Chapter 3: The Learning Process

Question 1

What is the Objective of the Learning Process?

Answer 1

• To understand how students learn.
• Every Student has a different learning process so by adapting and conforming to their learning needs is what makes an effective instructor.

Question 2

What is Learning?

Answer 2

• A change in behavior as a result of an experience

Question 3

What is the Behaviorism Theory? What is an example?

Answer 3

• It focuses on how the external stimuli (such as rewards, punishments, and reinforcements) shape our behavior.
• Carrot is for positive reinforcement; stick is for negative reinforcement

Example:

• A student struggles with coordinated turns.
• The instructor then provides verbal reinforcement. “Great job using the rudder to stay coordinated”
• The student receives the praise, increasing the likelihood of repeating the behavior.
• Over time, the correct control inputs become automatic

Question 4

What is Cognitive Theory? What are the two types?

Answer 4

• The why behind a person’s actions

1. Information Processing Theory
2. Constructivism Theory

Question 5

What is the Information Processing Theory? What is an example?

Answer 5

• It compare the human brain to a computer.
• It explains how humans receive, process, and store information.
• The brain gets information from senses like sight, hearing, and touch

Example:

• Pilot who uses rudder when entering a turn is usually unaware of pressing the pedal, even though it involves moving a leg exterting pressure on the pedal.
• The human unconscious takes charge, leaving the conscious thought processes free to deal with issues that are non habitual.

Question 6

What is the Constructivism Theory? What is an example?

Answer 6

• Student will actively construct knowledge based on their past experiences rather than passively absorbing information.

Example:

-> High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) - is a learning method that supports the constructivist theory by similarizing itself with the process of ADM.
*They kind of go hand-in-hand

-> Scenario-Based Training - Is the purest form of HOTS. The student is given a real world scenario and correlates previously learned knowledge to make good decisions.

Question 7

What is perception?

Answer 7

• It is when you receive stimuli from your five senses, and it gives you sensations, as a result.

1. Sight
2. Sound
3. Touch
4. Smell
5. Taste

Question 8

What are the factors that affect perception? What are the examples?

Answer 8

1. Physical Organism - Is the student seeing, hearing, and feeling things accurately?

For example, distractions from engine noise and turbulence.

2. Goals and Values - Every person experiences things through their own lens with their own biases.

Goals change according to personal values.

3. Self-concept - A student’s self-image, confident/ insecure, will influence their perception of events.

Insecure students will have more trouble learning concepts

4. Time and Opportunity - Learning takes time and proper planning to achieve the desired outcome and change the student’s perspective.
5. Element of Threat - Students won’t learn if they are afraid of threatened

Question 9

What are insights? How does the instructor achieve this?

Answer 9

• Grouping perceptions into a meaningful whole.
• The instructor does this by consistently exposing the student to new concepts while showing them how each piece relates to all the other pieces.

Question 10

How does a student acquire knowledge?

Answer 10

M - (Memorization) - The student can memorize an idea but can not explain or problem-solve

U - (Understanding) - The student can organize the material in their head and can understand how something works.

C - (Concept Learning) - The student can group concepts with shared attributes to create manageable categories of information within their mind.

Question 11

What are the Laws of Learning?

Answer 11

• The laws of learning are all critical to a student’s ability to learn, and if one of the laws is not abided by, then the student may have issues learning.

R - Readiness
E - Effect
E - Exercise
P - Primacy
I - Intensity
R - Recency

Question 12

What is the law of Readiness?

Answer 12

• The student’s basic needs must be met before they can learn. (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)

Question 13

What is the law of Effect? What is an example?

Answer 13

• If students enjoy a learning experience, they will remember it better; otherwise, they won’t.

Example: Positive Reinforcement in Landing Practice
1. A student is struggling with landing flare timing and feels discouraged
2. On one landing, they flare at the correct height and make a smooth touchdown.
3. The instructor immediately says, “That was perfect! Did you notice how you kept the nose up just right?”
4. The student feels encouraged and is now more likely to repeat the correct technique.

