CHAPTER 12 - LEARNING IN THE DISADVANTAGED

Abstract

The particular social category of a learner is quite irrelevant to the understanding and discussion of the learning process. There is historical precedent for considering learning in this way, in that it has been extensively studied in simple situations, such as maze running, with the aim of abstracting principles to be applied to other organisms, situations, and levels of complexity. Learning can be seen as a property of the organism—or, more accurately, of its nervous system—and a property that can be reduced to neurophysiological essentials. Learning can be viewed in a manner that includes particular attributes of the learner, the context, and the content of the material to be learned. The chapter discusses the characteristics of the disadvantaged with respect to some of the skills underlying learning and the stimulus organization consistent with the learner's characteristics, and the stimuli represented by the materials to be learned. It focuses on learning in the disadvantaged, in the sense of a categorization involving social or psychological variables.