TEACHING LEARNING PROCESS.

1. INTRODUCTION

It is a well-established belief among educationists that learning is the outcome of teaching, and teaching is aimed to facilitate learning. Here, the questions arise that, whether teaching is mandatory for learning to take place? Is learning always dependent on the teaching? The answers to these questions lie in the fact that, teaching is not a must for learning to take place and, learning is not always dependent on the teaching. However, in the context of academic education, teaching is considered as a mandate to facilitate learning among students and learning is the direct outcome of teaching. Teaching and learning both go hand in hand, they are the two sides of the same coin. Teaching and learning are two fundamental aspects of educatio....

2. DEFINING TEACHING

Teaching simply refers to the act of imparting instructions to the learners or students in either clinical or classroom situation, which ultimately leads to acquisition of the knowledge, skill, and attitude on the part of the learner. It is a process in which teacher, learner, classroom/clinical environment, curriculum/content along with some other factors interact in a systemic and organized way to attain predetermined goals. Let us see how the great educationist and psychologists defined the teaching in different ways.

Burton defines “Teaching is the stimulation, guidance, direction, and encouragement of learning.” Thomas F. Green defines “Teaching is the task of teacher which is performed for development of a child.”

3. CONCEPT OF TEACHING

The concept of teaching is quite complex; therefore, for the purpose of clear understanding of this concept, it can be broken down into the following headings:

Planned activity: Teaching is an activity that requires rigorous planning on the part of teacher. Without good planning, aims of the teaching cannot be achieved.

Tripolar process: Teaching activity turn around the three main poles: teacher, learner, and content. These three poles interact in a systematic and organized way, aiming to facilitate learning.

Interactive process: Teaching stimulates interaction between the teacher and learner in the context of curriculum, which will activate the students mentally and physically, resulting in effective learning.

Motivation to learn: Teaching is an activity that is intended to motivate the learner to learn.

4. PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING USED IN NURSING EDUCATION

4.1. Principle of Activity or Learning by Doing

Principle of activity emphasizes that the students should be actively involved in teaching–learning process. Research has shown that if the students are active mentally and physically during teaching session, the teaching will become efficient and effective in terms of student learning. Teaching can be facilitated if the students actively participate in the learning process and learn while actually manipulating (doing) the things to be learnt.

4.2. Principle of Goal Setting

Teaching is a planned activity and the learning objectives are the driver of this activity which controls the direction and methodology of the teaching. Therefore, goal setting is a vital part of teaching. Any teaching without preplanned learning goals or objectives is useless and becomes flawed.

5. MAXIMS OF TEACHING

Maxims of the teaching are the guidelines or rules that should be followed so that it will be easy for the students to comprehend the concepts or terms. They have proven to be valuable in obtaining the active participation and involvement of the learner in the teaching–learning process.

If followed carefully during teaching, it leads to effective, interesting, meaningful, and goal-oriented learning. They arouse the interest of the learners in learning and help to motivate them to learn. A good and intelligent teacher should be familiar with them. They are as follows:

5.1. Proceed from the Known to the Unknown

This maxim of teaching emphasizes that new knowledge cannot be grasped in isolation; therefore, teacher should proceed from previously familiarized concepts (known) to those information or knowledge that is new for the students (unknown). What the students already know about a subject matter can be used to arouse interest in a lesson by probing questions related to that area. The teacher then should proceed gradually step by step to connect the new information to the old one. For example, while explaining the term hyperthermia, the teacher should probe a question “what is the normal temperature of the body?

6. CONCEPT OF LEARNING

Learning is the lifelong process, which starts from the womb and ends to the tomb. It is worth mentioning here the mythological story of Mahabharata in which Abhimanyu learnt the technique to enter in to the Chakravhyu when he was in the womb and his father Arjuna was telling the story of Chakravhyu to his mother. Learning is an intangible idea which has been interpreted differently by many psychologists and educationists. In our day-to-day life, we interpret and transform information and experience into knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes, and this is referred as learning.

Learning is acquisition of new facts, information, knowledge, skills, attitude, and values. It results in change or modification of the behavior of the learner that is observable and measureable.

