The Relationship between Learning and Teaching

From the foregoing discussions it will be clear that learning can and does take place without teaching. That does not however mean that there is no relationship between the two concepts. To appreciate fully the close relationship between them we shall draw the reader’s attention to the following:

(i) Teaching is supposed to promote learning.

(ii) Even incidental learning helps the task of the teacher and of the learner. It provides a necessary foundation experience for the learner and eases the work of the teacher.

(iii) Teaching in itself involves a considerable amount of learning. The man engaged in teaching has to learn, as we have already seen, about society, about the learner, about the school system, etc. He also has to draw appropriate lessons from his present teaching activities for future practice.

(iv) Both learning and teaching are processes which are continuous in nature. The learner can sometimes be a teacher since he also influ-In fact, educationalists are finding it mcreasingly difficult to distinguish very clearly between learmng and teaching. They seem to be abandoning what appears to be a fruitless search for dissiinilarities between two con-cepts that are in fact very closely interwoven. So, instead of talking simply of teaching or of learmng in isolation, educationalists now talk of the teathing-learmng process. Also, while describing classroom situations, educationalists talk of the teaching-learning situation.