Philosophical basis to learning

Peer group based self-learning concept:

P I Keerthisinghe Additional Director, College of Technology, Galle

Knowledge has to be constantly upgraded and updated since it is changing at a more rapid pace compared to the past. We can see that a new social order is in its place. There have been vast strides in the socio cultural, socio political and socio economic fields and due to these changes man needs new concepts to deal with the new world order and changes in human relationships. Thus it can be logically concluded that a modern theory of education is needed and self learning and peer learning should be an essential part of it.

Intrinsic factors such as need, choice, opportunity and time required contribute towards problems in the acquisition of knowledge. A teacher may try to teach science to a learner who is musically gifted or is inclined to study Musicology and has no real interest in science. Although, the learner is good at science the lack of need on the part of the learner will not finally make him either a clever scientist or a talented musician.

He is taught what he does not like and sees no need to learn it. Even in the field of craft practice learners behave like machines because they are never given the opportunity to seek for knowledge of machinery involved as they want. Their trainers decide for them what they should do.

Sometimes they are engaged in certain crafts and trades in which they do not have a real interest and thus see no need to learn them. They are engaged in these trades because their parents request them to select them as their future vocation. These learners may also end up either as poor craftsmen or technicians.

The choice also restricts a learner's capacity to acquire knowledge. A learner with a high mental or intellectual potential may become an eminent lawyer if he pursues the study of law or an eminent physician if he pursues the study of medicine. Anyway his success either as a lawyer or as a physician depends on the environmental stimulation and feedback he receives in such fields and on his soft skills and employability skills appropriate for his profession. It all rests on the probability factor. Sometimes, he may end up as a poor lawyer and abandon his career whereas if he had studied medicine, he would have ended up as a successful physician. Although he has acquired the special knowledge required in the respective fields he has made a wrong choice regarding his career path.

Opportunity is also a decisive factor in the acquisition of knowledge. Sometimes a learner may want to become an engineer but does not get the opportunity to study engineering because he is forced by his parents, care givers or concerned parties to take up some other profession such as medicine and to make it his career which can make him a flop in that field or he may not have the facilities to study engineering due to its non availability in his school. No learner has autonomy to decide what he should be taught, what kind of subjects, what part of the subject matter or how, when, and where he should be taught this content. They are all decided by factors beyond his control such as what is available in his immediate environment or somewhere else that is reachable to him. Most of the time the learners are in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong trainers who use wrong tactics to tackle them. As a result they have little opportunity to gather knowledge which can answer their needs and often they end up frustrated in their search for meaningful knowledge.

Time frame is another critical factor. Every individual has the brain potential to learn anything to different levels but this is influenced by factors such as time available. No individual can devote his entire life time to study a subject and pass it. No society will permit him to do so. Due to the time constraint his ability to learn anything is limited even if he has the wish to continue. Sometime his performance at the same subject can vary with the passage of time. A student who passes Mathematics very well at Ordinary Level (O-L) examination may find it difficult at the Advanced Level (A-L) examination though he had reached an adequate level to follow the same subject later.

Thus we can see that there can be no real definition on the concept of knowledge as there is no general agreement on what is to be taught, to whom it should be taught, by whom, when, how or, why it should be taught. There is only a vague idea. There is a grave crisis in the decision making process concerning the choice of knowledge. Hence self learning should be based on individual needs and capabilities so that they would become productive personnel in their chosen fields and by forming such groups with similar interests or capabilities there will be more productivity in education as the better ones will foster the knowledge of the weaker ones as they all have the common interest.

Concept formation

Education itself is a highly abstract concept that does not form an exact mental picture but is only a verbal symbol accompanied by a cognitive explanation. It is difficult to define or describe it with a totally agreed version. How we see it and what it actually is, is a great distance apart. No aspects of this concept can be defined in a straightforward manner as they all differ from culture to culture, person to person, from situation to situation or from country to country. It is not a sum total of all its accompanying concepts such as personality, character, knowledge, skills, attitudes etc, as they too are indefinable. Since, education is a highly indefinable and a complex concept, we can see that 'concept formation' which is a vital part of education should be subject to many problems too.

First of all, we can see that individuals differs from each other concerning concept formation because every individual has his or her own world view based on his own experience and his own lexicon to codify his own thoughts and give expression to them his own way. His ability for effective concept formation is a challenge as social and cultural taboos can influence his concept formation. To beat this undue influence from social participation, he has to develop creativity and critical thinking in his concept formation domain. The effective concept formation ability can give him material prosperity, social recognition and spiritual happiness.

Others cannot give him these. He has to learn them in education, for most learners, concept formation is a mere verbal codification. It is the wrong end of the stick that it is not 'What, Why and How' of the concept but only the codification of loads and loads of concepts. This cannot be accepted as expansion of real conceptual knowledge and is only running behind and illusion of so called conceptual knowledge. This explains why only a few individuals can survive and thrive in knowledge based economies. They fail when conditions arise which demand their ability to act on real knowledge of any subject applicable to changing situations.

Another problem that learners face in the ability for concept formation that they find it difficult to conceptualize their sensory information, what they see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. A very few can form mental pictures of abstract phenomena through conceptualization. These concepts are crammed rather than studied. They are seldom properly defined, described or classified. Thus, it is more beneficial to introduce concepts through practical tasks rather than through lecture method.

However, this is not popular among teachers as well as learners. They forget the fact that concrete concepts are more easily and much faster understood than abstract ones. Because abstract concepts are difficult to mentally perceive and comprehend, when the teachers offer definitions of concepts, the students merely memorise them. It is better for the learners to observe data and form correct definition that can be redefined later by teacher. If it is not done the learners

may not gain the ability for correct concept formation without the help of teachers. Self learning can make the learners aware of this problem and will aid them in developing concept formation ability. Peer group activities can help theselearners to observe more clearly and discuss in more detail the concepts introduced by teachers in classrooms.

Generalization ability is another difficulty most learners face and as a result they too are memorized rather than learnt these memorizations are meaningless to the learners because they cannot identify the concepts which are parts of the generalized total concept and distinguished them from what are not. Drawing generalizations through examples is another critical problem for learners as only one or two, the most, can be given by teachers. As a consequence most learners are unable to understand what is taught in the class. If peer group learning is encouraged the learners can gather more examples to reaffirm knowledge of the generalized concept.

The next problem faced by learners is the language needed to codify the concepts. Most learners are not capable of decoding and encoding concepts through advanced language clearly. This acts as a stumbling block in higher education success even if the mother tongue is the medium of instruction.

They have inadequate vocabulary and only very basic syntax. It is very hard for them to process information in complex language and as a result they are unable to mentally build up complex thoughts on their own. Besides, some abstract concepts cannot be explained by using simple language. This acts as a barrier in the comprehension of concepts. Abstract concepts presented as verbal symbols cannot only be visually or auditorily perceived but have to be cognitively perceived and thus are difficult to comprehend. This weakness can hinder productive learning and actions later.

Teachers also have to resort to advanced language to explain abstract concepts and comparatively a few learners have the ability to absorb these concepts and there is a breakdown in the communication of concepts. Then the learners have no option but to memorize these concepts for competitive examinations. So it can be concluded that the teachers cannot handover wholesale the concepts to the learners.

The learners have to define them in their own lexicon first as inner, then as intra and finally as inter language. Teachers can teach concepts but that does not mean that they can hand them over to the learners. Opportunities must be provided through self learning or/and peer learning to internalize these concepts in a practical manner.