7. NATURE OF THE LEARNING: LEARNING THEORIES

In order to explain how or why change or modification in behavior occurs as a result of learning, few psychologists and educationists have proposed learning theories. Each learning theory has its own orientation to explain the how of learning. On the basis of orientation, the important learning theories can classified into four groups (Merriam and Caffarella, 1991) as follows:

• Behavioristic learning theories
• Cognitive learning theories
• Humanistic learning theories
• Social or situational learning theories

7. NATURE OF THE LEARNING: LEARNING THEORIES

In order to explain how or why change or modification in behavior occurs as a result of learning, few psychologists and educationists have proposed learning theories. Each learning theory has its own orientation to explain the how of learning. On the basis of orientation, the important learning theories can classified into four groups (Merriam and Caffarella, 1991) as follows:

• Behavioristic learning theories
• Cognitive learning theories
• Humanistic learning theories
• Social or situational learning theories

7.1. Behavioristic Learning Theories

Behavioristic oriented learning theories were proposed by great psychologists B.F. Skinner, Pavlov, Thorndike, Tolman, and Watson. Behaviorism is a psychological movement, which accentuated on arrangement of the environment to bring out successful modification in behavior and to arrange corollary/consequences to maintain or diminish behavior. Behavioristic learning theorists viewed the learning process as change in behavior of the individual and believed that the stimuli in the external environment are the locus of learning. The role of teacher according to these theories is manipulation or arrangement of the environment so that the desired response can be elicited from the learner. Learning takes place as a result of the interaction between learner and environment. A learner has to respond to the given environment and his/her response is manifested by his/her behavior

8. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LEARNING

• Learning is adjustment: Learning helps the individual to adjust properly in a new situation or new environment.
• Learning is both individual and social: Learning is not only the individual activity but is a social activity also. Individual mind is affected by the group mind, as individual is influenced by his/her friends, parents, relatives, etc. and learn their ideas and feelings. Social agencies like family and religions have tremendous influences on learner and always mould and remould the behavior of a person.
• Learning is purposeful and goal directed: Learning is always having some specific purpose which is concerned with the use of some inner powers and energy with which persons are endowed with from birth.

9. TYPES OF LEARNING

Learning can be of different types depending on the developmental stage and mental capacity of the living being. Some important types of learning are as follows:

9.1. Sensitization and Habituation (Nonassociative Learning)

Sensitization refers to a progressive increase of a response when the stimulus is administered repeatedly to the living being (Bell et al. 1995). It is responsible for adaptive as well as maladaptive learning processes in the human being. On contrary, habituation is a type of nonassociative learning, which is most commonly present in animals. In this type of learning, there is progressive attenuation of behavioral response when the animal is presented with repeated stimulus. When the stimulus is presented the first time before the animal, it responds to it appropriately, but if the stimulus is neither gratifying nor detrimental the animal reduces succeeding responses to it.

9. TYPES OF LEARNING

Learning can be of different types depending on the developmental stage and mental capacity of the living being. Some important types of learning are as follows:

9.1. Sensitization and Habituation (Nonassociative Learning)

Sensitization refers to a progressive increase of a response when the stimulus is administered repeatedly to the living being (Bell et al. 1995). It is responsible for adaptive as well as maladaptive learning processes in the human being. On contrary, habituation is a type of nonassociative learning, which is most commonly present in animals. In this type of learning, there is progressive attenuation of behavioral response when the animal is presented with repeated stimulus. When the stimulus is presented the first time before the animal, it responds to it appropriately, but if the stimulus is neither gratifying nor detrimental the animal reduces succeeding responses to it.

11. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHING AND LEARNING

Teaching and learning are two different concepts, which in fact are related with each other and go hand in hand. It is unfair to declare that teaching always leads to learning and for learning teaching is always required. Learning may occur without any teaching. We learn a lot without any teaching through our day-to-day experiences, observation, trial and error, and reasoning. Nursing student can learn so many things by simply observing the staff nurses performing clinical duties. It is well said that a good learner may not be a good teacher, but a good teacher is always a good learner. In order to be a good teacher, a teacher has to learn or acquire knowledge of subjects, teaching skills, and so on. It proves that learning precedes the te....