Summary:

Learning is fundamental to a child’s education, and teachers must understand how it occurs most effectively. The Laws of Learning by Thorndike and others provide a foundation for understanding learning processes. These include:

1- Law of Readiness: Learning is most effective when a student is mentally prepared, emphasizing the role of motivation and curiosity in creating a conducive state of mind for learning.

2- Law of Exercise: Practice and repetition strengthen learning, while neglecting practice weakens it. It highlights the importance of active engagement and regular reinforcement.

3- Law of Effect: Positive outcomes and satisfaction reinforce learning, whereas dissatisfaction weakens the learning process. Emotional states, success, and failure significantly impact a learner's ability to retain knowledge.

These laws stress the importance of motivation, practice, rewards, and emotional well-being in creating effective educational experiences.

A Detailed Explanation of the Laws of Learning: Thorndike's Key Principles:

Laws of Learning:

The basic element of a child’s education is learning, so a teacher must have a thorough understanding of how learning occurs in a best way. In this regard, it is important for teachers to know the laws of learning presented by Thorndike and other thinkers. These rules are as follows:

1- Law of Readiness.

2- Law of Exercise.

3- Law of Effect.

A few more rules are highlighted below in addition to reviewing the above rules.

1- Law of Readiness:

In this law the importance of readiness has been described. When a person is ready to learn then he can learn more effectively. Therefore the mental readiness of a student is very important for learning. This shows the importance of motivation for learning, to make education effective, it is necessary to bring the student into a certain state of mind and to create curiosity in them.

Educational Implications:

(i)Increase the readiness of a child for learning Herbert advocated the importance of appreciation for any type of learning

(ii) This law requires from teachers to motivate the children before teaching.

(iii) Curricular activities should be appropriate to the maturity level of the student.

These things can ensure the readiness of students to learn.

2- Law of Exercise:

Learning is enhanced by working according to this law or actively participating in a practical activity. We learn what we do, we don't learn what we don't do, that's why it is also called the law of use and non-use. Easy-to-understand content is usually understood in no time and is easily remembered. But difficult material requires practice and repetition. Different types of difficult material require different amounts of repetition and practice. Practice is very important in learning. Often, students forget even the things that they have learnt because they do not get regular practice opportunities. Practice does not mean to cram the material like a parrot. Practice refers to understanding a material well and repeating it again and again, so that it becomes well memorized.

I- Law of Use:

When we repeatedly use and practice an object or process, we learn it better.

ii- Law of Disuse:

When a changeable association between a situation and a response is not formed long enough, the association begins to weaken, in other words lack of practice has a negative effect on learning.

Educational Implications:

The educational implications of the law of practice are many, it emphasizes repetitive practice and drill etc. to remember and master something. Furthermore, it also says not to take too long of a break between exercises, as disuse can lead to forgetfulness. Following are some of its advantages:

i-Learnable things become habits when they are repeated over and over again.

ii-With its help, bad habits can be reduced, when children consciously try to give up their bad habits and repeat this process, those habits are lost.

iii- The process of forgetting can be delayed or eradicate .

iv- Skills like typing, shorthand can be perfected through practice.

v- The teacher should ensure the process of practice with a pleasant impression.

3- Law of Effect:

According to this law, when our efforts are met with a sense of achievement or satisfaction we become more excited to learn, but without it more learning doesn't happen. In other words, we can say that such a response or reaction that makes it possible to achieve a goal and gets satisfaction from it, is well imprinted in our minds, however, those that do not get satisfaction are not long-lasting impressions.

Thorndike explained it as follows:

When a changed relationship is formed between the situation and the reaction, and in some cases satisfaction is also achieved. If so, it strengthens the relationship, but if not, it weakens. Thus, the feelings and emotional state of the student affect the education, in other words, success and failure affect the learning to a great extent.

Educational Implications:

i- Good habits and attitudes can be cultivated in students with reward, gratification and praise.

ii- Unwanted trends and issues can be overcome by unsatisfied situations.

iii- The same law is taken into account in the process of conviction and reward.

iv- Through interest, character problems can be corrected and behavior can be improved.

v- Interest has direct relation with this law. Children are more interested in things that lead to happy outcomes.