Functional learning

Characteristic of reflective consciousness or simple perception, with the testing of primarily metabolic functions in terms of relations with the environment, this is the second mode of learning posited by Jantsch and Waddington in their ontogenetic model of human consciousness. This is the mode characteristic of the whole bioorganismic world, closely linked to genetic communication and evolution. It is equivalent to perinatal consciousness, commencing in an "oceanic" awareness in union with the mother and culminating in leaving the womb with the development of personal consciousness; it is characterized by behaviour. On a human scale, there is a dualistic awareness of the world and God, resulting in tension, doubt and criticism; transition from the functional to the conscious learning level is equivalent to the struggle between social systems resulting in the growth of cultures.

One of four learning processes distinguished (Lazslo, 1972) by the type of consciousness brought into play.