Learner And Learning

FOREWORD

The characteristics of learners and the process of learning are core concerns of schooling. A number of questions related to the nature of learning and human learners, the processes of learning, and the reasons for individuals learning differently have been of concern to student teachers, teachers, teacher educators and other stakeholders in the school system. Therefore, a need was felt to develop a textbook for the student teachers to enable them develop an understanding of the basic concepts and relevant theories concerning learners and their learning.

The present textbook, ‘Learner and Learning’, is concerned with one of the core components of the two-year bachelor degree of teacher education programme (B.Ed.), reformulated by the NCERT, to address the preparation of school teachers as envisaged in the National Curriculum Framework, 2005. It aims to help the student teachers understand and analyse the nature of human learners, their development and the processess of learning. It addresses various concepts like the dimensions and stages of development; learning and cognition; theoretical perspectives on learning; processes of learning in constructivist perspective; and differences in individual learners. The textbook aims to promote theroretically informed understanding of what learning is, how it takes place and what teachers can do to improve it.

Each chapter in the textbook provides student teachers with experimental learning based on classroom situations and learner-centred orientation to teaching-learning and attempts to relate to the realities of classrooms in the Indian context. It also includes practical know-how of the manner in which the contents covered in the textbook should be transacted in the actual classroom contexts. Each chapter is interspersed with activities, summaries, review questions, project ideas and references or further readings, thereby providing opportunities to the student teachers for experiential learning based on classroom situations.