KONSEP BELAJAR

Belajar bagi seorang insan adalah sesuatu yang tidak dapat dipungkiri keberadaannya. Seseorang bisa pintar karena pada awalnya ia belajar. Suatu individu bisa mahir disebabkan oleh belajar. Namun apa sebenarnya definisi dari belajar?  

   Kimble mendefinisikan belajar sebagai perubahan yang relatif permanen di dalam potensi behavioral (behavioral potentiality) yang terjadi sebagai akibat dari praktik yang diperkuat (reinforced practice).

   Belajar adalah perubahan perilaku atau potensi perilaku yang relatif permanen yang berasal dari pengalaman dan tidak bisa dinisbahkan ke keadaan tubuh temporer (temporary body states) seperti keadaan yang disebabkan oleh sakit, keletihan atau obat-obata (Hergenhahn & Olson: 2008).

   Ada pengertian lain mengenai belajar yang patut dicermati. Dalam Richard E. Mayer (2008) disebutkan bahwa learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in someone’s knowledge based on the person’s experience. This definition has three parts:

1. Learning is long-term rather than shor-term, such as learning how to use a word processing program. A change that disappears after a few hours does not reflect learning.
2. Learning involves a cognitive change that is reflected in a behavioral change, such as changing from not knowing to knowing the procedure for erasing a word in a word processing program. If there is no change, then no learning occured.
3. Learning depends on the experience of the learner, such as reading a word processing manual. A change that occurs solely because of a psychological state—such as being tired, hitting one’s head, or taking a mind-altering drug—is not an example of learning. Furthermore, it depends not on what is done to the learner, but rather than on how the learner interprets what happens; that is, it depends on the learner’s personal experience.

Three metaphors of learning:

1. Learning as response strengthening—the idea that learning involves adding new responses to an ever-growing collection—is a mechanical process in which successful responses to a given situation are automatically strengthened and unsuccessful responses to the situation are weakened. In this way, learning is like strengthening or weakening the association between a stimulus (S) and a response (R).
2. Learning as knowledge acquisition—the idea that learning involves transfering knowledge from teacher’s head to the student’s head—occurs when information is transferred from a more knowledgeable person (such as a teacher) to a less knowledgeable person (such as a student).
3. Learning as knowledge construction—the idea that students actively create their own learning by trying to make sense out of their experiences—occurs when people select relevant information, organize it into a coherent structure, and interpret it through what they already know.