A. Student Development and the Learning Process

Theoretical frameworks for student learning

On the PLT, you are expected to understand the prevailing theories and research on how students learn. Many factors contribute to a student’s learning and development. You need to understand and be able to differentiate between various theories on learning processes, cognitive processes, learning experiences, and the impact of a student’s learning environment (Donovan et al, 2000).

Construction of knowledge and acquisition of skills

The environment, experiences, and meta-cognitive processing of a child’s education impact the speed and efficiency of their growth. Learning theorists differ in their ideas of how knowledge is acquired. However, their overlapping ideas and research inform the development of curriculum and instructional design used in schools today. On the PLT, you will see the theorists and foundational concepts for behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and social learning theory. Later in this text, you will examine how these theories influence instructional design in the classroom.

Cognitive processes and how they are developed

The development of cognitive processes is ongoing and influenced by the students’ learning experiences and environment. Students’ ability to process information is critical to their growth and development. Cognitive development happens at the intersection of information processing, intelligence, reasoning, language development, and memory (Encyclopedia.com, 2020).

1. Critical thinking.

To apply, analyze, evaluate, compare, and synthesize information.

2. Creative thinking.

1. To create, develop, and understand new perspective.

1. Questioning.

1. To ask why, how, where, what, or when.

4. Inductive reasoning.

To reason by working from a specific concept to a general topic. For example, a lesson starts by exploring Earth and then moves to Earth’s place in the Solar System.

4. Deductive reasoning.

To reason by working from a general topic to a specific concept. For example, students are exploring ecosystems and determining how evolving ecosystems result in evolving species natural selection and species’ evolution.

4. Problem-solving.

To use a variety of thinking strategies to generate or evaluate solutions.

4. Planning.

To prepare.

8. Memory.

Working memory is used to process the current task or situation; descriptive memory is used to carry out a procedure or remember information over a long period of time.

8. Recall.

To retell.

Jean Piaget.

Piaget is widely known for his stages of cognitive development. This is a framework for how students develop intellectually through various stages. Piaget asserted that cognitive development was a reorganization of mental processes resulting from biological maturation and environmental experience (1972).

Stage	Age	Description
1. Sensorimotor	0–2 years	Children at this stage figure out the world through sensory and motor experiences. Object permanence and separation anxiety are hallmarks of this stage.
2. Pre-operational	2–6 years	Children at this stage identify and use symbols for objects but do not have the ability to apply logical reasoning. They know how to play pretend and are egocentric.
3. Concrete operational	7–12 years	Logical reasoning about concrete objects kicks in during this stage. Conservation, reversibility, serial ordering, and understanding cause and effect relationships are hallmarks of this stage, but thinking is still limited to the concrete.
4. Formal operational	12 years– adult	Abstract thinking such as logic, deductive reasoning, comparison, and classification are demonstrated by the individual in this stage.

John Dewey.

Dewey is one of the most influential theorists in education. Dewey believed that students learn by doing through hands-on, inquiry-based learning. This was revolutionary in the 1900s when schooling consisted mostly of the teacher standing in the front of the room giving students the knowledge. Dewey asserted that it is more effective for students to learn by interacting with their environment, relating the learning to real-life, and learning together with the teacher.

Jerome Bruner.

Like Dewey, Bruner believed that learning is an active process. Like Piaget, Bruner believed learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current and past knowledge.

Fundamental concepts of Bruner’s philosophy:

• Curriculum should foster the development of problem-solving skills through the processes of inquiry and discovery.

• Subject matter should be represented in terms of the child’s way of viewing the world.

• Curriculum should be designed so that the mastery of skills leads to the mastery of still more powerful ones.

Erik Erickson.

Like Piaget, Erickson believed that students pass through definitive stages. However, Erikson focused on psychosocial stages. According to Erickson, socialization happens in 8 stages:

1. Learning basic trust over mistrust 0-1.5 years

2. Learning autonomy versus shame 1.5-3 years

3. Learning initiative versus guilt (purpose) 3-5 years

4. Industry versus inferiority (competence) 5-12 years

5. Learning identity versus identity diffusion (fidelity) 12-18 years

6. Learning intimacy versus isolation (love) 18-40 year

7. Learning generativity versus self-absorption (care) 40-65 years

8. Integrity versus despair (wisdom) 65+ yea

Lev Vygotsky.

Vygotsky’s theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition. He believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of making meaning. Vygotsky is most widely known for the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which he asserted is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978).

Helping someone move through the ZPD depends on the following:

1. Presences of a more knowledgeable person

2. Social interactions

3. Scaffolding or supportive activities developed by the educator (ZPD is discussed in more detail below).

Albert Bandura.

