from practice or other forms of experience” ibid. Meanwhile, Houwer 2013, p.1 stated that learning is the changes in behavior that result from experience or
mechanistically as changes in the organism that result from experience. To sum up, learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior based on an individual‟s
interactional experience with its environment.
a. Criteria of Learning
There are three criteria of learning stated by Schunk 2012, p.4. The first criteria is involving change, it means learning can be defined as the relatively
permanent change in an individual‟s behavior or capability as a result of experience or practice. Commonly, people learn when they are able to do
something differently in a given trend because it is unusual for people to learn skills, knowledge, beliefs, or behaviors without demonstrating them at the time
learning occurs. The second criteria, learning endures over the time, it means that learning can change gradually and may not last forever because forgetting occurs.
Besides, it is also the result from biological growth and development. The last criteria are learning occurs through experience. This is the consequence of
experience and the criterion excludes behavioral changes that are primarily determined by heredity, such as maturation changes in children. In addition, it is
the process of providing guided opportunities for students to produce relatively permanent change through the engagement in experiences provided by teacher.
b. Learning Theory and Philosophy
According to philosophical perspective, learning can be discussed under the heading of epistemology which refers to the study of the origin, nature, limits,
and methods of knowledge Schunk, 2012, p.5. The two positions on the origin of knowledge and its relationship to the environment are rationalism and
empirism. Rationalism refers to the idea that knowledge derives from reason without recourse to the senses. In contrast, empiricism refers to the idea that
experience is the only source of knowledge. In rationalism, the distinction between mind and matter which can be
found in human knowledge is postulated by Plato who distinguished knowledge acquired via the senses from that gained by reason. As stated in Schunk Schunk,
2012, p.5, Plato believed that things, for example; tree, house, and chair are revealed to people via the senses, whereas individuals acquire ideas by reasoning
or thinking about what they know. People have ideas about the world, and they discover these ideas by reflecting upon them. Besides, reason is the highest mental
faculty because through reason people learn abstract ideas. In summary, learning is recalling what exists in the mind. The information acquired with the senses by
observing, listening, tasting, smelling, or touching constitutes raw materials rather than ideas. Besides, it can be said that rationalism is the doctrine that knowledge
arises through the mind ibid. On the other hands, in empiricism as cited by Schunk 2012, p.5, Aristotle
384-322 B.C. drew no sharp distinction between mind and matter. He stated that the laws of nature cannot be discovered through sensory impressions, but rather
through reason as the mind takes in data from the environment. Unlike Plato, Aristotle believed that ideas do not exist independently of the external world. In
conclusion, Aristotle explained that the more than two objects or ideas are associated, the more likely that recall of one will trigger recall of the other ibid.
John Locke 1632-1704, noted that there are no innate ideas; all knowledge derives from two types of experience: sensory impressions of the external world
and personal awareness.
c. Concept of Learning
