Factors Influencing Learning in Children

Learning is defined as ‘a relatively permanent change in organism’s behavior due to experience’ by Myers (2001) and as ‘a relatively permanent change in behavior which comes as a result of practice of an activity’ by Ngaroga (2003).

Learning is understood as the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. It is almost a long-term permanent change in the behavior of the organism that may reflect in various aspects of life. Learning, of course, is a lifelong process. It might involve socializing agents who facilitate towards specific learnings or it might be learning by being part of a specific culture and environment. Children learn through various processes, such as vicarious learning or modelling of behavior of an adult, reward seeking and punishment avoidance practices, habituation, enculturation and very importantly, through play. Learning in children may be a controlled process, and there are various types like associative, non-associative, formal, informal, non-formal, rote, augmented, tangential, episodic and incidental learnings.

Benjamin Bloom has suggested three domains of learning: cognitive (to recall, calculate, analyze, solve problems etc.), psychomotor (to draw, swim, driving etc.) and affective (to initiate and sustain relationships, appreciate, feel and understand emotions etc.). These three domains are interactive and interdependent in almost all instances. Some of it is learnt through persuasive teaching, some are innately learnt and some are taken up by socializing. Theory and frameworks of Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner, Albert Bandura, Erik Erickson and later development of Behavioral principles also help in understanding the related factors like needs, reinforcements, developmental milestones etc. which contribute in the learning process of an individual.

There are certain biological, epigenetic, cognitive, social, psychological factors involved in the process of learning. Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Bronfenbrenner and many more child psychologists have made distinct contribution in explaining a child’s development and needs through various phases. Certain factors are:

• External factors: these are the factors that include genetic and biological features of the learner, environmental components and social elements that surround the learner.
• Heredity– native intelligence varies in learners. An intelligent learner can see and establish associations between concepts quickly. Children seem to have distinct temperaments almost from birth. Temperament of an individual directs general activity level, adaptability, persistence, adventurousness, shyness, inhibitions, irritability and distractibility. Temperament greatly affects learning.
• Physical environment– the quality, setting and design of learning environment creates a difference. Noise, illumination, humidity, availability of teaching aids and tools or digital technologies create different impacts. Effective communication, keeping a respectful approach and validating child’s need to be socially related help the process.
• Status of the learner– malnutrition, stress, lack of social interaction, fatigue, lack of sleep, discord in the caregivers or absence of caregiver can leave a lasting impact on the child’s learning capacity. Parents’ education, family income, availability of parents etc. too impact the learner’s attributes.
• Nature of stimuli– audio-visual stimuli is grasped better and retained better than merely auditory ones, interactive and life-centric approach in classrooms fetch better impact that traditional teaching methods. The simpler the stimuli, more effective the learning.
• Availability of resources– resources, such as, learning materials or teaching aids need to be clear, comprehensible and available for all the learners. Lack of clarity and availability may result in failure to provide necessary resource and might have negative impact on child’s learning.
• Availability of proper guidance– children learn the most while imitating and recreating adult’s behavior around it. Absence of such a figure might leave the child directionless or misguided. The concept of right and wrong, understanding various ways of life etc. need to be familiarized by a dependable adult by their own actions and interaction.
• Internal factors: these factors include psychological factors which consists of factors like the learner’s values, beliefs, cognitive abilities, motivational constructs, emotional competence, previous learning experiences and more.
• Realization of purpose– learning is efficient when the immediate and distant goals are clear, well defined and achievable by the learner. Immediate goals work better with young leaners and distant goals for older ones to keep them going. Children attempt to acquire new abilities, acquire various objects, establish and maintain meaningful relationships, facilitates certain feelings, and gain specific types of knowledge if they have some goal in front of them.
• Motivation– to grow and sustain an interest, a need to achieve it, one needs to have a motive. Usually, if the learner’s motivation is externally driven, reward dependent and materialistic, the learner might lose track in the long run. But when the drive comes from intrinsic need, the learners tend to carry on with the process more actively and productively. Intrinsic motivation fosters strong and flexible critical thinking capacities. But, extrinsic motivation and amotivation lead to low interest and academic persistence and hinders learning process.
• Intelligence– the effectiveness of learning is conditioned by the degree of intelligence. It is an accepted fact that students with high intelligence learn faster and relate better than students with low intelligence. According to Gardener’s theory of Multiple Intelligence, it is important to take into consideration the learner’s specific area of intelligence. IQ is an inherent feature which cannot be increased, but can be enhanced.
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• Background of learning and previous learnings– lack of mastery in what has been taught, faulty methods of teaching, and narrowness of experimental background may limit the capacity of the learner to connect and learn new concepts. Change in methods of instruction might be difficult for the learner to adopt at times.
• Interest– it is an enduring pre-disposition in the learner that helps the learning process by keeping the learner alert, attentive, motivated and engaged in the process. Interest in the subjective inclination towards a certain concept over the other set of ideas. A child learns better and faster the ideas that interests her, of course, due to the associated inquisitiveness and curiosity.
• Attention and effective retention- memory and learning very importantly involves attention. Span of attention decides the ability to grasp and retain information and ensures effective recall. Attention cancels out psychological noise in the learner and regulates thoughts.
• Aptitude– in reference to language learning, aptitude plays a major role. Aptitude tests help identifying abilities in the learner and adjust the learning process according to each individual learner.
• Emotional state– emotion deeply impacts various cognitive functions, learning being one of them. The learner’s emotional state modulates the selectivity of attention, motivates action and facilitates independent learning. Emotions like anger shuts down certain cognitive functions and blocks the learner’s ability to attend, think or solve problems. Emotional state also affects relating to concepts and internalizing them.
• Attitude towards learning– negative attitude towards learning creates a mental set that discourages, limits and even prevent positive changes, growth and learning. Attitude helps the learner select and act upon the selections, deal with failure and rejection. Positive attitude promotes effective coping in the learners as well. In classroom settings, teacher’s attitude towards their role also may promote or inhibit the learning process.
• Practice- with practice, the retention capacity in the learner increases. The learner learns to use heuristics and solve more complex problems, transfer their ability to something more advanced. Practice builds competence in the learner as well.
• Fatigue– both psychological and physical fatigue might create hindrance in the learning process. Over-extension of a particular task may impact learning and performance in the later period. When a learner is tired, they learn better through interaction and role plays than traditional teaching-learning methods.

Lastly, it is important to know that each learner is a unique individual and it is important to realize and channelize their spree of learning in the direction of their individual interests and abilities. It is important to allow them proper sleep, provide them with necessary support emotionally, help them deal with stress effectively, let them play and grow at their own pace. Children learn the most by modelling and imitating adults’ behavior the most, it is important to provide them with a model who will help them to be independent and learn important life skills, deal with life demands effectively and keep moving towards growth while taking care of their mental and physical wellbeing.

References:

• Advanced Educational Psychology (S.K. Mangal)
• Wikipedia – Factors affecting learning
• www.sciencedaily.com