Receptive learning What is it and what are its characteristics?

Responsive learning It is a concept that has been used in the field of pedagogy and psychology for a long time. Refers to one of the types of learning most used in our society.

This type of learning is part of a broad group of types of learning, or ways in which it can be learned. It is important to be clear about this since it is necessary to recognize the existence of various avenues for learning and not prioritize one over the other when transmitting or receiving information or knowledge.

What is receptive learning?

Receptive learning is what occurs directly in the subject through simple stimuli or information capsules. This learning occurs mainly through a simple memory process, in which an event or information is remembered by constant repetition.

The level of learning is given in relation to the frequency with which the stimulus is captured by the senses, think about memorizing a long list or a poem, no doubt you will have to do it several times, but with successive repetitions you will be able to remember without major inconveniences.

One of the main characteristics of receptive learning is that in a sense the information that is trying to be learned is a conclusion. Namely, In this type of learning, the information that is trying to be transmitted is already processed, no elaboration must be carried out, but simply must be remembered as it is delivered.

Otherwise, we would be facing another type of learning, since the receptive one refers precisely to that, it is a direct learning of what is received through the senses.

Responsive learning and the traditional school system

Receptive learning is closely linked to traditional education systems, in which a teacher expository transmits information directly to students, and they try to memorize as much information as possible, making them repeat the lesson one and again.

This repetition frequency is what marks the receptive learning level in the case of all subjects with normal cognitive processes..

This educational model has received considerable criticism appealing to the fact that the amount of information given to students is traditionally only possible to memorize in passing and they quickly forget it over time.

These types of statements abound among the detractors of the traditional education system, and to some extent they may be right, but it is not a matter to be taken lightly since the situation can have many faces., receptive learning cannot provide the level of cognitive and adaptive development required for adult life in the cultural system we currently have.

So is this kind of learning of little use??

From what has been seen above about the education system, a long discussion about the role of receptive learning in the evolutionary development of people.

In the first instance, it must be clarified that this type of learning is not obsolete at all, in fact, it is a necessary step in the evolutionary process of every subject. The problem with some of the main detractors of receptive learning is that they overlook the fact that the human mind in all cases works as a closely related whole and with a level of complexity that actually sometimes makes the obvious pass by. unnoticed.

With the above we try to indicate the importance of receptive learning as the basis of all kinds of learning, In fact, if we think about primary learning (In infants and young children) we will realize that they learn mainly by imitation and imitation is one of the forms of receptive learning..

Thus, this learning forms the foundations that give way to more complex and elaborate types of learning. For example: When you are about to learn to play any instrument, to say the least, the guitar, it is absolutely necessary that you first learn to read music, that you learn the notes, chords, positions and a number of other things. Responsive learning is needed for all of this..

In this sense, it is not possible to initiate processes of reason or more elaborate thoughts unless there is a broad conceptual base that supports reflection on a topic or problem..

Think for example of an engineering student, at the beginning of his career he will learn exact sciences in all its branches (Mathematics, algebra, trigonometry, physics, geometry etc.) It is technically impossible that after finishing his career the student will remember everything he learned in his moment through receptive learning.

But everything learned at the beginning served as the basis for advanced classes and to reach conclusions and concepts much deeper and applied, which most likely (we hope so) the student will remember during his productive professional stage..

How to empower receptive learning

As we have said, receptive learning has the characteristic of bringing a lot of information that is lost over time, in many cases we would like the student or child to learn and remember for longer to achieve a greater interplay of concepts in your mind.

In order to enhance what the child or student learns during receptive learning sessions, it is important that the elements are quite striking, even to the point of being emotionally relevant. For this reason, dynamic, interactive classes that surprise students can lead to better results in terms of memorization of concepts..

On the other hand, as we said earlier this type of learning is enhanced through repetition, In this sense, a good way to enhance it is by working with classical conditioning through positive stimulation in the face of the mere fact of repetition, in this way the child will try to repeat the lesson several times in order to achieve various rewards and thus enhance receptive learning by repetition.

Some people do not very much agree with this type of technique since they claim that the child does not learn spontaneously but always in search of reward. This is only partly true, since after the child learns the lesson, it will be difficult for him to remember that he really did not want to learn it..