THE MODERN LEARNING WHEEL: A Theoretical Model of Continuous and Motivated Learning

                A lot of learning theories have been presented over the years with old ones being modified and changes to come up with new ones. For me, the cognitive, behavioral and social schools of thought are the most appealing and closely resembles how learning occurs in reality.  In an attempt to make a model that hopefully combines these three, I was able to construct a modern learning wheel.

               

                This theory has four basic assumptions.  First, human beings are naturally and innately curious.  They are driven by a need to ask questions and to find the answers to these questions.  This drive contributes to the internal motivation that moves a person to learn.  Second, human beings are motivated to take an active role in their learning. When a problem or a question is presented, being driven by curiosity, a person will actively seek the solution or the answer, regardless of the appropriateness of the answer, and the readiness of the person for it based on age and culture; thus, one may learn about any concept or idea or skill at any point in time.  Third, practice makes perfect.  The more a person encounters the answer to a problem or question, the more he will learn about this, because repeated exposure, retrieval and encoding allows the mind to access this faster.  If this information is not accessed or retrieved repeatedly, it gets buried underneath all other information until it gets retrieved again, but retrieval is more difficult but not impossible.   Lastly, finding the answer is reinforcement.  Arriving at the answer, whether it be positive or negative in nature, answers the inner drive, and this is reinforcing for a person; thus, moving the person to pursue further learning. 

                Learning is a cycle or a process of steps that one may be unaware of but goes through them through life.  There are 8 crucial elements in this model- Question or Problem, Motivation, the Source, Memory, Encoding or Storage, Retrieval, Application and Transfer of Knowledge.  Learning begins when a question or problem is presented.  This could be from an external source, those presented to a person by another person or by situations, or an internal one, one that is created by the mind or one that is experienced through the sensations of the body. Being a curious entity, humans are primarily internally motivated to seek answers to the problem or question; however, there could also be external motivating factors that could be synergistic with the internal drive; thus, pushing the person more to learn.  A Source is then found for the answer.  The Source could be anything from a teacher, a book, a video, a recording, an experience or even the mind, as long as it provides a clear answer or solution to the question or problem at hand.  Once the answer has been deemed correct or acceptable, it is encoded and stored in memory.  Storage allows for retrieval of information when the answer is again needed; however, there are certain old information that get buried underneath new ones, especially when they have not been accessed for a long time.  The mind, being a muscle, needs constant exercising through encoding or storage and retrieval, because the area allotted to this information might get atrophied just like a real muscle of the body when one fails to use it.  But, there is truly no loss of information or knowledge in the mind.  Every data leaves a mark in the mind, retrieval is very difficult and may take a long time and a lot of stimulating but not impossible.  After knowing the answer or solution, it is time to apply or use the information gathered and then, there comes a time when knowledge is fully transferred to another person.  Application can range from the use of the knowledge to build or invent a new machine to daily performance of a new skill to even just sharing the learned information with another person.  The cycle closes but does not end when the knowledge has been fully mastered by another individual; thus, part of the last step of the process is teaching another person intentionally or unintentionally.  For example, a mother would like to prepare a new dish, so she seeks out the answer by watching a cooking show where she finds an interesting recipe, which she stores in her memory and retrieves it for application or practice.  As she prepares this dish over and over again, one of her daughters observes her and encodes each step in her own memory bank.  She could even offer to help her mother to practice what she has learned.  When the daughter has her own family, she begins also to cook the same dish, which signifies the completion of one cycle; however, a new problem or question may arise from this transferred knowledge.  The daughter might be curious as how she could modify the dish to make it more appealing to her own family, which then signifies the beginning of a new cycle that has overlapped with the initial one.  This illustrates that learning is truly never-ending and it is a continuous process that can overlap or intersect with other cycles. It is also not stagnant and the cycle continues to progress or move even if the learner might not be totally aware that he or she is learning already. 

                The Modern Learning Wheel is a rough model to represent the very broad concept of learning; however, it gives us a glimpse of its complexity through very simple concepts and assumptions.  It is just one of the products or applications of my learning experiences, and sharing them to you is a part of the cycle and when it finally gets transferred, who knows, it might be modified into something totally different or even debunked?  Still, no matter how knowledge evolves, the learning process remains constant and continuous.