ABSTRACT

The concept of learning can be traced back to the old English word Leornian, meaning to 'acquire knowledge or skill as a result of study, experience or teaching'. This emphasises the active, participative nature of learning and the need for a person to engage positively with their own learning through study. To understand the concept of learning, one needs to see how its related processes have been explained by different theoretical traditions. The learning models of behaviour, however, largely depict learners as passive respondents to environmental stimuli, problematically situating them not as agents engaged in a collaborative enterprise but as mere subjects to be shaped. More recent theories of learning, while incorporating varying elements of behaviourist and cognitivist theories, often build on varieties of social constructivism. This proposes that learning takes place and knowledge is produced as the result of interactions between the learner, their prior experiences, other more experienced individuals and the environment.