Theoretical Frameworks to Learning:

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Theoretical Frameworks to Learning

• A theory is a collection of statements which
  explain observations and explain what we know or
  expect.
• Learning occurs when experience causes a
  relatively permanent change in an individuals
  knowledge or behaviour (Woolfolk, 1995).
• Approaches to learning
• Cognitive theorists emphasise change in knowledge
  and unobservable mental processes thinking and
  problem solving/ observational learning (Ausubel,
  Bruner) information processing, Social learning
  theories, constructivist theories
• Behaviourists emphasise observable outcomes to
  learning i.e., changes in behaviour. And the
  effects of external events or stimulus on the
  individual (Skinner , Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike)
• Social constructionist theories (Vygotsky)

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Behaviourism

• Basic assumptions in common
• Influence of the environment
• Person born a blank slate (Tabular Rasa), but
  environment effects the slate influencing how
  someone behaves, moulding the individual.
• Individuals conditioned by environmental events.
  
• Learning conditioning.
• Focus on observable events
• Psychological research must focus on that which
  is observable and can be studied objectively
  (positivist paradigm) therefore can only focus on
  behaviour and changes in behaviour.
• They explain learning in terms of specific
  environmental stimuli (Ss) and specific responses
  (Rs).
• Stimulus response psychology.
• Learning as change in behaviour
• Learning must be defined in a way that can be
  observed judge overt behaviour.
• Contiguity
• In order for stimulus response relations to
  develop certain events must occur in
  conjunction with other (contiguity)
• E.g. Reprimand for failure uncomfortable
  feeling in stomach
• Calling name in class same uncomfortable feeling

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Behaviourism

• Similarity of learning principles across species
  
• Behaviourists experimented with animals therefore
  assuming we share learning principles. Therefore
  what we learn in one species can be applied to
  understanding another species.
• Contiguity learning
• When ever 2 sensations occur together often
  enough they will become associated. Later if only
  one sensation (stimulus) occurs the other is
  remembered too.
• Egs applications in school
• Spelling drills, learning times tables (if you
  pair 7 x 8 with 56 often enough it becomes an
  automatic response.). Clapping hands for silence.
  Phonics learning.

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Classical conditioning

• Classical conditioning
• Pavlov conditioned dog to salivate at the sound
  of a bell associating sound with the sight and
  smell of meat.
• First a stimulus elicits and unconditioned
  response
• E.g. Tim fails test (initial stimulus /
  unconditioned stimulus) bad feeling - reaction
  is involuntary (unconditioned response). If
  previously okay in test is neutral stimulus.
• But if repeated failure in maths tests then
  associates maths tests with failure and therefore
  bad feeling nervousness and panic, therefore
  tests become conditioned stimuli creating
  conditioned responses.
• E.g. test anxiety. School often becomes
  associated with unpleasant stimuli and
  competition and failure
• Generalisation so now Tim starts to get nervous
  before science and geography exams therefore
  stimulus related to conditioned response elicits
  the conditioned response by itself. So he hasnt
  done badly in science before but generalises his
  maths anxiety to science.
• Discrimination opposite of generalisation

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Behaviourism operant conditioning

• Learnt behaviour due to consequences to action
• Operants instrumental acts
• Extinction conditioned stimulus is represented
  repeatedly but not followed by unconditioned
  stimulus. Conditioned response gradually fades
  away and is extinguished. Removal of
  reinforcement to make behaviour die out.
• Tim does well in maths eventually anxiety fades
  away.
• Reinforcement application of a stimulus with aim
  of increasing desired behaviour
• Positive Reinforcement Increase in desired
  behaviour through applying a positive consequence
  to an action. Rewards smiles, praise, high
  marks, positive comments, etc.
• Negative reinforcement increase in desired
  behaviour through avoidance of aversive
  consequences/negative threat e.g.. Fear failure,
  detention, parental anger, humiliation.
• Punishment application of pain/ negative
  stimulus for negative/undesirable behaviour (or
  removal of pleasant stimulus).

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Effects and implications

• Reinforcers often lead to changes in behaviour
  (motivation)
• Motivation task must be achievable set target
  within reach
• Punishment does not indicate desired behaviour
  draws attention to undesirable behaviour

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Reinforcement schedules

• Time and performance

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Corporal punishment

• Skinner Punishment part of theory of operant
  conditioning.
• Multiple definitions
• the use of physical force with the intention
  of causing a child pain, but not injury, for the
  purposes of correction or control of the childs
  behaviour (Strauss Donnelly, 1993, in Turner
  Finkelhor, 1996155).

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• Corporal punishment used to control school
  children, especially boys, since the beginning of
  formal education (Slee, 1995).
• Thus society has long encouraged/ condoned) CP ?
  NB impact today
• However, CP now illegal (South African Schools
  Act of 1996, 10. (1) and (2)
• Many arguments for and (leave out?) against the
  use of corporal punishment.