Question 14

What is the law of Exercise? What is an example?

Answer 14

• Use it or lose it. The leaner needs to practice what has been taught in order to understand and remember the learning.

Example: Radio Comms

1. Student struggles with ATC phraseology and forgets standard calls
2. Instructor assigns daily practice using live ATC feeds and scripted radio calls before each lesson
3. During the flights, the students practices more complex ATC interactions, starting with simple requests and building up to busy airspace.
4. Over time, the student will respond to ATC naturally without overthinking.

Question 15

What is the law of primacy? What is an example?

Answer 15

• The first concept taught is best remembered, for better or for worse.

Example: Coordinated Turns
1. If a student is not taught coordinated flight from the beginning, they may develop a habit of skidding or slipping turns.
2. If the instructor consistently reinforces proper rudder use early on, the student develops automatic coordination skills, making their flying smoother and safer.

Question 16

What is the law of Intensity? What is an example?

Answer 16

• The more intense/vivid/real the experience, the better the student remembers.

Example: Simulated Engine failure

1. Instead of just discussing the emergency procedure in the classroom, the instructor pulls the throttle during a lesson.
2. The student feels the urgency, and must quickly establish best glide speed, and select a landing site.
3. The realistic and intense experience reinforces emergency training far better than a lecture alone.

Question 17

What is the law of Recency? What is an example?

Answer 17

• Concepts learned more recently are best remembered.

Example:
1. A pilot who hasn’t flown in a while might struggle with a maneuver they previously performed easily.

Question 18

What are the Domains of learning?

Answer 18

• The domains of learning make up the framework of how a student learns

C - Cognitive (Thinking)
A - Affective (Feeling)
P - Psychomotor (Doing)

Question 19

What is Coginitve Domain? What is an example?

Answer 19

• It is the knowledge, comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis (Design), and evaluation of the student

Example: Go or No-go decision (Weather)

Question 20

What is Affective Domain? What is an example?

Answer 20

• It is the feelings, values, motivations, and attitudes of the student.

Example: Encouraging Persistence after a Failure
1.

Question 21

What is the Physcomotor Domain? What is an example?

Answer 21

• It is the student using motor skills and coordination to perform a task.

Example: Performing a Steep Turn

Question 22

What are the levels of learning? What are the examples of understanding?

Answer 22

• The levels of learning are the steps in which each student learns in, in the order below

R - Rote - Basic memorization “Vy is 76.”
U - Understanding - Comprehension of something “What Vy does”
A - Application - Putting something learned into practice “Pitch for Vy” - (in flight)
C - Correlation - Associating something learned with something else. “What is the difference between Vx and Vy”

Question 23

What are the Characteristics of Learning?

Answer 23

• They promote good learning

P - Purposeful
E - Result-of-Experience
M - Multi-faceted
A - Active Process

Question 24

What is Purposeful?

Answer 24

• A student might say “What is the point of learning this?
• A students background and life goals may hinder or help their learning of the material

Example: Lack of Motivation
1. A student could come from a very motivationally lacking home due to their parents example
2. Because of this they have a very purposeless mindset towards complicated things so when it comes time for a student to demonstrate something they don’t want to do. They see no purpose in it.

Question 25

What is Result-of Experience? What is an example?

Answer 25

- Learning is the result of experience and individual process. No two people share the same life experiences, so no two people will learn the same. Example: 1. One student might be a very visual and kinesthetic learner whilst the other be an audible learner based on educational histories.

Question 26

What is Multi-faceted? What is an example?

Answer 26

- When students learn, they learn best when multiple skills (verbal, motor, and problem-solving) are necessary to complete the objective Example: 1. Talking to ATC while turning the airplane or adapting to a power failure

Question 27

What is the Active Process? What is an example?

