FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LEARNING OF YOUNG LEARNERS

Learning depends on mental age.

Maturation means mental ability or maturity,
social maturity and psychological readiness. For
example,the development of physical factors like
sensory and reacting mechanisms.
Before learning takes place, the sensory motor
and nervous structure should reach a certain
level of maturity.
Maturation of both muscles and brain are
necessary in any skill learning situation.
Deterioration of muscular coordination and
cerebral cortex tissues in old age brings
deterioration in skill learning abilities, says
some psychologist.
Maturation is a natural development of the
nervous system and other structures which
makes one ready and able to engage in a
particular activity, whereas learning involves
the modification of existing patterns of
response.
Normal development prepares one, for the
neuromuscular systems, for making certain
responses.

Motivation leads to attain objectives and goals.
Mental and bodily physical activities are
dominated by interests. It has been found that
our feelings in the form of attitudes, interests and
aspirations have a vital relationship to learning.
Timely and methodological motivation affect
improvement in achievement as it increases the
ability of trainees.
We learn more effectively when we have the
gratification provided by knowledge of
reasonable success in our efforts.
Positive incentives help in the furtherance of
learning while negative incentives has a
retarding effect.
Favourable learning conditions are created by
means of rewards (praising, appreciating,
awards, scholarship, etc.)
Punishments like fines and scolding lead to
diminishing learning process.

Learning process is affected by observation.
An individual observes process, behavior and phenomena
and later copy them in his own way.
Thus skill and knowledge are developed by conscious and
sometimes unconscious observation.
Children learn and acquire habits by observation.
Keen observation leads to better comprehension and
understanding.
Consequently this enables better formulation and
visualisation of goals and better visualisation leads to
development of insight, which is directed towards
achievement of required skills and knowledge.
At the very early childhood, an infant learns
through observation, by observing objects and
events through vision, hearing and other senses.
Experiences gained through the different senses
are correlated and the learning through
perception occurs.
Perception tends inevitably to lead to the
formation of concepts. But our perceptual
capacity is limited.
We do not become aware of everything within
the range of our senses, but only of those things
or a part of those things, to which our attention is
directed.
Attention plays an important role in the
education, and training process.
Without attention, one cannot observe or
perceive.
Attention was associated earlier with will,
judgment, reasoning etc.
But attention is a selective activity of our
consciousness.
Attention is not a power of the mind. It is not
static. It fluctuates from one object to another,
quickly.
It is very difficult to prevent such fluctuations.
Only one thing will remain in the conscious
mind and all other inattentive activities in the
subconscious mind.
Unconscious activities cannot be recalled at
will.

Memory and learning are so closely connected that
people often confuse them with each other. But the
specialists who study them consider them two distinct
phenomena.
These specialists define learning as a process that will
modify a subsequent behaviour.
Memory, on the other hand, is the ability to remember
past experiences. You learn a new language by studying
it, but you then speak it by using your memory to
retrieve the words that you have learned.
Memory is essential to all learning, because it lets you
store and retrieve the information that you learn.
Memory is basically nothing more than the
record left by a learning process.Thus,
memory depends on learning.
But learning also depends on memory,
because the knowledge stored in your
memory provides the framework to which
you link new knowledge, by association.
And the more extensive your framework of
existing knowledge, the more easily you can
link new knowledge to it.

5 FACTORS THAT MOTIVATE
YOUNG LEARNER
DEFINITION OF MOTIVATION
Mok Soon Sang a kind of stimulus which arouses
and sustains the interest of an individual towards the
direction of achieving a certain goal, including the
change in attitude and behaviour.

Woofolk motivation is an internal power which
arouses, directs and controls human interest and
behaviour.
Factors That Influence Motivation
Interest

If the behaviour is caused by the
motivation which concentrates on one
aspect only under a certain situation, but
produces satisfactory result, then this
person will repeat the activity when a
similar situation occurs.
Instinct & inquiry

inquisitive instinct to know is
ones own internal motivation.
Motivation in forms of inquiry :
investigating, exploring,
inventing.
Drive & need

DRIVE an internal state of tension caused by
a certain physiological need which is not
fulfilled.
NEED the desire to fulfil an individuals
deficiency in psychological and psychological
requirements or needs.
MOTIVATION
NEED
STIMULUS
BEHAVIOUR
Attitude

Is formed from an individuals
understanding, feeling and action.
Positive attitude certain goal ->
motivated and learn actively and
meaningfully.
Expectancy & aspirations

EXPECTANCY ones subjective prediction of
attaining something.
The prediction should be in line with the
individuals cognitive experience, so that it will
be in balanced condition.

