How Do People Learn

Leanne Drapeau How Do People Learn? The most important part of this question for educators is the word people. Often, in the mind of a teacher, as well as in the system of the administration, students are stripped of their humanity. As teachers, in order to assist in and support learning, we must recognize first that students are people, and second, that we are people. Every person, according to this definition of learning that follows is, by virtue of being human, a learner. Some people are deliberate learners and pursue knowledge throughout their lives, however, every person is perpetually learning, whether informally or formally. People learn by processing new information and assimilating that information into a mental framework already in place. Although the way in which each individual “processes” information manifests itself differently, the “Process” of learning, as in the assimilation of new information into an already constructed framework, remains the same. It is important for educators to recognize the constructed framework of the individual as they “teach”. For better or worse, our framework is the shape into which we fit new information. Therefore, we as learners, have a difficult time assimilating something that takes a radically different shape from our internally, individualistic and radically unique constructed framework. No person can make another person learn, however, it is our responsibility as teachers to recognize the different frameworks in place and support students as they deconstruct and reconstruct their mental framework in order to assimilate new and different information. It is helpful for us as teachers to recognize our own framework as we teach. A superior teacher is a vigorously active student, a deliberate learner, and skilled at the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of their own internal framework. To be a person is to be a learner, to be a learner is to be always engaged in the unfinished business of constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing a framework into which information fits. To be a teacher is to be familiar with the process of construction and to assist, support, model, and encourage other people in the work of assimilating new information.