Learning Disabilities Clarified:
Learning is a Skill (Part One)

By Dr. Jan Strydom (MA, HED, DEd)

The subject of this discussion, that learning is a skill, is apparently one of those ideas that are generally regarded as self-evident. Most people, however, do not seem to realize the implications involved.

Before continuing, I wish to explain what is meant by the term learning in this discussion. After all, the term learning is used in many different types of situations. There are instances where learning takes place without any skill being involved on the part of the learner. For example, when I walk into an unfamiliar room and hit my foot against a step which I did not see, I will have learned something, namely to be more careful next time I enter that room. However, this act of learning, which happened quite unintentionally, occurred without any skill on my part. There will also be very little difference between the speed and effectiveness with which different people will learn to evade this step. For most people, one encounter, or at the most two, will be sufficient.

However, when I learn history or algebra, or a foreign language, or how to play chess, or how to operate a lathe, then it is a different matter altogether. Now there is definite deliberation and consciousness of purpose involved, which was absent in the other example. At the same time there is also wide discrepancy in the effectiveness with which different people will be able to master whatever they wish to, or have to, learn. For example, one person will be able to learn to speak a new language within one year, while another will not be able to do the same in ten years. This discrepancy is frequently explained in terms of intelligence. If this explanation does not apply, i.e. if a child of obviously good intelligence is not able to learn according to expectations, a second explanation is put forward: it is then said that the child has a learning disability.

But are these really the only explanations? I think not.

In order to present an alternative possibility, I have to remind the reader of a few important truths concerning learning.

The first of these is:

• There is nothing that any human being knows or can do which he has not learned. This is a characteristic which very clearly distinguishes human beings from the animals. If I take a puppy of even a few months old, and drop it into a swimming pool, it will swim. If I try the same with a child, it will drown. The child, however, can learn to swim. Animals do possess a limited ability to learn, but to lead their natural way of life they usually do not need to. Human beings, on the other hand, cannot lead a natural human way of life at all without constant learning.

The second important fact about learning is:

• There are basically two types of learning. This is acknowledged by most English dictionaries when they define the word learn as to gain knowledge of or to develop skill in. For example, a person who does not know what Esperanto is, and who looks this up in an encyclopedia, will discover that Esperanto is the international language. Thereby he will have acquired new knowledge. With this knowledge he cannot do anything. He will simply know something which he did not know before. However, if he then learns to speak Esperanto, he will thereby acquire a new skill, and will then be able to do something which he was not able to do before.

At this point it is important to note that learning itself is a skill. Despite its apparent self-evidence, this is an extremely important concept, and it is only when one starts to realize its full implications that an alternative explanation for the discrepancy in the learning abilities of different persons emerges.

In order to grasp the full import of this concept, it is vital that one should also take cognizance of the different elements of a skill.

Continue to Part Two: THE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF A SKILL