ASPIRATIONS ones subjective evaluation,
which means how far is the level of achievement
of ones performance.


IMPORTANT TIPS THAT
TEACHERS SHOULD BEAR IN
MIND IN RELATION TO
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES.




An approach means a certain method of doing
something or dealing with a certain problem.
In teaching, approach refers to a method of
attaining certain objective in class.
Teachers should use teaching approach that is
suitable to enhance students learning
Pedagogy=process of teaching
1) INTEGRATIVE APPROACH
Integration= combination of skills or contents
from one or more than one subject for teaching.
Students are taught different skills in learning.
Aim=To make the lesson more interesting
Eg: content knowledge from certain topic or
subject can be used and integrated into another
subject.
Eg: language skills are integrated into a
Mathematical lesson (reading skill + writing skill
------> counting skill+ verbal skill)

2)INDUCTIVE APPROACH
Definition: Activity of collecting , analyzing,
interpreting grouped together until arrives
at a certain concept and generalization.

Eg:
SPECIFIC
EXAMPLE
S
TO
OBSEREV
E, STUDY,
INTERPRE
T.
DERIVE
GENERALIZATIO
N, CONCEPT,
PRINCIPLE OR
LAW.
GOLD FISH,
CARP,SHARK,
TADPOLE.
USE GILLS TO
BREATHE.
FISH AND
OTHER
CREATURES LIVE
IN WATER USE
GILLS TO
BREATHE
FIGURE 1: PROCESS OF LEARNING
USING INDUCTIVE APPROACH
3)Deductive approach
Definition: Using one or several formulae ,
principles, laws, or theorems, to comprehend,
interpret or solve certain specific but related
problems.
Complex method of teaching
Students have to understand the formulae well
and apply them.
Eg: solving mathematic equation by teacher
gives the formulae.
4) SUGGESTOPEDIA
Suggestopedia adopts a carefully structured
approach, using four main stages as follows:

Presentation
A preparatory stage in which students are helped to
relax and move into a positive frame of mind, with the
feeling that the learning is going to be easy and fun.

First Concert - "Active Concert"
This involves the active presentation of the material to
be learnt. For example, in a foreign language course
there might be the dramatic reading of a piece of text,
accompanied by classical music.

Second Concert - "Passive Review"
The students are now invited to relax and listen to
music, with the text being read very quietly in the
background.
The music is specially selected to bring the
students into the optimum mental state for the
effortless acquisition of the material.

Practice
The use of a range of games, puzzles, etc. to
review and consolidate the learning.

5) ECLECTIC APPROACH


A combination of inductive and
deductive approaches used for
formation of concepts, principles,
theories, formulas.

A) Mathematics : To teach Communicative Law
in Multiplication



2x3=6
3x2=6
4x5=20
5x4=20
6x7=42
7x6=42
INDUCTIVE
APPROACH
APPLICATION:
10X5
=5X10
=50
DEDUCTIVE
APPROACH
a x b=b x a
Figure 2: ECLECTIC APPROACH TO TEACH MATHEMATICS
SCIENCE: TO TEACH THE CONCEPT OF VERTEBRATE


ANIMALS WITH BACKBONE
CAT
BIRD
FISH
VERTEBRATE
APPLICATION:
DUCK
HEN
GOAT
COW
INDUCTIVE
APPROACH
DEDUCTIVE
APPROACH
6) THEMATIC APPROACH
Definition:
A theme as a main idea or topic of a lesson
content.
Eg: teacher told stories contained moral
theme(preservation of nature).
This thematic approach is often used in teaching
story and essay writings, art and history subjects.
Related closely to discussion and group activity.

Theme
Group a
Group b
Group c
Topic X
Topic X
Topic x
Figure 3: GROUP DISCUSSION
TIPS: CRITERIA TO DECIDE TEACHING
METHODS AND TECHNIQUES
1. TO RELATE WITH LEARNING SUBJECT
2. TO RELATE WITH LESSON OBJECTIVE
3. TO RELATE WITH PUPILS ABILITY
4. TO RELATE WITH THE TYPE OF TEACHING
AND LEARNING ACTIVITY
5. TO RELATE WITH TEACHING STRATEGIES
6. TO RELATE WITH TEACHING APPROACHES