2210D - PREMISES ABOUT LEARNING

In designing or revising any of the District's learning programs, recommended teaching and learning strategies should be based on the following convictions about learning and the instructional process.

_____All learning is self-generated. It cannot be given or received.

_____The only evidence of learning is the learner's demonstrating his/her ability to do something (mentally or physically) that s/he could either not do
         or do as well before instruction.

_____Learning comes in three (3) forms:

Knowledge (facts, concepts, cause-effect principles)

Skills (result-producing actions which are improvable through practice)

Attitudes (mind-sets-for-action directed toward a referent)

_____Each form of learning requires the learner to use a different sequence of thinking and physical actions (knowledge is not learned in the same
         way as skills, etc.)

_____Knowledge is usually a prerequisite for learning attitudes and skills, knowledge and skills are prerequisites to learning attitudes.

_____Students learn some things without being aware of what they are learning (mannerisms, some habits, etc.)

_____Students generate consciouslearning by using specific thinking skills to gather and process information.

_____Information consists of facts and inferences used to generate knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

_____Someone else's knowledge is only information to the learner. Such information can be given and received in three (3) forms:

real (information containing allof the characteristics or dimensions the learner needs to acquire, e.g. a live, on-site demonstration of a procedure);

representational(information containing some but not allof the characteristics the learner needs to acquire, e.g. a videotaped demonstration of a procedure);

symbolic(information containing noneof the characteristics of what the learner needs to acquire, e.g. a written description of a procedure).

_____Information is meaningless unless the learner can relate it to personal experience. For a learner to develop knowledge about something, s/he
         must have personal experience with what the knowledge deals with.

_____Learning is useful only when the learner can apply it properly in new situations to achieve needed results.

_____The quality of learning is only as good as the quality of the result it produces.The quality of the result is only as good as the mental and
         physical actions that produce it.

_____Instruction is the processfor generating learning and its application through the learner's use of appropriate thinking skills and physical actions
         to gather, retrieve, and process relevant information.

The quality of instruction is only as good as:

1. the quality of defined learning it allows students to produce;
2. the quality of the confirmationof the learning.

_____Instruction can produce intended learnings(means) or learning outcomes(applied learnings or ends). For instruction and learning to be
         effective, "means" learnings should build cumulativelytoward learning outcomes.

_____Learning outcomes of an educational program should be durable, significant, and transferable.

© Neola 2003