Emotional Processes in Learning Situations

8Trauma, Cognition and Learning

Serge CAPAROS

DysCo, Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, France

8.1. Learning: learner, content and context

Learning involves a learner (the actor) whose aim is to acquire new knowledge or a new skill (competence). Knowledge or skill acquisition involves a set of cognitive processes that allows new information to be processed (attention), associated with other information already known (judgment, reasoning) and encoded for future reuse (memory).

Successful learning, that is the actual acquisition of knowledge or skills, depends on a large number of factors, such as the strategies used during learning, the quality of the pedagogical techniques offered by the teacher (if any), the learner’s prior proficiency (proximal zone of development), and also the context in which learning takes place. This context can refer, on the one hand, to the local context the learner finds themselves in (e.g. material conditions: a high school student will be more likely to acquire new knowledge if they have satisfactory material conditions, such as a chair, desk, notebook, pencils and books). The learning context can also refer to the more global context surrounding the learner, that is to say the general characteristics of their environment: their country’s degree of political and social stability, their living environment, social circle, socio-economic conditions and personal history. It is on this last point that this chapter focuses, and more particularly ...