Answer 27

- Learning is active, requiring effort and some form of response from the student. Example: 1. When teaching a student how to do Steep Turns, it requires effort from the student to try to practice it on their own. This must happen to assure the instructor that the student understands what the instructor was trying to teach them.

Question 28

What are the steps in which a student can take to acquire skill knowledge? What are the examples?

Answer 28

- Students can advantage their training, from “zero-to-hero” or beginner to expert, via the following C - Cognitive Stage - Basic skills/ factual Knowledge A - Associative Stage - The student practices a skill over time, which allows them to assess their performance and make adjustments to improve A - Automatic Response Stage - Muscle Memory. The student is now skilled enough and can do things well without thinking about it. Ex. Performing memory items during an emergency

Question 29

What is Knowledge of Results? What does it allow?

Answer 29

- A feedback students receives about their performance, helping them understand how well they executed a task and what adjustments are needed for improvement. - It allows students to refine their skills, correct errors, and build confidence in their abilities.

Question 30

What do you need to do develop skills?

Answer 30

- Developing skills in aviation requires a structured approach that combines knowledge, practice, feedback, and repetition. - Pilots progress from basic understanding to automatic proficiency by engaging in deliberate practice and applying learned concepts in real-world scenarios.

Question 31

What is a learning plateau?

Answer 31

- It occurs when a student stops making noticeable progress despite continued effort and practice. This can be frustrating for both the student and instructor, but it is a normal phase in skill development - Recognizing and overcoming plateaus is essential for continued improvement in aviation training.

Question 32

What are the types of practice?

Answer 32

- There are three types of practice that can be exercised at various stages in the student's progression.

Question 33

What is Deliberate Practice? What is an example?

Answer 33

- Aimed at a specific goal, comparing performance desired vs performance shown. Example: 1. Student is demonstrating deliberate practice by plotting their course for their next cross-country flight

Question 34

What is the Blocked Practice Method?

Answer 34

- The “Drill and kill” method, practicing the same task repeatedly. - Doing the same task over and over again leads to better short-term memory but poorer long-term memory.

Question 35

What is the random practice method? What is an example?

Answer 35

- Practicing different tasks in a single training instance helps the student recognize the similarities/differences of each task. Example: 1. The instructor tells students they are going to practice a rectangular course, S-Turns, and turns around a point. The instructor then tells the students last minute in the air that they are actually going to mix up the practice order of the maneuvers. By doing this the instructor is applying random practice to help the student work on switch tasks and becoming flexible and dynamic.

Question 36

What is Scenario-Based training? What is an example?

Answer 36

- The premise of scenario-based training is to train the pilot to gather information and make informed and timely good decisions. - This is done by giving the pilot a scenario to work through rather than a basic question/ answer format. Example: - Instead of asking, “How are the spark plugs powered?” ask, “You’re flying on a cross-country, and your alternator dies. Assuming you have an hour of battery life, but the nearest airport is two hours away, will you be able to make it to your destination or will you need to land in a field?

Question 37

What is the difference between Evaluation versus Critique?

Answer 37

- Evaluation focuses more on determining if the student has met the required performance criteria Example: 1. “Your steep turns were withing ACS Standards maintaining altitude +-100 feet.” - Critique provides specific feedback on strengths and areas for improvement. Example: 1. “You maintained altitude well during steep turns, but your bank Angle varied slightly—try referencing the horizon more.”

Question 38

What are the kind of errors?

Answer 38

Slip - The student tried to do one thing but inadvertently did something else. Mistake - The student attempts to do the wrong thing and succeeds.

Question 39

How can you reduce errors?

Answer 39

- Learning and practicing - Taking time - Checking for errors - Using reminders - Developing routines - Raising awareness

Question 40

How can you learn from errors?

Answer 40

- Understand that errors are not inherently bad. This means that learning is happening. - It is beneficial to ask your student their opinion of what went wrong and how it can be done differently to prevent it from happening again.

Question 41

What is memory? What are the three main types?

