1. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
Dr Sridevi NH
MBBS MD community medicine
Chikmagalur

2. Learning objectives
1. Understand learning as a process and a product.
2. Understand major Theories of Learning.
3. Recognize the importance of Educational Spiral.
4. Understand Bloom’s Domains and be able to relate
any instructional activity to the domain/s it targets.
5. Describe the qualities and identify elements of
specific learning objectives.

3. Contents
 Learning
 Theories of learning
 Bloom’s domains
 Educational spiral
 Specific learning objectives
 Cone of learning
 References

4. What is learning?
 Process that brings relatively permanent
change in behavior.
 It means aquiring something new.
 Learning is an active and continuous
process.
 Both conscious and unconcious.

5. Conditions that affect learning
 Intelligence
 Age
 Learning situation
 Motivation
 Physical health
 Mental health

6. Theories of learning
 Behaviourism
 Cognitivism
 Humanism
 Constructivism
 Social learning theory.

7. Behaviorism
 Assumes that a learner is essentially passive
and responds to environmental stimuli.
BehaviourPositive
reinforcement
Negative
reinforcement

8. Cognitivism
 In 1960s
 Focuses on inner mental activities.
 Cognitivists use the metaphor of mind as
computer

9. Humanism
 People act with intentionality and values.
 Here study of person as a whole, motivation
and goals are of interest.
 Learning is student centered.
 The goal is to develop self actualized people
in a cooperative, supportive environment.

11. Constructivism
 Learning is considered as an active, constructive
process. Learner is a constructor.
 Knowledge is constructed based on personal
experiences and hypotheses of the environment.
 Major themes
Social interaction- cognitive development.
More knowledgeable other
The zone of proximal development

12. Social learning theory.
 Observation of others behaviour, attitudes
and outcomes of those behaviours.
 Learning by social participation.

13. Blooms domains of learning
 Cognitive : mental skills
 Psychomotor: manual or physical skills
 Affective: growth in feelings or emotional
areas.

14. Cognitive domain

16. Affective domain

17. Education
 Education is a process the main goal of
which is to bring about a behavioural change
in the learner.
 Educational objective is defined as “what the
student should be able to do at the end of a
learning period, that they could not do
before”.

18. Educational spiral

19. Specific learning objectives
 Specific - Is it precise?
 Measurable - Is the objective quantifiable/
measurable?
 Achievable -Are we attempting too much?
 Realistic - Are adequate resources available ?
 Timed - Is the time limit specified ?

20. Components of learning
objectives
 Activity – What the learner is expected to do
(Verb)
 Content – describes the subject / object or those
in relation to which the activity has to be
performed
 Condition – under what circumstances should the
activity performed or given what tools/ equipment/
logistic
 Criterion – define the desirable level of
proficiency

22. Learning objectives
1. Understand learning as a process and a product.
2. Understand major Theories of Learning.
3. Recognize the importance of Educational Spiral.
4. Understand Bloom’s Domains and be able to relate any
instructional activity to the domain/s it targets.
5. Describe the qualities and identify elements of specific
learning objectives

23. Thank you

24. References
 Pre-service Innovative Teaching Methodologies
Participants Workbook The Teacher Training Workshop Team
Department of Medical Education St. John’s Medical
College, Bangalore, India. Pages 4-23
 N Ananthakrishnan , medical education principles and
practice 2nd edition alumni association of national teachers
training center JIPMER, Pondicherry, India. Pages 8- 21