Learning, collaboration and group work in the classroom

key points of the behaviourist approach to learning

• rewards and punishment for performance/behaviour

• learning through observation (modelling)

key limitation of behaviourist approach to learning

• neglects cognitive processes that precedes behaviour

key points of the constructivist approach to learning

• disequilibrium (either individually or in a group) as an opportunity for learning (socio-cognitive conflict)

• the child is an active agent in their learning

• discovery-based learning (Bruner, 1961) - minimal teacher involvement in learning process; use of hands-on materials; linked to better retention compared to direct instruction

key limitation of constructivist approach to learning

• Mayer (2004) - pure discovery (discovery-based learning) may fail to promote certain cognitive processes

• argues for assisted discovery instead 

key points of socio-cultural approach to learning

• relationship between social activity and individual thinking underpins cognitive development

• cognitive development is guided by a more competent social partner

• zone of proximal development (vygotsky)

what are the social mechanisms for learning?

• children as teachers and learners (humans have an innate inclination to teach others and learn from this teaching)

• group learning (the correct answer to a problem must be within the group for effective learning to occur)

describe Radziszewska and Rogoff (1991)

• studied guided participation

• compared collaboration of a naïve child with: another naïve peer, a trained peer, an adult

• had to plan to errand planning

• those paired with trained peer or adult most successful

• in post-testing, only children paired with an adult could later complete the task on their own

what is most important for learning according to Mercer & Howe (2012)?

• quality of talk (dialogic vs authoritative talk)

• collaboration vs cooperation (collaboration is the active participation of all people in the problem-solving group)

key points of information-processing approaches

• mind as a computer metaphor (memory capacity, processing speed, sensory system, strategies, rules, etc.)

• encoding of objects/events as representations

• storage and retrieval

• focus on enhancing an individual’s processing abilities

explain Craik & Lockhart’s study (1972)

• gave participants a list of words

• better retrieval of words following deeper processing (e.g. being asked a question about the word)

what is the self reference effect?

when an individual has better memory for a piece of info if it is relevant to themselves

explain domain-specific knowledge theory

• the idea that we have many independent, specialised knowledge structures rather than one cohesive structure

• relating to a specific area/field

explain development of strategies

• individuals change their method of problem-solving based on new info to become more efficient/effective in different tasks

• development can be both progressive and regressive

explain metacognition

• thinking about one’s own thinking

children and metacognition

• children’s metacognitive awareness increases with age

• children often struggle to know how and when to apply their problem solving strategies to a task