[DEVC 144] MODULE 1 LEARNING CONCEPTS AND THEORIES

1. learning theories are a “source” of a set of credible instructional strategies and techniques

2. learning theories give knowledge on how to make judicious and reasonable strategy selection.

3. theory helps educators integrate a chosen strategy into a particular learning context.

4. theory allows for reliable prediction

What are the four reasons why it is important to be acquainted with learning theory and research?

behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism

What are the three macro learning theories?

learning

This is the “relatively permanent” change “in behavior, or in the capacity to behave” a particular way, brought about by a “learner’s experience and interaction with the world”

1. relatively permanent change

2. behavior and capacity to behave

3. learner’s experience and interaction with the world

Note that definition of learning revolves around three key phrases, these phrases are?

Learning

Pertains to enduring changes in behavior that are caused by gaining new knowledge and skills from one’s environment.

Instruction

Refers to a set of techniques and strategies to aid learners in the acquisition of said skills and knowledge.

Behaviorism

“Equates learning with changes in either the form or frequency of observable performance” (Ertmer & Newby, 1993, p. 48). This means that a student is said to be learned if they are able to perform a desired response after a stimulus was perceived.

Behaviorism

In this learning theory, it is important for students to create the needed associations between stimuli and responses.

exercise, reinforcements and punishments.

For a stimulus and a response to be perfectly associated, an educator may use two possible strategies, these strategies are?

exercise

This is done by asking the learner to perform a desired behavior over and over again until they have reached mastery,

reinforcements and punishments

Taking off from the work of B.F. Skinner, this strategy holds that association between stimulus and response is best achieved when desired behavior is reinforced and undesired behavior is punished.

Behaviorism

• Best applied in tasks that require low degrees of mental processing, such as pairing (A is pronounced as /ei/), memorization (5+4=9), and stimulus discrimination (triangular toy does not fit in circular hole).

• Notice a pattern in the earlier examples? Most behaviorist techniques mentioned involve nearly mindless tasks that over time become automatic in the learner’s everyday life.

• Hence, these strategies are often employed in the context of childhood learning.

Cognitivism

Views learning as a highly mental activity, one that occurs when there are measurable changes in a learner’s knowledge state, rather than simply the performance of behavior.

Cognitivism

Emphasizes “what learners know and how they come to acquire it”

Cognitivism

If an educator chooses this as a guide, they are expected to employ tools and strategies that ensure that learners efficiently use their “memory and thought processes to ... store and manipulate mental representations and ideas” (Robison, Molenda, & Rezabek, 2016, p. 25). These strategies would include:

• simplification (i.e. mnemonic devices to learn the periodic table of elements),

• step by step explanations, analogies and examples, demonstrations, and

• use of media (i.e. visual, audio, audio-visual).

Gestalt Psychology

Believes that the root of all learning is perception, and perception refers to “the process by which we organize or see relationships among stimuli so that they make up a coherent whole” (Cadiz, 2008). This means that properly-structured educational messages, appropriate design, and clean layout, are key to effective learning.

similarity, proximity, contrast, good continuity

What are the 4 principles of Gestalt’s psychology?

Tolman’s cognitive maps

This theory emphasizes the ability of students to construct their personal mental representations of a topic.

Constructivism

Defines learning as the creation of meaning through experience.

Constructivism

Does not seek to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, but rather, the construction of it through experience.

Social negotiation

The process of bridging together conflicting interpretations of an object or phenomenon.

Kolb’s Experiential learning cycle (ELC)

This theory proposes that learning occurs as a consequence of immersing in an experience and reflecting on it. It also believes that learning is a dynamic, never-ending process of self-improvement.

Concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation

Kolb’s Experiential learning cycle (ELC) dissects the learning process into four (4) stages. These stages are?

Concrete experience

where learners are exposed to an activity that will serve as basis for class discussion,

reflective observation

where learners review, recap, and describe what they experienced in the activity

Abstract conceptualization

where teacher leads the students to a discussion that analyzes the activity and its relevance to the topic in class,

Active experimentation

where what was analyzed is tested in new situations.

Situated cognition theory

States that people’s knowledge is embedded in the context, activity, or culture where it was learned.

Situated cognition theory

This theory suggests that for learning to best occur, learners must be thrust in real or simulated environments that ask for their cognitive input.

Constructivism

Which macro learning theory involves object media such as plant and animal specimens, fossil replicas, and interactive media such as board games, card games, video games, escape rooms are tools that educators will find interesting for their learners.

Socio-psychological

Main Argument: Communication is about perception, attitudes, and behavior: As communicators, we interact and influence each other interpersonally.

Possible Implications on Learning:

• Communication factors influence the knowledge, attitudes and practices of teachers and students, and vice-versa. For instance, it can be said that messages that are effectively designed and delivered through appropriate media are likely to increase retention of lessons in the mind of learners.

• Communication behavior and learning behavior are related. Hence, it may be hypothesized that extrovert students have greater tendency to seek for information from classmates than introvert ones.

Cybernetic

Main Argument: Communication is a system of information processing: As communicators, we are interconnected with one another, the social system, and other systems.

Possible Implications on Learning:

• A learning system consists of various elements interacting and interacting with one another.

• The communication system in a learning process should provide for a feedback loop. Feedback, in any forms, serves as check and balance in a learning activity.

• Learning systems monitor, regulate, and control itself and its outputs in order to remain stable and achieve goals. Thus, it may be argued that assessment and evaluation tools can ensure that learning goals are achieved.

Semiotic

Main Argument: Communication is the process of sharing meaning through signs: As communicators, we explain and understand each other through signs, which facilitate how we live.

Possible Implications on Learning:

• Every educational session is mostly symbolic. Teachers and students learn through the process of representation and signification.

• Teachers should be careful of the signs and symbols used in learning situations because these help in the sharing, appreciation, and construction of meanings.

Socio-cultural

Main Argument: Communication is reproduction of social order: As communicators, we create and enact social reality. We produce and reproduce who we are, how see ourselves, and how we act.

Possible Implications on Learning:

• What is discussed in a learning place creates, recreates, produces, reproduces, and changes (cultural) realities.

• Education should be culturally sensitive.

Critical

Main Argument: Communication is power: As communicators, we are dominated by unjust, ideology-creating discourse that must be challenged.

Possible Implications on Learning:

• Educators must be conscious of the power they wield. There are

  arguments that some “voices” are muted or marginalized in an educational system. Hence, teachers should search and hear these voices. The goal of education is human empowerment, not the affirmation of a dominant ideology.

Phenomenological

Main Argument: Communication is experience of self and others through dialogue: As communicators, we can understand others genuinely if we talk with them emphatically.

Possible Implications on Learning:

• The learning process is a dialogue. Both teachers and students assign meanings (to experiences) individually and together. The learning experience should be mutually reinforcing to both teachers and students.