Oscar Galeana

How Learning is Processed

The way the U.S. school system is set up for students to learn today is still the same way
it was a hundred years ago. In school the teachers teach their students in one direct way, they get
up in front of the class, present the topic and then teach the topic. Their goal is for the students to
learn the subject, but they dont teach ways to learn the subject they just teach the subject. This is
a problem in our society, the lack of showing people how to learn a subject, while schools just
throw subjects to students that they have never seen before and expect them to comprehend it
just because you have shown it to them once and then tell them that they have to learn it. Well
how could anyone learn this way.
Another problem with schools is that they teach subjects that they believe the students
have to learn in order to be smart, but if the student is not genuinely interested in the subject they
will never learn it because they will never be willing to learn it. If students learned subjects that
they were interested in they would learn it better because they would do whatever possible in
order to learn that subject. In other words they would find their own ways of learning it, because
they are so willing to learn it. Learning is very diverse and can be done many ways depending on
the person and their enthusiasm to learn it.
This paper will focus heavily on the ways individuals learn subjects and skills. I will
observe my girlfriend Ashley, and I will be teaching her how to play basketball. I chose her
because she has been asking me for weeks to teach her how to play basketball and this shows me
that shes very enthusiastic for learning how to play basketball which means that she will try her
best to learn it. I will observe her while she's learning how to play basketball in order to argue
that learning is processed when someone is intrigued and willing to become more informed in a

subject or develop a new skill by continuously gaining experience thru failure, positive guidance
and freedom.
Experience is important when learning a new subject or skill because it increases
knowledge. Learning is being developed when someone repeatedly fails over and over again, but
continues with the process, because they are gaining more and more knowledge and experience
on how to succeed every time they fail. Mark Twain supports my claim in his article Life on the
Mississippi, where it shows Twain fulfilling his dream of being a steamboat pilot, but doesnt
realize how difficult and complicated it is until he starts making mistakes and instead of getting
worse and worse he learns and becomes better by repeatedly making mistakes thus giving him
more knowledge and experience with every failure (Twain, 1903/2007) This learning exposure
can be seen in my observation when Ashley is learning to shoot a free throw. Her teacher tells
her to bend her knees and to follow through in order to make it in. She tries to shoot a free throw,
but missed 3 times in a row, but she continues to shoot stating I'm trying. There's a reason why
Ashley didn't make any shots the first time she tried it, one because she has no prior experience
with basketball and secondly because she has no experience in basketball she has no knowledge
on how to play. So failure the first time was expected and because she kept failing she was
learning while doing so. This was shown when she said wait, I almost have it. With every
basketball she is shooting she is gaining more knowledge on how to shot the ball, how high to
jump and how hard to shoot it. The presence of learning is then seen when she finally makes the
basketball in the hoop consistently without any help.
Motivation and encouragement play a big factor into how an individual learns. Learning
is present through positive reinforcement, because having someone help you and repeatedly
show you and give you support can make you more persistent to learn the skill. My claim is

supported in Rogoffs article Learning Through Guided Participation, where he explains that
children often learn from his theory of guided participation and he goes into further detail stating
that children learn when a parent or teacher is guiding them and motivating them to succeed
which makes the child continue with it and eventually learns the new skill or subject (Rogoff,
2003). This is shown when Ashley is trying to dribble the ball but keeps messing up and starts to
become frustrated and wants to give up when she states this is to hard, but her instructor that
is teaching her how to dribble continuously gives her positive reinforcement when he states
your doing great and Im proud of you. This kept Ashley positive and kept her not wanting
to give up until she learned how to dribble the basketball correctly and continuously, because she
felt she could do it because she was being reinforced. This outcome that happens when someone
is being guided is exactly what Jacquelynne S.Eccles and Allan Wigfield is referring to in their
article Motivational Beliefs, Values, and Goals when they state motivation is maintained only
when actors feel competent and self-determined (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002, p. 113). What both
these authors are saying is that in order for a person to be motivated they must have sense of
ability in themselves that they can succeed in order to stay determined to the learn the skill. This
only happens when a person is being repeatedly given positive reinforcement and guidance. In
my observation there is another moment where Ashley wants to give up again. It is when she is
learning how to shoot a lay up but keeps air balling it. She gets mad and says can we try
something else. She was getting ready to quit because she felt like she would not be able to
make a basket but her teacher kept giving her positive guidance throughout the lesson when he
says you're doing a good job and you're already shooting it better. As he was giving her
positive reinforcement she was getting more motivation and that gave her the determination to
learn how shoot a layup.