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Arguments against use of CP

• Only extinguish negative behaviour not shape
  positive behaviour
• Models use of violence to solve problems
• Does not provide alternatives to violence
• Teaches obedience to authority through fear,
  rather than taking responsibility for behaviour
• Same learners beaten repeatedly for the same
  offences ? loss of self esteem negative self
  perceptions ? self-fulfilling prophecies of
  badness.

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Continued..

• Learners develop aggressive hostility
• Masks underlying social problems (poverty,
  national inequalities, racism, violence and
  crime)
• CP most damaging for most vulnerable children
• Negative impact on interpersonal relationships
  between the child and parents, teachers, peers
  and siblings

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Continued

• Overwhelming evidence that CP has negative effect
  (Kohn, 1996, in Porteus et al., 2001 Turner
  Finkelhor, 1996 Van Kuik, 1993, in Sogoni, 1997)
  BUT CP still being used in many school settings ?
  
• Must consider relationship between school
  practices and the socio-historical context

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Vygotsky

• Task Think about 2 children that are tested for
  school readiness both can do same tasks
  unassisted, but with assistance one can do more,
  who is more ready?
• Task Think about a something you learnt/ a skill
  you learnt as a child. Describe in detail how you
  learnt it e.g. steps, who helped, how, what did
  you do, what did they do?
• Task compare dialogue in reading - identify how
  learning is assisted

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Zone of proximal development

• The zone between a childs actual developmental
  level as determined by independent problem
  solving (what they can do unassisted) and the
  level of potential development as determined
  through problem solving under adult guidance or
  in collaboration with more capable peers
  (Vygotsky, 1978, p.86).
• Just beyond present understanding (potential
  space)
• Learn through interaction with more capable
  other/mediator
• Learn through active participation

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Stages of ZPD

• Stage1 Assistance by more capable other
• Childs understanding is so limited adult
  organises task so child can participate- physical
  assistance, demonstration. Child has limited
  definition of situation and needs clear direct
  instructions and assistance by more capable other
  Stage 2 can do task by self with other
  guidance- hints of guidance and reassurance from
  adult, child takes on a share of the strategic
  responsibility in the task. Speech is mostly
  interpersonal.
• Stage 3 self-regulation is at the
  intrapsychological plane/performance assisted by
  self
• The child takes over responsibility for the task
• Egocentric speech - self-regulatory function,
• Stage 4 internalised and automised activity
  becomes automatic and internal dialogue
  undetectable.
• Stage 5 if long break/ not practiced, may revert
  to earlier stage

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Vygotsky

• Social origins of mental functioning
• Any function in the childs cultural development
  appears twice, on 2 planes. First it appears on
  the social plane, and then on the psychological
  plane. First it appears between people as an
  interpsychological category, and then within the
  child as an intrapsychological category (1981 a,
  p. 163, in Wertsch and Addison, 1985, p164).
• We learn through the assistance of more capable
  others, and through social interaction. This
  interaction is interpersonal dialogue
  /intermental/ interpsychological /social plane.
• As the task we are learning becomes more familiar
  so we begin to internalise the dialogue so that
  it becomes intrapersonal dialogue /intramental/
  interpsychological/individual plane.
• Eventually we internalise self-regulatory speech
  ways of influencing ourselves originally were
  means for influencing others
• Therefore cultural values influence what is
  learnt - relationship between internal and
  external
• Think with and through language

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What is important about learning?

• Vygotsky (1978)
• What is in the mind as mental operations has
  previously been interaction between people
• - Infants are social beings
• - Learning occurs by interacting with environment
• - More capable others (parents, caregivers etc.)
  assist the child in understanding his or her
  surroundings
• - Children learn by experiencing the more
  capable others should expand on this experience
• - Then, an expansive dialogue will be created

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Implications of Vygotsky

• Assisted performance/Collaboration/ Guided
  participation
• Importance of recognising learners existing
  level of knowledge/development/ skill and
  situation definitions (Routine continuous
  assessment observation)
• Matching learning task and level of assistance to
  development level (responsive assistance)
• Active participation and interaction must be
  organised enhanced (activity setting)
• Mechanism for ensuring transition from
  intermental to intramental transferring
  responsibility to learner, and encouraging
  internalising of skills (cognitive structuring
  instructional conversation)
• Scaffolding (cues prompts towards discovery)
• Cooperative learning in meaningful context

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6 means for assisting performance Tharpe
Gallimore

• Instructing - dialogue, prompts, direction
• Modelling- demonstration
• Contingency management - reinforcement
• Cognitive structuring- metacognition, framing
• Questioning- prompts, leading to discovery
• Feedback - constructive

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How can we use mediation?

