TEACHING OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS: A PARADIGM OF LIFELONG ...

same time, learning to unlearn old and unprofitable habits, which may not only be
injurious to the learner him/herself alone, but also detrimental to the developmental
growth of the society in which he/she lives.
Learning can be undertaken consciously or unconsciously, it can be planned or
accidental, it can be acquired formally, informally or non-formally. It is difficult as
much as it is unacceptable for anyone to consider himself/herself a completely
knowledgeable person, thus requiring no further training in any form, to update his
knowledge base, especially in this global technologically changing times, where
yesteryears’ experiences are basically obsolete for solving today’s problems.
Therefore, in order to meet up with the global changing world, we must aspire to
become a learning society, which according to Omolewa (2008), starts from cradle but
transcends the grave.
To corroborate the idea of learning as cutting across all levels of people and
throughout one’s lifespan, Oduaran (2002) opines that it will be culturally, socially,
economically, politically and psychologically illogical, unfair and wasteful to confine
learning to any one segment of life, society, location (space) and time. He goes
further to advice that every resource in society [that is] capable of widening access to
learning must profitably be utilized, so as to promote the goal of learning to live and
living to learn, particularly for the betterment of humankind in the 21st century.
One can compartmentalize learning into many boxes, as earlier shown above,
however, within this premise, we would confine ourselves to the organized formal and
non-formal learning processes which are consciously engaged in by individuals for the
purpose of professional development. Going by this platform, it therefore, challenges
individual to be able to make meaningful contributions to the society in which he/she
lives as well as for the skills improvement of the “learner” for a better and quality job
performance.
Prompting Adequate Learning Outcome through Personal Belief
Learners learn through several methods as there are unique differences both in
people (DLs), learning environments/challenges, programme facilitators (PFs)
(instructors or teachers), and or the materials to be learnt. Although the differentiallearning
methods have been emphasized by several studies. Dunn and Dunn (1978)
argued that learners are affected by their:
1. Immediate environment (sound, light, temperature, and design);
2. Own emotionality (motivation, persistence, responsibility, and need for
structure or flexibility);
3. Sociological needs (self, pair, peers, team, adult, or varied); and
4. Physical needs (perceptual strengths, intake, time, and mobility),
fundamental however is the learner’s ability in assessing his/her personal
worth.
When a learner believes in his or her capabilities to successfully perform a designed
task and the PFs adequately stimulate a conducive learning environment, learning
and learning outcomes are at apogee. Though Osiki (2008) research outcome has