What is learning?

Learning is developing an understanding of an idea or concept. I think the best way to clarify this is to say what learning is not. Learning is not memorizing definitions, names, dates etc. Learning is not so much answer the what, when, where question but rather the how and why questions. An important part of learning is being able to explain what you now know, and having the explanation not be loaded with textbook definitions. Something that is known should be able to be communicated to people at different levels rather than simply repeating the words in which the information was presented.

Another way of looking at this is that you do not learn your grocery list. You write it down or memorize it. There is little critical thinking in making the list. Similarly, memorizing definitions is no different than memorizing the grocery list. A key part of the learning is critical thinking or applying the newly acquired knowledge in a different scenario. Learning is being able to relate concepts to one another and find the connections rather than just accepting every bit of information as its own, discrete unit of data.