I don't believe there's anyone that is completely dumb. It's all a question of approach. How can a person find it so easy to play video games, and yet run away from academic subjects? How can a person do so poorly in school, and yet excel at work?
Learning is an important activity in your daily life and is a continuous process. Your level of achievement and professional development in life depends greatly on how much you know.
In fact, I believe that learning is everything. Decisions you make and actions you take depend greatly on your knowledge.
Different people have tried to explain the concept of learning and how best it can be attained. Listening to them, I'm not sure I was taught the right way.
Some people believe that learners learn best when they are rewarded. When they perform well, they are rewarded with presents, gifts and praises. Otherwise, they are punished or ignored. This theory of learning is known as behaviorism. It also asserts that learning should be evident in one's behaviour. What happens when there's no one to punish or reward us? What happens if what we learn does not reflect in our behaviour? Does this mean that we have not learnt? NO.
According to cognitivists, learning is an activity that is enhanced by relating old knowledge to new knowledge. It asserts that people learn faster when they are presented with information in a format that is easy for them to understand. Pictures, they say, convey a thousand words. No wonder it is easier to observe pictures, watch videos, go for presentations, and play games. Incorporating these technologies in learning activities would make the experience more pleasurable.
The constructivists however, believe that learning is an activity that should be personally discovered; people discover meanings to life by relating recent occurrences to past experiences, asking questions, exploring and being actively involved in their search for knowledge. Experience, after all, is the best teacher.
I believe that these theories all have their strengths and weaknesses. However, combining them to attain the right balance helps to produce a memorable and productive learning experience.
