A spiral tip can be considered as a wave source, i.e. a wave is sent out after the tip rotates one circle. Therefore, the dynamics of the spiral tip is vital to understand the behavior of spiral waves. In this paper, we study the spiral tip dynamics from a new perspective by using deterministic learning. A Barkley model described by partial differential equations (PDEs) is employed to illustrate the method. It is first transformed into a set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by using finite difference method. Then, the position states of spiral tip are extracted from the spiral wave generated by the transformed Barkley model by using an isocontour method. Finally, with the recurrent trajectory of spiral tip, its dynamics is accurately identified by using the deterministic learning theory. It is shown that the dynamics underlying the periodic or recurrent trajectory of spiral tips can be accurately identified by using the proposed approach. Numerical experiments are included to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.