ABSTRACT
The process of learning has been described in many different ways. The authors have stressed in this book so far the views of developmental psychologists. They conceive of learning as the adaptation of the child to new experience. That is, the child achieves a new state of equilibrium between his ways of thinking and the demands of the environment. Clearly, then, the nature and extent of the child's learning is dependent on the stage of cognitive development he has reached. Humans have very few needs to act as stimuli for motivation and even those are questionable, except the biological ones. Motivated behaviour towards a goal, even in children, is based on a complex mixture of expectation, social pressure, curiosity, reward, etc. Learning cannot take place without the active participation or response of a child. The possible responses will, however, be limited by: the level of maturation, or ability; previous learning; and perception of the learning situation.