Answer 41

- Memory is the link between learning information and it applying later. 1. Sensory Memory (Sensory register) 2. Short Term Memory 3. Long Term Memory

Question 43

What is sensory memory? What is an example?

Answer 43

- Recieving stimuli from the environment and processing/ prioritizing them by the person’s biases. Example: 1. Student pilot is practicing slow flight when they suddenly hear the stall warning horn and feel the buffeting of the aircraft.

Question 44

What is Short-Term Memory? What is an example?

Answer 44

- Information is stored for 30 seconds. Example: 1. If the person does not seem it important within 5-10 seconds, it will fade and won't be added to the long-term memory banks.

Question 45

What is Long-Term Memory? What is an example?

Answer 45

- A relatively permanent storage of information. Example: 1. The more important, the longer the person will remember it. Information is made more useful by relating new information to old information.

Question 46

What is forgetting? What are the different types?

Answer 46

- Remembering what has been learned can be difficult, especially if the information is not used recently and frequently. 1. Retrieval failure 2. Fading 3. Interference 4. Repression/ Suppression

Question 47

What is retrieval failure?

Answer 47

- When a person knows something but fails to retrieve it, “it’s on the tip of my tongue.”

Question 48

What is fading?

Answer 48

- When a person forgets information that hasn't been used for an extended time.

Question 49

What is interference?

Answer 49

- When a person forgets something because an experience overshadowed it or something else intervened

Question 50

What is repression/ suppression?

Answer 50

- When a person forgets because they do not want to remember negative feelings associated with the memory

Question 51

What is retention of learning? What are the aids?

Answer 51

- When something is forgotten, it is not permanently lost; It is just unavailable for recall. 1. Praise stimulates remembering 2. Recall is Promoted by association 3. Favorable attitudes aid retention 4. Learning with all senses is most effective 5. Meaningful repetition aids recall 6. Keeping lessons concise and interactive 7. Mnnemonics

Question 52

What is Praise Stimulates Remembering? What is an example?

Answer 52

- Tell the student they’re doing good

Question 53

What is recall promoted by Assosciation?

Answer 53

- Help the student relate new information to other previously learned information

Question 54

What is favorable attitudes aid retention? What is an example?

Answer 54

- Ensure the student is Motivated to retain the information Example: 1. “If you become good at XC flight planning, we can go on an XC flight just for fun.”

Question 55

What is learning with all senses is most effective?

Answer 55

- Ensure the student is using their senses to learn but not becoming overstimulated.

Question 56

What is meaningful repetition aids recall?

Answer 56

- Practice makes perfect - to a point, 3-4 repetitions at once, not more.

Question 57

How do make lessons concise and interactive? What is an example?

Answer 57

- After 10-15 minutes, the student stops absorbing the information. Lectures have a ~5% retention rate over a 24-hour period, whereas active instruction is learned better. Example: 1. Allowing the student to problem-solve during a ground rather than just lecturing them on a topic

Question 58

What are Mnenumics? What is an example?

Answer 58

- In aviation, we love our acronyms, “TOMATOFLAMES,” etc.

Question 59

What is transfer of learning?

Answer 59

- Transferring information is the ability to apply knowledge learned in one context to new contexts.

Question 60

What are some examples of positive transfer of learning?

Answer 60

- Keep transference as the primary objective. - Teach students that information can be applied to other situations, but ensure no negative transference occurs. For example, using a steering wheel in the car to turn is different thanturning an airplane while on the ground. - Maintain high standards, ensuring thoroughness. - Avoid rote learning. - Give the student meaningful experiences in the context of learning. - Use suitable instructional materials (presentations, visuals, etc.) Instructors can also ensure students learn correctly by doing the following: - Ensure good habit forming, and snuff out bad habits. - Recognize the student is less likely to remember/learn something if they don’t understand it. - Review previously taught information consistently to aid the student’s memory during training and encourage them to use/apply it afterward. - Ensure the student’s knowledge source is adequate and Sourceable, i.e., the PHAK of AFH, not Google or Wikipedia.