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Life Long Learning

Essay by   •  November 22, 2010  •  1,842 Words (8 Pages)  •  1,833 Views

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Life Long Learning: The Really Valuable Experiences in My Life

The planned discussion of lifelong learning generally emphasizes progressive shared objectives, such as equal opportunities, collective insertion, group structure, dynamic residency, and so on. Open learning systems have been seen as a way of securing group development. However, globalization of the nation, together amongst the abandonment of combined interests in support of neo-liberal market policies on the part of many governments raises suspicions about the possibility of achieving progressive communal aims. The incorporation of lifelong learning into welfare improvement and human resource development therefore raises issues about the status of lifelong learning policy with value to its often-stated aims (internet).

Throughout our lives, we are faced with many diverse learning experiences. Some of these experiences have made a better impact than others. People can attribute this to his or her learning approach. A person's learning approach is the method through which he or she expands information about his or her environment. Research is going on all over the world to help clarify learning styles. As individuals, we all learn differently. Some people learn by listening, some by hearing, others must have their hands wrapped around the topic. Each person has a method by which he or she learns. One person's result of his or her learning approach may be vastly different from that of his or her peers. First, I began my quest to understand exactly what my learning approach consists of. I initially had to answer the question "What is a learning approach." One researcher, Diane Lamarche-Bisson (2004), concludes, "It is a preferred way of acquiring knowledge and processing information. A learning approach affects how we learn, how we solve problems, and how we work, how we participate in different activities, how we react in a group, and how we relate to others around us" (internet). In order to determine the most efficient way for me to learn and preserve information, I had to first conclude which learning approach would work best for me. Of the numerous learning techniques that individuals are able to benefit from, Internet-based courses provided by most universities have been found to be the most important learning style for the fast-paced individual, which brings me to my next question, what is learning. When we talk of learning, we usually imagine a classroom-oriented scene, such as science or history. However, Psychologists refer to learning as a relatively lasting change in behavior because of experience. Learning is an essential process in all animals and the higher up the evolutionary scale the animal, the more important is the skill to learn. All animals need to adjust their behavior in order to fit in with the environment and to adjust to changing circumstances in order to survive. Habituation is the simplest type of learning. Habituation occurs in nearly all organisms. The role of habituation is that everyday an organism encounters many stimuli some potentially beneficial and some potentially harmful, and many neither helpful or harmful. Habituation is to the organism's advantage to be able to disregard the many insignificant stimuli the organism encounters on a daily basis.

What is learnable we can potentially teach. Experience is key to learning. Through associative learning, we come to connect certain events. The process of learning association between events is called conditioning. Associative learning has been discussed for centuries; learning remained to confine the occurrence of standard conditioning. Researchers constantly presented a neutral stimulus, just before an unconditioned stimulus triggered an unconditioned response. After numerous repetitions, the stimulus alone began triggering a conditioned response.

We may not realize it but much of learning occurs outside of the classroom, although it is ordinary to think that learning is something that takes place in a school environment. The learning we receive affects almost everything we do throughout our lives. The study of learning is essential in many different fields. Teachers need to be aware of the best ways to teach children. Psychologists and other human-service workers need to understand how certain experiences alter people's behaviors. Advertisers, employers and politicians put together principles of learning to persuade the behavior of consumers, workers, and voters: advertisers, given enough time, can make a person believe anything. Learning relates directly to remembrance, which is the storage of information in the brain. Psychologists who study memory are interested in how the brain later retrieves knowledge when we need it, where this storage takes place, and how the brain supplies knowledge. Psychologists who study learning are concerned in how behavior changes with a person's learning experiences (internet).

There are several forms and different theories of learning in which the process of learning is established as a very complex concept. Is learning clear and does every child fit the same patters in which they are observed bye? Alternatively, is it an added individual method where the child learns under his or her own consciousness? Do all children fit into, follow the same stages of development and maturity, or do the actual stages in which a child is developing vary, as the child gets older? There are several theories of development, which intend to explain the entire process, which children go through from toddler to youth. Is it any wonder that numerous have a difficult time concentrating on learning? As they have to cope with fluctuating emotions, surging hormones, unpredictable voices, and newly changing bodies. At the middle school years, psychologically many students have not developed to the point of dealing with learning that requires proper operations thinking. The students may move through this phase without undue damage to their self-esteem if expanding these thinking skills through internships in the community, the arts, service learning and "hands-on" learning is being taught.

Motivation to learn, instilled in most working environments, is influenced by the individual's beliefs, habits of thinking, expressive states, and interests and goals. With the learner's quality of thinking and information progressing, the rich internal world of beliefs, expectations for success or failure, thoughts, and goals can improve or hinder. A students' nature of learning and the viewpoint about themselves as learners has a marked influence on motivation. Factors both motivational and emotional persuade information processing and the quality of thinking as well as an individual's motivation to be taught. Positive emotions facilitate

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