Freedom is important when an individual is trying to learn a new skill or subject. I argue
that an individual is learning when their is not a stature of power between the student and teacher
and their is a state of equality, because it allows the student to have more freedom and learn
through their own personal action. My claim is supported in Chisolms article Learning Respect
for Everything: Navajo Images of Development, where he says that the Navajo people and
culture give respect to their children and the opportunity to learn by themselves and their own
experiences (Chisholm, 1996). This is type of relationship is shown in my observation, because
Ashley and her teacher, that is showing her how to play basketball, are very close with one
another and have respect for one another, so their is no strict rules or guidelines. Ashley was able
to learn with a lot of flexibility and try some moves and things on her own to learn how to play.
An example of this is how the learning session isnt strict at all and in the beginning Ashley was
able to pick up the basketball and try to dribble and shoot it even before her teacher started
showing her how to play basketball, this allowed Ashley to learn how to play on her own. Even if
it was menial.
Learning happens in different ways, an individual can learn certain subjects on their own
without a teacher, but the amount of knowledge that they will learn is limited because a teacher
has more experience and knowledge and will be able to teach a student more complicated ideas,
with the use of positive guidance. So in fact when an individual is able to explore the subject that
their learning on their own they are able to learn or at least gain some experience as well as when
their are being guided by others on more difficult material.
When an individual is in the process of learning a subject or skill they are reaching to
gain experience and knowledge in order to confidently be able to perform the skill or learn the
subject. In 36 ways to learn a video game, by Gee, he highlights the fact that humans dont

often think at their best when they attempt to reason...they think at their best when they reason on
the basis of patterns they have picked up through their actual experiences in the world (Gee,
2002, p. 5). What Gee is saying is that humans think and process subjects better when they have
actual experience in the subject that they are trying to learn because they are aware of the
complications and instructions they must do in order to perform it successfully. This can be seen
in my observation when Ashley is learning how to shoot a three pointer and she tries to use the
same principles she learned when she learned how to shoot a free throw. Before her teacher even
taught her how to shoot a three pointer she started shooting, bent her knees and followed through
on her shot. The same patterns and principles she learned when she was taught how to shoot a
free throw. This shows that the experiences she had in the past during this learning process of
learning how to play basketball is helping her learn how to perform more complicated skills
better and more effectively.
Throughout this process Ashley learned how to play basketball. This will have a great
social impact for her because its a skill that she will be able to use in the future while interacting
with others. The reason why Ashley was able to learn how to play basketball is because she
gained experience and knowledge on how to play by continuously failing , receiving positive
guidance by others for motivation and had enough freedom to try some moves on her your own.
References

Chisholm, J. S. (1996). Learning respect for everything: Navajo images of development. In

Images of childhood (pp. 167-183). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational Beliefs, Values, and Goals. Annual Review of
Psychology Annu. Rev. Psychol., 53(1), 109-132.

Gee, J. P. (2002). 36 ways to learn a video game. In What videogames have to teach us about
learning and literacy (pp. 1-15). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rogoff, B. (2003). Learning through guided participation in cultural endeavors. In The cultural
nature of human development (pp. 282-326). New York: Oxford University Press.

Twain, M. (1903 / 2007). Life on the Mississippi (pp. 21-53). New York: Bantam Classics.

Appendix