Theories

1
Theories Philosophies

• Just the tip of the iceberg
• EDER 671
• Dr. Qing Li

2
Learning Theories

• What is a theory? A theory
• provides a general explanation for observations
  made over time,
• Explains and predicts behavior,
• Can never be established beyond all doubt
• May be modified
• Seldom has to be thrown out completely if
  thoroughly tested but sometimes a theory may be
  widely accepted for a long time and later
  disproved.
• (Dorin, Demmin Gabel, 1990)

3
Brief overview of some learning theories based
on OCSLD (2002)

• There are many different theories of learning. It
  is useful to consider their application to how
  your students learn and how you teach. It is
  important to think how you learn and realize that
  everyone does not learn the way you do.

4
Sensory Stimulation theory

• Its premise is that effective learning occurs
  when the senses are stimulated.
• 75 knowledge held by adults is learned through
  seeing, 13 through hearing. Other senses- touch,
  smell taste account for 12.
• By stimulating the senses, particularly the
  visual sense, learning can be enhanced.
• If multi-senses are stimulated, greater learning
  takes place.
• How through greater variety of colors, volume
  levels, strong statements, facts presented
  visually, use of variety of techniques and media.
  

5
Reinforcement Theory

• Skinner positive reinforcement, negative
  reinforcement, punishment. (details later)
• Note much competency based training is based
  on this theory.
• Very useful in learning repetitive tasks, but
  higher order learning is not involved.
• Criticism too rigid and mechanical.

6
Holistic learning theory

• Premise the individual personality consists of
  many elements specifically the intellect,
  emotions, the body impulse (or desire), intuition
  and imagination that all require activation if
  learning is to be more effective

7
Facilitation theory (the humanist approach)

• Carl Rogers, Premise learning will occur by the
  educator acting as a facilitator, by establishing
  an atmosphere in which learners feel comfortable
  to consider new ideas and are not threatened by
  external factors.
• Believe that human beings have a natural
  eagerness to learn
• There is some resistance to, and unpleasant
  consequences of, giving up what is currently held
  to be true
• The most significant learning involves changing
  ones concept of oneself.

8
Facilitation theory (2)

• Teachers are
• Less protective of their constructs and beliefs
  than other teachers,
• More able to listen to learners, especially to
  their feelings,
• pay as much attention to their relationship with
  learners as to the content of the course
• Apt to accept feedback, both positive and
  negative and to use it as constructive insight
  into themselves and their behavior.

9
Facilitation theory (3)

• Learners
• Are encouraged to take responsibility for their
  own learning
• Provide much of the input for the learning which
  occurs through their insights and experiences
• Are encouraged to consider that the most valuable
  evaluation is self-evaluation and that learning
  needs to focus on factors that contribute to
  solving significant problems or achieving
  significant results.

10
Experiential learning

• Kolbs 4-stage learning process

• The process can begin at any of the stages and is
  continuous (no limit to the of cycles).
• Without reflection we would simply continue to
  repeat our mistakes.

Have an experience
Review that experience
Plan next steps, experimenting to find solution
Conclude from that experience
11
Experiential learning (2)

• Learning is through 1) concrete experience,2)
  observation reflection, 3) abstract
  conceptualization, 4) active experimentation.
• People begin with their preferred style in the
  experiential learning cycle. Hence 4 learning
  styles activist (prefer to learn by doing),
  reflector ( like to observe reflect), theorist
  (like to have everything organized into a neat
  schema ASAP), pragmatist (enjoys the planning
  stage and keen to test things out in practice)
• Dont know your learning style?
  http//www.stepchange.org.uk/Learning_Style_Questi
  on.pdf

12
Action Learning

• Links the world of learning with the world of
  action through a reflective process within
  collaborative learning groups- action learning
  sets. The sets meet regularly to work on
  individuals real life issues with the aim of
  learning with and from each other.

13
Adult Learning (Andragogy)

• Knowles adult learning was special.
• adults
• Bring wealth experience to the learning
  environment should be used as a resource.
• expect to have a high degree of influence on what
  they are to be educated for, and how they are to
  be educated.
• Andragogy is student-centered, experience-based,
  problem-oriented and collaborative very much in
  the spirit of the humanist approach to learning
  and education.

