Clive Dunkley

July 2009
 Barriers to Learning

Securing an education in our postmodern society has become increasing complex.

Schools have to contend with a multiplicity of factors that were either absent or existed to a

lesser extent within the academic domain. In the early nineteen nineties UCLA researchers ‘

effort to contribute to school improvement led to examining the barriers to learning by Howard

Adelman and Linda Taylor co-directors of the Center for Mental Health in Schools. The

researchers and their team focussed on ways to improve student learning by enhancing policies,

programs and practices relevant to mental health in schools. In the Summer 2002 edition of their

newsletter Addressing Barriers to Learning, Adelman and Taylor discussed a causal continuum

that they created to better define the different types of barriers for students with learning. At one

end of the continuum are Type III learning problems, which are caused by minor dysfunctions of

the central nervous system (CNS). This type of learning problem can also be called a learning

disability (LD). At the other end of the continuum are Type I learning problems, which include

poverty, overcrowded schools, and psychosocial problems. Type II learning problems, which

fall in the middle of the continuum, result partly from the student’s individual “differences and

vulnerabilities” and partly from the learning environment’s failure to accommodate them.

According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary 2006, a barrier is a fence or other

obstacle that prevents movement or access. As found at http://www.answer.com learning is the

act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill or Knowledge or skill gained through

schooling or study. Bennett (2003) defines learning barriers as a broad term that encompasses a

variety of conditions whose defining characteristic is a significant impairment of intellectual

functioning.
 The definitions from the dictionaries and Bennett leaves an understanding of learning

barriers as the sum total of things that prevents or reduces the optimum gain from the teaching

learning experiences. These obstacles may be physical or functional, they may be systemic or

within the environment of the schools, they may be caused by the teacher or student or they may

just happen to one or both.

The Zimbian Ministry of Education argues that proper planning is necessary to support

learners experiencing barriers to learning at school. The planning should be done at the strategic,

tactical and operational levels of planning of teaching, learning and assessment. Each school will

have its own set of barriers that impact on the teaching, learning and assessment process.

Extensive review of many published work on barriers to learning identified barriers to

learning that may be categorized as: socioeconomic, systemic, pedagogical/androgogical and

medical. Educators should be both aware of these barriers and make plans at all level to ensure

learning takes place.

Socioeconomic barriers stem from the learners social and economic realities.

Considerations such as the learners social class and context would be factors that will enhance or

hinder the learning process. The socioeconomic factors would include: poverty, hunger,

HIV/AIDS and related problems, teen pregnancy, violence at home and in the community,

access problems, loss of days in attending school due to participation in economic activities,

absenteeism and other thing related to each learners context.

Systemic barriers are blockades that are found within the education system of a specific

country, region and school system, the barriers may be physical or functional. Systemic barriers

are usually part of the setting within which learning is to occur. Systemic barriers may include
large classes, lack of discipline, large groups of non-reading learners in the class, inadequate

support facilities such as photocopier, absence of basic utilities such as water and electricity.

Pedagogical Barriers refer to the anything that would negatively impact on how the

educators guide the processes in the learning experiences. These barriers may be attributed to

inadequate academic preparation of teachers, inexperienced academic staff, lack of motivation of

teachers and other factors that may prevent the teacher from creating a saticfactory

teaching/learning experience.

Medical disabilities are more widely documented and include: impaired vision or

blindness, impaired hearing or deafness, attention deficit disorder, psychosis, epilepsy, albinism

or other relevant medical conditions and disorders.

All these barriers can be transcended and learning guaranteed if proper planning is done

and provisions are made to address the barrier. Within the Jamaican education system efforts

have been made to address many of the barriers. The school breakfast programme, placement of

guidance counsellors in schools, revisiting the student teacher ratio, the placing of remediation

specialists in primary and secondary school are all part of the effort to address these barriers.

L Ron Hubbard argues that the barriers cited above are not the significant one in

impeding learning. He argues that lack of mass of what is being studied, too steep a study

gradient and a word not understood or wrongly understood are the three barriers to learning. L

Ron Hubbard opines that the most important of these three barriers is word not understood or

wrongly understood.

Whatever the barriers to learning are and irrespective of the circumstances responsible for

the barriers, the educator should ensure that at all times each student learn the lessons. In her

book education EG Whyte (1952) stated that In many a boy or girl outwardly as unattractive as a
rough-hewn stone, may be found precious material that will stand the test of heat and storm and

pressure. The true educator, keeping in view what his pupils may become, will recognize the

value of the material upon which he is working. He will take a personal interest in each pupil and

will seek to develop all his powers. However imperfect, every effort to conform to right

principles will be encouraged. {Ed 232.2}

Each child can learn and every child must learn. The secret to overcoming barriers to

learning includes being aware of the problem, planning at the strategic, tactical and operational

level to circumvent these obstacles, A commitment on the part of the educator to do everything

possible to ensure mastery of the learning experiences.

 REFERENCE

Bennett, P., (2003). Abnormal and Clinical Psychology. An Introductory textbook. Open

University Press: Philadelphia

Hubbard, L. Ron (date). Learning Barriers. Retrieved July 15, 2009, from Applied Scholastics

Web site: http://www.appliedscholastics.org/learning_barriers/index.php

Knud, I., (2007). How We Learn, Learning and Nonlearning in School and Beyond.

Routledge

White, E., (1952). Education. Pacific Publishing Association

Answer.com dictionary. Retrieved July 20, 2009

http://www.answer.com

Ministry of education Zambia . Barriers to Learning. Retrieved July 17, 2009, from

http://curriculum.pgwc.gov.za/resource_files/20081200_20110928_Barriers_to_Learning_in

_the_LP,_WS_and_L_Plan.dochttp://curriculum.pgwc.gov.za/

Adelman, H. and Taylor, L. (2002). Addressing Barriers to Learning. ADDRESSING

BARRIERS TO LEARNING Newsletter. Retrieved July 14, 2009

smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/Newsletter/summer02.pdf.