While we are writing about an interesting concept that has had a greater impact on the progress of human-kind, we would like to start with a statement which has been used several times- ‘the only thing constant in life is change’. Of course, it has been used a million times, it still is an apt beginning to what we are going to write about further in this blog.
What is learning?
Learning is often defined as a relatively lasting change in behaviour that is the result of experience, and it is not only in terms of formal education that we are talking about learning. As we humans are life- long learners, the above definition of learning is applicable to all kinds and states of learning we have during our lifetime. Today, learning remains an important concept in numerous areas of psychology, including cognitive, educational, social, and developmental psychology. So, as we said in the beginning, learning is definitely a form of change.
So, if we go through the above definition of learning, the stress is laid on the term ‘relatively’. This means that there is scope of it being a change that may be still subject to further review in the behaviour as a result of some intervention or construction of some new meaning. This process is cyclic and there is constant reflection on the part of the learner, thereby, leading to new learnings.
However, at times there is a pressing need to completely re-ideate the whole meaning which is a result of a particular learning. This is known as ‘unlearning’. How, then, is this ‘unlearning’ relevant? Let’s go back to the early humans who have been constantly discovering new ways of survival. Their life was a constant ‘trial and error’. And the life we humans are living today is due to this continuous cycle of learning and unlearning as per the need of the time.
As we unlearn a certain behaviour the new process of learning starts that is termed as ‘relearn’. ‘Relearning’ in simple words can be described as learning something again. While this definition is correct in literary terms, it has a deeper meaning connected to the concept of ‘Metacognition’. According to John Flavell the founding scholar of the study of Metacognition, it is ‘Being aware of self’ as well as ‘Thinking about our own thinking’. Thus, metacognition plays an important role in the process of relearning, as we are aware of our own self and of our own thinking, we reflect on what and how much do we need to relearn a particular skill or behaviour.
Is it really important to ‘Unlearn’ and ‘Relearn’?
Well, if we put it in the words of Alvin Toffler ‘“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”.
This is so relevant in 2021 even if it was written in 1970. In today’s world where knowledge is so dynamic and constantly changing, one needs to keep pace with the time and upgrade his/her skills. We are living in a VUCA world and there is a requirement for us to constantly adapt ourselves with the changing situation. Thus, being able to ‘unlearn’ and ‘relearn’ will be the key to survival. We can even trace the need of ‘unlearning’ and ‘relearning’ Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. In other words, we can say that ‘unlearning’ and ‘relearning’ is a form of evolution and are required to be able to survive in the fast-changing world.
Is ‘Unlearning’ and ‘Relearning’ a natural human tendency?
Neuroplasticity, capacity of neurons and neural networks in the brain to change their connections and behaviour in response to new information, sensory stimulation, development, damage, or dysfunction. In simple words ‘Neuroplasticity’ is the human brain’s capacity to ‘unlearn’ and ‘relearn’ as per the need.
To sum it up, we would again like to go back to the quote we started with. ‘Change is the only constant in life’ and thus humans continue to ‘unlearn’ and ‘relearn’ in order to evolve and survive in this ever-changing universe.