14
Why bother?

• Some reasons
• Learning theories permeate to all dimensions of
  educational technology. E.g. depending on the
  learners and situations, we design our
  instructional events (environments, systems,
  software) which would affect student learning.
• In ID, the designer must understand the strengths
  and weaknesses of each learning theory to
  optimize their use in appropriate instructional
  design strategy.

15
Your reason?

• Can you think of at least one good reason for us
  to learn all these theories?
• Can you use examples from your previous
  experience to explain your reasons?

16
Objectivism vs. Constructivism

• Based on Wilson (1997) Roblyer (2003)

17
Current educational Goals and Methods Two views

• Directed instruction grounded primarily in
  behaviorism and the information-processing branch
  of cognitive learning theories (acquisition
  metaphor).
• Constructivist instruction evolved from other
  branches of thinking in cognitive learning theory
  (participation metaphor).

18
Philosophical foundations

• Objectivist knowledge has a separate, real
  existence of its own outside the human mind.
  Learning happens when this knowledge is
  transmitted to people and they store it in their
  minds.
• Constructivist humans construct all knowledge in
  their minds by participating in certain
  experiences learning occurs when one constructs
  both mechanisms for learning and her own unique
  version of the knowledge, colored by background,
  experiences, and aptitudes.
• A tree was falling off in the middle of a forest
  in BC and no body was around. Since nobody
  heard, did the falling tree make a noise?

19
Methodological differences

• Directed
• Teacher transmitter of knowledge expert source
  director of skill/concept development through
  structured experiences
• Student receive information demonstrate
  competence all students learn same material
• Curriculum based on skill and knowledge
  hierarchies skills taught one after the other in
  set sequence.

• Constructivist
• Teacher guide and facilitator as students
  construct their own knowledge collaborative
  resource and assistant as students explore
  topics.
• Student collaborate with other develop
  competence students may learn different material
• Curriculum based on projects/problems, etc. that
  foster both higher and lower level skills
  concurrently.

20
More methodological differences

• Directed
• Learning goals stated in terms of mastery
  learning and behavioral competence in a scope and
  sequence
• Activities lecture, demonstration, discussions,
  drill practice, seatwork, testing
• Assessment written tests and development of
  products matched to objectives all tests and
  products match set criteria same measures for
  all students.

• Constructivist
• Learning goals stated in terms of growth and
  increased ability to work independently and
  collaboratively.
• Activities group projects, hands-on exploration,
  authentic tasks, product development
• Assessment alternative assessment including
  performance assessment, portfolios quality
  measured by rubrics and checklists measures may
  differ among students.

21
Theoretical Foundations Directed

• Behavioral theories concentrate on immediately
  observable, thus, behavioral, changes in
  performance (tests) as indicators of learning.
• Pavlov conditioned response, behavior is
  largely controlled by involuntary physical
  responses to outside stimuli (e.g. dogs
  salivating at the sight of dog food).

22

• Behaviorist (Skinner, stimulus-response )
• behavior is more controlled by the consequences
  of actions than by events preceding the action.
  A consequence is an outcome (stimulus) after the
  behavior influence future behaviors. (e.g. a
  child reasons she will get praise if she behaves
  well in school).
• Since internal learning processes cannot be seen
  directly, the focus is on cause-and effect
  relationships that can be established by
  observation.
• Human behavior can be shaped by contingencies of
  reinforcement
• positive reinforcement increase in desired
  behavior from a stimulus (study hard- praise)
• Negative reinforcement -increase in desired
  behavior from avoiding or removing a stimulus
  (not finish assignment detention).
• Punishment decrease in undesirable behavior
  from undesirable consequences. (cheating failure)

23
Theoretical Foundations Directed (cont.)

• Information Processing Theories behaviorisms
  focus only on external directly observable
  indicators of learning, information-processing
  theory (first and most influential of the
  cognitive-learning theories) try to visualize
  what is impossible to observe directly.
• Human brain has 3 kinds of memories
• sensory registers--memory that receives all the
  information a person senses (1 second)
• Short-term (working) memory (5-20 seconds)
• Long-term memory (indefinitely).

