the products of the process.

II.2 Learning as process

Behaviorism's tended to define learning in term of the learning outcomes because of the assumption that ideas are fixed and immutable elements of thought which resulting in the conclusion that it is possible to measure how much a person has learnt by the amount of these fixed ideas the person has accumulated (Kolb 1984).

On the contrary, Kolb (1984) argued that ideas are not fixed and immutable elements of thought. Based on this assumption, he cited that ideas are formed and re-formed through experience and that concepts are originated from and continuously modified by experience. Moreover, he concluded that learning is not only a continuous process grounded in experience to create knowledge but also an holistic process of adaptation to the world which involving transactions between the person and the environment, he called it is experience learning.

Kolb's experience learning theory was developed and modified by Honey and Mumford (1992). They described a learning cycle in which learning is a moving forward process as follows:

Figure 1: Honey and Mumford's learning cycle