Bandura is best known for his social learning theory on modeled behaviors or observational learning. He believes that students learn from what they observe and that teachers can be proactive about how they demonstrate and promote behaviors. He argues that students are more likely to emulate a behavior if they value the outcome and admire the modeler. His theory builds on the central elements of Vygotsky’s learning which also emphasize social learning. Bandura’s social learning theory has four stages:

1. Attention (observation of modeled behaviors)

2. Retention (memory)

3. Motor reproduction (practice and replication of behaviors)

4. Motivation (self-efficacy and personal motivation to use new behaviors)

(Bandura, 1972)

Lawrence Kohlberg.

Kohlberg built on Piaget’s research to explore the development of morality. He created a set of moral dilemmas to present to a group of boys. The boys were interviewed to determine how they made their decisions. He continued to interview the boys over a 20-year period. Kohlberg came up with 3 levels of morality with two stages at each level. He argued that everyone works through the stages sequentially but at varying rates and not everyone reaches the highest stages.

Level	Stages	Example
Level 1: Preconventional morality Behaviors are based on perceived individual consequences. Ages 5-10+	Stage 1: Punishment and obedience orientation A child’s incentive to obey is to not be punished.	Did my mom say this is ok? What will happen if I take this cookie?
	Stage 2: Instrumental purpose orientation Behavior based on receiving rewards or satisfying personal needs.	Is this self-serving? Can I do this without an adult knowing?
Level 2: Conventional morality Behaviors determined by the rules of adults, peers, and government. Ages 10-15+	Stage 3: Good boy/nice girl orientation Behavior based on social approval.	Am I following the school rules? Will my peers and teachers be happy with my actions?
	Stage 4: Law and order orientation Behavior based on laws and social rules.	Children begin to look beyond their own ties to the abstract, “greater good.” They are more aware of laws and social norms of society.
Level 3: Postconventional or principled morality Behaviors based on abstract principles and values. Age 15+	Stage 5: Social contract orientation When the individual feels conflict between personal rights and the law, exceptions are made.	Laws are not always clear-cut. For example, my father had a heart attack. I needed to rush him to the emergency room, so I broke the speed limit.
	Stage 6: Universal ethical principal orientation Behaviors based on abstract ethical principles which take in multiple differing perspectives simultaneously.	Person acts to defend principles of equality, justice, equity. Personal conduct, intentions, character all play a role in decision making. Not everyone reaches this highest level.

Benjamin Bloom

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model used to classify educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity. The higher up the pyramid, the more complex the thinking skills. The skills are represented as verbs on the pyramid. When answering questions on the PLT regarding critical thinking, reference Bloom’s Taxonomy. The figure above is a modified version of Bloom’s Taxonomy. We have modified it to include other skills (verbs) you may see on the exam.

The skills (verbs) at the highest points of the pyramid are evaluate, analyze, create, and apply. When you are faced with a critical thinking problem on the test, visualize this pyramid, and look for answer choices that reflect the higher portions of the pyramid.

Apply
Create

Analyze

Evaluate

Compare & Contrast Categorize

Understand & Identify

Remember & Memorize

(Modified Bloom’s Taxonomy)

Dewey in the classroom (schema)

• After a lesson about Naturalism in American literature, the class goes to an outdoor classroom to observe a particular aspect of their natural surroundings and then write a short story about their observations.

• As part of a seed germination unit, students plant seeds in clear containers, observe the plants at regular intervals, and note the changes they observe.

• Before reading about rocks, students collect and categorize different rocks.

• Piaget in the classroom (cognitive learning theory)

• Provide students with pre-cut letters to form words.

• Allow opportunities for students to participate in age-appropriate experiments.

• Connect new concepts to previously learned concepts (prior knowledge or schema).

Vygotsky in the classroom (ZPD)

• Cooperative learning activities

• Scaffolded activities

• Peer and teacher support

• Gradual release (I do, we do, you do)

Bruner in the classroom (constructivist theory)

• Students are thinking aloud, forming ideas, and engaging in discussions. As they do this, they learn

  new things.

• Curriculum should be organized in a spiral manner so that the student continually builds upon what they have already learned.

Bandura in the classroom (social learning theory)

• Students regularly participate in routines for learning new skills, strategies, and concepts.

• Self-efficacy is promoted by giving students immediate and specific feedback for completed tasks, applied skills, and new learning.

Kohlberg in the classroom (moral development)

• Ask students to describe the motives behind a character’s actions and consider a story from various

  perspectives.

• Promoting social awareness through community actions.

• Researching environmentalism and other activism movements.

Bloom in the classroom (critical thinking)

• The teacher guides students to answer a variety of comprehension questions with increasing level

  of complexity from recall to analysis and application.

• A teacher designs a science assessment on reptiles asking students to not only recall the names of reptiles and their features, but to also compare reptiles to amphibians.

Erikson in the classroom (social development)

• Cooperative learning is structured based on students’ levels of socialization.

• Develop independence by assigning students roles in the classroom, such as paper collector, group administrator, white board washer, etc.

