Learning needs

Learning needs
Introduction
 Learning is a lifelong process whereby knowledge is created through a combination of
understanding and transformation of experience
 Every human has the innate need to learn which arise from:
 The need to learn new skills when proceeding from one developmental stage to the next
 The need to adjust to new surroundings and changes in oneself
Learning through the lifespan
 birth – 2yrs
 the infant come to know objects through sensory perception and stimulation
 they realise and search for things that disappear
 they realise that everything around them has a separate existence
 18 months – 5yrs
 They begin to symbolically picture things when helps them to acquire speech
 Cannot reason logically
 4-8yrs
 Articulation is developed through social interaction
 The individual begins to make allowances for more than 1 opinion
 8-12yrs
 Linguistic ability improves
 Concrete thought processes begin to develop
 11yrs to adolescence
 Formal thought develops
 The individual begins to draw conclusions and highly abstract thought is now available
 Adults
 Prefer to learn independently,
 Have more experiences and want to base learning on these experiences
 Usually more open to learning new things
 The elderly
 Memory begins to fail
 Sensory perception may reduce
 Reaction time increases