Most people have an intuitive notion of what it means to learn: They can do something that they couldn’t do before or they know something that they did not know before. But learning must be distinguished from physical growth, or maturation, which also leads to abilities that were not present before. E.g., young children are soon able to grasp objects in both hands simultaneously as they develop muscular control and coordination. This change in ability is not considered learning. Changes in ability that are only temporary are not considered learning either, because learning implies a kind of permanence. Thus the increased abilities of an athlete taking a performance-enhancing drug would not be thought of as learning.

Learning is defined as a change in human performance or performance potential that results from practice or other experience and endures over time.

Instruction can then be simply defined as that which is done to help students learn.

More specifically instruction refers to the

• Selection and arrangement of information, activities, approaches, and media
• by an instructional expert
• to help students meet predetermined learning goals

What is Learning Theory and what is its practical value?

A theory is a set of related principles explaining the cause and effect relationships among events. Its important to note that theory both explains and predicts. Particularly because of its ability to predict, theory informs practice. This means that theoretical principles can be translated into practical guidelines. This is important because effective professional practice requires one to have the ability to select and use those tools and techniques in order to create unique solution for a unique problem. This requires the flexibility and adaptability that come from understanding at the deeper level of the theoretical principle rather than at the more superficial level of technique. The principles that form the theoretical foundation for teaching can therefore be translated into guidelines that help teachers to select and use the appropriate tools and techniques for a learning situation.

A learning theory, then, is a set of related principles explaining changes in human performance or performance potential in terms of the causes of those changes. Learning theory cannot be described as a single entity. Learning has been studied for hundreds of years, and many theories have been proposed to explain the learning process. Of the many theories that have been presented over the years, we will discuss three broad theoretical perspectives: behavioral, information processing and constructivist. These perspectives represent major trends or themes in the way learning is conceptualized and provide some distinctly different practical guidelines for instructional practice. While some researchers in education may strongly favor only one theory, most instructors and instructional designers are aware of and use different theories in their teaching.

Sources
1. Reiser and Dempsey, Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 2002
2. Driscoll, Psychology of learning for instruction 1994
3. Newby, Theory into Application, 1996
4. Richey, The theoretical and conceptual basis of instructional design, 1986