Maturation and learning

 

Maturation provides us with the basic ability to do something which then makes way for learning to occur. ... A child learns to colour pictures, keeping inside the lines. Physical maturation helped the child develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

It is the process with which we develop, grow and change throughout our entire lives. In children, maturation means going through their development stages. It is them being able to do tasks and things they could not do previously. So it can be said with maturing there is an increase in competency and adaptability.

 

Woolf & Woolf:

Maturation means that children are able to do at certain stages of development certain task that they could not do previously.

 Garry and Kingsley:

“Maturation is the process whereby behaviour is modified as a result of growth and development of physical structures.”

Characteristics of Maturation:

1.     Automatic process:

Maturation is an automatic process of somatic, physiological and mental differentiation and integration.

2.     Growth and development:

Maturation means the growth and development that is necessary either before any unlearned behaviour can occur or before the learning of any particular behaviour can take place. It involves both structural and functional changes or performance. It helps an individual with structural change to reach at the stage of functional readiness.

3. Completion of growth:

Maturation is a stage of completion of growth and consolidating of mental, social and emotional development.

4. Modification from within:

Maturation is essentially a process of modification from within and innate ripening and development of capacities of the organism.

5. Condition of learning:

Maturation is an essential condition of learning. It is the basis of learning and learning is the only source that makes human development complete.

6. Factors of maturation:

Maturity has been considered as the process of learning.

There are three factors underlying the process of learning:

(i) Acquisition:

Acquisition is helpful in modifying the behaviour. It is the acquisition which determines the meaning, nature and scope of learning. It makes the learner mentally prepared to learn.

(ii) Retention:

Without retention, the learner fails to express the acquired trait.

(iii) Recall:

It is only potential recall through which we form opinion about the maturity and learning behaviour of the learner.

7. Essential for learning skill:

Maturity is essential for physical and mental training. Attainment of physical and mental maturity is essential to get proficiency in any work. As maturity is an automatic process, there is no need of external arousing objects or stimulus.

8. Maturity and physical fitness:

The development of mature learning behaviour also depends on physical fitness of the learner. Acquisition, retention and recall perform their functions successfully only when body apparatus is capable in making the development of these factors properly. Physical deficiency or illness obstructs the learning process of the child. Till the body apparatus is not stout or muscles are not strong enough, expected modification in behaviour of the child is not possible. In this context, maturity has been named as physical fitness.

9. Training before maturity is useless:

Training imparted before maturity is useless to learn any activity. Physical maturity is as important as mental maturity. Hence, before imparting training to the child, it is the foremost duty of the parents and the teachers to see that the child is fully matured or not, from the point of view of his physical and mental maturity. Disobedience of the norm will result into disappointment. Maturation and learning have been considered as two different aspects of the same process.

To quote S. Alexandra, “Maturation is essentially a process of modification from ‘within’, an ‘innate’ or development of the organism and growth in structure and function that occurs by reason of forces inherent in the organism itself.”

Educational Implications of Maturation:

1. The role of maturation and learning helps the parents or the teacher to know what and when to begin training.

2. The knowledge of the role played by maturation suggests that if the child is not old or mature enough to profit by teaching, it has little value for him and mere time and effort on the part of the teacher is wasted.

3. Thus if learning precedes maturation, there is more wastage of time and energy. Learning should begin when the child is ready to learn. If the child is ready to learn and he is not given guidance or training, his interest is likely to wave.

4. Maturation comes with learning not necessarily with age. Riesen has aptly remarked, “Maturation is necessary but not a sufficient condition for life.”