Metacognition

Metacognition is often referred to as, “thinking about your own thinking” (Flavell, 1979). Some examples of metacognition in the classroom include students planning how to complete an assignment, tracking their own learning process, or self-reflecting on how they learned a new skill. Students are taught metacognitive strategies such as questioning, visualizing, inferring, and making connections. Supporting students to identify and use these processes with fidelity supports comprehension and critical thinking. It also promotes students to take ownership of their academics.

Schema (Piaget)

Using schema (or prior knowledge) to increase comprehension of new concepts is a central theme of Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, as previously discussed. For students to comprehend complex concepts and text, they must have prior knowledge and understanding. If they do not, the learning is compromised. Therefore, teachers must provide opportunities to activate and build prior knowledge.

KWL chart

	K	W	L
Question	What do I already know?	What do I want to learn?	What did I learn?
Example	Cells are small.	What do cells do?	Parts of the cell and how they interact to support life.

Transfer

Transfer refers to the process of applying learned knowledge to a new context. For example, students learn to add two-digit numbers in a whole-group lesson. Then, the teacher asks them to complete problems independently. In this scenario, the teacher is having them transfer or apply their new knowledge.

Teachers can support transfer of knowledge by creating learning experiences where the learning environment for new tasks relates to the new knowledge. For example, a class of students is setting up a garden and needs to build a fence to keep animals out. They will need to transfer math concepts to measure the area, layout the design, and build the fence.

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is a student’s belief in herself to accomplish a goal. Students with higher self-efficacy are confident, goal-oriented, and productive.

Self-regulation

Self-regulation is the ability to monitor your own thoughts, emotions, and actions. Developmentally, school -aged children have not mastered self-regulation but are refining this skill on varying growth curves. Many students need scaffolded support to build self-regulation competencies in various learning settings.

Zone of proximal development (Vygotsky)

On a learning curve, the ZPD is just beyond where students work independently. In the ZPD, a student can complete tasks and process new information with the support of a more knowledgeable learner. Helping someone move through the ZPD depends on 3 core aspects:

1. The presence of someone with knowledge and skills beyond that of the learner (i.e. teacher, tutor or peer).

2. Social interactions with a skillful person that allow the learner to observe and practice their skills.

3. Scaffolding, or supportive activities provided by the educator, or more competent peer, to support the student as he or she is led through the ZPD.

Domains of Human Development

Students progress through different stages of cognitive, physical, social, and moral domains. Each stage has a range of typical variances because not all children progress at the same pace. In addition, it is possible for children to demonstrate characteristics across more than one stage of development at the same time. It is important to understand each stage so you can identify when a student is far out of the expected age range, either above or below her peers. This might be an indicator of a larger developmental issue.

Cognitive development

• Thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, understanding.

• Recall Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.

Social development

• Interpersonal, initiating play, interactions with peers.

• Recall Erikson’s stages of social development.

Moral development

• Process of deciding what is right and wrong; the development of environmental factors influencing how one makes ethical decisions or observes right and wrong.

• Recall Kohlberg’s stages of development.

• Kohlberg emphasized that while an individual will develop through the stages in order, the pace of development will vary between people.

Physical development

Theories of physical development focus on three main stages: early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. You need to understand the differences in these stages to address possible barriers in the classroom. For example, a student with poor fine motor skills may have difficulty writing. A student with delayed gross motor skills may need additional support to complete basic tasks like keeping their work area clean and moving around the classroom.

Early childhood (1-6 years)

• Refining skills like jumping, hopping, skipping, walking backwards, bike riding.

• Improving hand-eye coordination while drawing shapes and cutting.

  Middle childhood (6-12 years)

• Slow, steady growth: 3-4 inches per year

• Use physical activities to develop gross and fine motor skills

  Adolescent (12-18 years)

• Growth spurt: girls: 11-14 years, boys: 13-17 years

• Puberty: girls: 11-14 years, boys: 12-15 years

  (Rycus J., 1998)

Relationship between learning theory and human development

Human development and learning theory can guide both learning expectations and the design of learning experiences. For example, developmentally, children are typically able to sit and actively listen to an adult talk to them for about as many minutes as their age. Learning theories emphasize the importance of introducing new material. Synthesizing these perspectives means a mini-lesson for 1st graders should be no more than 6-7 minutes long while a mini-lesson for 6th graders can be 11-12 minutes.

Another example is how we consider human development when asking children to engage in a discussion. Younger students are more ego-centric and need modeling and practice to learn to listen and respond to the ideas of others. Older students engage in the opinions and perspectives of their peers as well as fictional characters and historical role models.

Learning theory to solve educational problems

Like developmental theory, learning theory provides insight into educational problems. For example, students unable to grasp a new concept may need a new instructional approach. A teacher can use social learning theory to consider how the learning behaviors are being modeled. The teacher may also want to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to consider what type of cognitive thinking is required for the task to support the students processing.

Human development to solve educational problems.

At times, learning is interrupted by typical and atypical variances in human development. For example, a 7-year old student who is cognitively unable to consistently apply logical reasoning may have trouble processing a typical two-step math problem in a 2nd grade classroom. Human develop theory is a tool to address and overcome these challenges.