LEARNING CURVE Dr. Anshul Singh Thapa

Introduction Learning is change in behavior and this change ought to be measurable so as to assess whether or not learning has actually taken place, and if so how much. With chronological growth and improvement in his ability to interact with the environment, the child acquire some and discard certain modes of behavior over months and years. The parents, teachers, physical educators and coaches are always eager to know what and how much children have learnt over a period of time. Quantification of learning is an important proposition both in academics and physical education because these helps teachers to spot out drawbacks in their teaching procedures and to remove them, and the students to compare and evaluate their performance in terms of achievement.

Learning Curve If performance, could be measured in some ways and plotted on a graph against the amount of practice or effort put in, it would manifest an individual’s or group’s learning curve. Learning curve is a graphic representation of the progress made by an individual in an activity or a period of time.

Performance Time

Types of Learning Curve When a person is acquiring a new skill, the performance curve of a learning follow one of four general trends from beginning to the end of the practice period for a skill. The trends are represented by the four different shapes of curves: A) Linear curve B) Negatively accelerated curve C) Positively accelerated curve D) S- shaped curve

b) Negatively accelerated Curve c) Positively accelerated Curve a) Linear Curve b) Negatively accelerated Curve c) Positively accelerated Curve d) S - Shaped Curve

Linear Curve A linear curve or a straight line indicates propositional performance increases over a period of time; that is each unit of increase on the horizontal axis results in a proportional increase on the vertical axis. a) Linear Curve

Negatively accelerated curve A negatively accelerated curve indicates that the large amount of improvement occurs early in the practice, with smaller amounts of improvement later. b) Negatively accelerated Curve

Positively accelerated curve c) Positively accelerated Curve It is inverse of negatively accelerated curve and is called positively accelerated curve. This curve indicate slight performance g.ain early in practice, but substantial increase later in practice

S – shaped or ogive curve This curve is the combination of all and is called ogive or S – shaped curve. d) S - Shaped Curve

Characteristics of learning curve A typical learning curve constructed from out of performance data in any activity does not always move upward like an arrow but it course is irregular. It basically shows three distinct features: An initial rise Plateau Sudden spurt

Initial rise Plateau Sudden Spurt Performance Time

Initial rise The initial rise indicates rapid progress generally attributed to novelty of activity, interest and curiosity of the learner which seem to generate greater energy enabling him to put in harder effort right at the outset. That is why there is tremendous amount of improvement in the gross performance of the skill in the early phase of the learning.

Plateau With the increase in frequency of repetition through S-R bonds gets strengthen monotony begins to set in causing interest and enthusiasm wane. There is a feeling of fatigue-mental and physical. As a result, the improvement seems to be getting arrested even though the learner is putting his best. This makes a learning curve flatten leading to plateau. At this stage most athletes get discouraged. They do not know what is happening and why. How long this stage continues depends largely on the type of activity, ability of the learner and how a teacher can handle this situation.

Sudden spurt If the athlete continues the effort, there appears a sudden increase in performance and the learning curve shows an upward movement in the learning process which is known as Sudden Spurt.