• CREATING MEANING
• LABELING experiences
• EXPANDING on what children already know
  EXPLAINING what they do not know
• EXPLORING the world of the child
• FACILITATING interaction with their surroundings
• STORY-TELLING as a tool for understanding
• ACTIVATING their natural curiosity and tendency
  to want to learn about the world they live in.

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Constructivist learning

• Alternative to Positivism- absolute truth to be
  discovered through scientific method and
  reduction into parts, banking metaphor
  (Freire), talk--chalk, chant--drill
• Often complexity of situations cannot be reduced
  to sum of parts
• Knowledge is created and constructed
• Humans are active agents in learning
  development in progressively more complex
  understandings
• Learning active process of constructing meaning
  to make sense of experiences in environment based
  on previous learning- unique cognitive schemes

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• Knowledge not just taken in actively built up
  (created) through participating engaging in
  experiences activities make meaning.
• Meanings tied to social, historical cultural
  contexts
• Essence of personal knowledge can never just be
  transferred- understanding infleunced by culture
• Knowledge not neutral- shaped, consructed
  reconstructed in diff contexts and times
• Eg. What role do men have in our society?

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Diff constructivism social constructionism

• Constructivism - knowledge build on previously
  existing knowledge- build up - active agency but
  still cognitive (inside head)
• Social constructionism- knowledge created in
  between people, it is relational.

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Key concepts

• Active agency continuously organise info
  adapt to world (Piaget assimilation,
  accommodation equlibration) but power to change
  affected by position in system personal
  characteristics (locus of control) - child active
  explorer (inside out) effectiveness dependent on
  context experiences (outside in)
• Social construction of knowledge- dialogue,
  interaction, social cultural values (we
  construct world it constructs us) Bakhtin-
  voices
• Mediation more capable others scaffold, on
  spot adjustments from other to help develop key
  structural elements effective strategies
  (Vygotsky, Feuerstein, Bruner)

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• Metacognition aware of process of thinking
  (cognition is thinking, planning, remembering,
  problem solving) metacognition is understanding
  how we do those (being able to select most
  effective) - higher level of active engagement
• Tools of cognition represent the world
  internally- symbol systems - language, maths,
  music

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Mediation the means of assisting performance in
the ZPD
Teacher, mediator, more capable other - skill,
characteristics
Learner personal characteristics
Culture/society- values
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Constructivist principles in learning

• Situated learning - Real life problems/ Authentic
  tasks/ problem based learning/ service learning/
  Complex challenging real life learning
  environments with authentic tasks
  ill-structured problems, apprenticeship,
  communities of practice
• Multiple perspectives
• multiple representations of content/ material
• Shared responsibility and social negotiation
• learn to defend own position while respecting
  others
• Cognitive apprenticeship
• Students should build (construct) knowledge for
  themselves
• Mediation
• Learning should be structured to learn the most
  fundamental principles of a subject need
  knowledge of organising principles to see
  relationships Learning facilitates structuring
  of coding systems.
• Move from sensory to concrete to abstract
  representations. Experiential to abstract.
• Spiral curriculum learn same content again but
  in more detail second time, with greater
  understanding
• Encourage educated guesses plausibility of
  guesses intuitive leap

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Theoretical overview of situated cognition

• Cognition is an activity - something we actively
  construct involves goals materials and
  procedures learnt from more experienced others,
  therefore not value free.
• Culture is nurturing environment for development
  of mind
• Cultural practices structure relationships
  between people and therefore power to be active
  agents
• Cultural practices create socially appropriate
  tools and procedures for doing things and solving
  problems.
• Relative rate of cognitive development in
  different domains reflects what is adaptive and
  valued in certain cultures and contexts.
• Settings and child rearing habits affect
  cognitive development.
• Culture offers a system of meanings in terms of
  how intelligence is formulated/perceived
• Cognitive functions have meaning within a
  cultural context.
• Culture is mediated through more capable others -
  Children are enculturated.

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Bruner Ausubel

• Bruner discovery learning
• Ausubel meaningful reception learning

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Implications for learning teaching

• Give students time to explain how they came to
  their answers - encourage use of language
• Underpins outcomes based education leaner
  centered active teaching/learning environment
• Help learners become conscious of the strategies
  for learning problem solving
• Promoting content process -not just facts but
  structured Learn through exploration discover
• Create opportunities for action active
  engagement

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Implications continued

• Critical Connecting with where learner is at
  (level of understanding provide cognitive
  structure, through mediation leaner challenged to
  change
• Promote opportunities for guided discovery
• Scaffolding (support for active participation)
• Promoting cooperative learning - Use variety of
  whole class, small group, pair individual
  activities

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Mercer, N guided construction of knowledge