24
Theoretical Foundations Directed (cont.)

• Information-Processing Theory Model of human
  memory system

Lost
Lost
Sensory Register
Working (short term) memory
Long term memory
Input (through eyes, mouth, etc.)
attention
Rehearsal Meaningful learning Organizing Elaborati
ng Imagery
May lost if not using regularly
25
More directed Gagnes Principles

• Build on behaviorism and information-processing
  theories, Gagne translated principles from
  learning theories into practical instructional
  strategies.
• Events of instruction (9) to arrange optimal
  conditions of learning.
• Gaining attention
• Informing the learner of the objective
• Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning
• Presenting new material
• Providing learning guidance
• Eliciting performance
• Formative assessment
• Summative assessment
• Enhancing retention and recall

26
More Gagne

• Types of learning he identified types of
  learning as behaviors students demonstrate after
  acquiring knowledge. They differ according to
  the conditions necessary to foster them. He
  showed how the Events of Instruction would be
  carried out slightly different from one type of
  learning to another
• Intellectual skills
• Problem solving
• Higher order rules
• Defined concepts
• Concrete concepts
• discriminations
• Cognitive strategies
• Verbal information
• Motor skills
• attitudes

27
One more Gagne

• Learning hierarchies the development of
  intellectual skills requires learning that
  amounts to a building process. Lower level
  skills provide a necessary foundation for higher
  level ones. E.g. to learn long division, students
  first have to learn all prerequisite skills
  including number recognition, addition and
  subtraction, etc.
• Gagnes work has been widely used to develop
  systematic instructional design principles (major
  influence in business, industry, and military
  training).

28
Your task

• Working in groups of 3, try to develop a metaphor
  with a graphic presentation that shows your
  understanding of major characteristics of
  theories and philosophies behind directed
  instruction. Prepare a 2 min. presentation.

29
Constructivism

• The differences among those who think of
  themselves as constructivists makes it difficult
  to settle on a single definition.
• Theorists like Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget, and
  Bruner are credited with fundamental premises of
  constructivism.

30
Social constructivism

• Dewey
• curriculum should arise from student interests
• Curriculum topics should be integrated, not
  isolated.
• Education is growth, rather than an end in
  itself.
• Learning occurs through its connection with life,
  rather than through participation in curriculum.
• Learning should be hands on and experience based,
  rather than abstract.

31
Social constructivism (cont.)

• Vygotsky
• Cognitive development is directly related to and
  based on social development.
• Zone of proximal development difference between
  two levels of cognitive functioning (adult/expert
  and child/novice).
• Scaffolding the assistance that an expert gives
  a novice to help him/her reach higher than would
  be possible by the novices efforts alone.

32
Piaget Cognitive development

• Childs 4 stages of cognitive development
• Sensorimoter (birth-2 yrs.) explore world
  through senses and motor activity. Cannot
  differentiate between self and environment (if
  they cannot see, it doesnt exist)
• Preoperational (2-7) develop greater abilities
  to communicate via speech and to engage in
  symbolic activities (drawing object, play
  pretending and imaging).
• Concrete operational (7-11) increase in
  abstract reasoning ability and ability to
  generalize.
• Formal operations (12-15) can form and test
  hypotheses, organize information, reason
  scientifically, show results of abstract thinking
  in the form of symbolic materials.

33
Piaget (cont.)

• Piagets basic assumptions
• Children are active and motivated learners
• Childrens knowledge of the world becomes more
  integrated and organized over time
• Children learn through the processes of
  assimilation and accommodation
• Cognitive development depends on interaction with
  ones physical and social environment
• The processes of equilibration (resolving
  disequilibrium) help to develop increasingly
  complex levels of thought
• Cognitive development can occur only after
  certain genetically controlled neurological
  changes occur.
• Cognitive development occurs in four
  qualitatively different stages.

34
Bruner Learning as discovery

• Bruner also categorized childrens cognitive
  development stage
• Enactive stage (0-3)
• Iconic stage (3-8)
• Symbolic stage (8-)
• Discovery learning an approach to instruction
  through which students interact with their
  environment by exploring and manipulating
  objects, wrestling with questions and
  controversies, or performing experiments.
• However, teachers found that discovery learning
  is most successful when student have prerequisite
  knowledge and undergo some structured experiences.

35
Gardner Multiple intelligences

• Of all theories embraced by constructivists,
  Gardner is the only one that attempt to define
  the role of intelligence in learning.
• Types of intelligence Linguistic Musical
  Logical-mathematical Spatial Bodily-kinesthetic
  Intrapersonal Interpersonal Naturalist.
• Educational implication teachers need to try to
  determine which types of intelligence each
  student has and direct the student to learning
  activities that capitalize on these innate
  abilities.

36
Constructivism (claims)

• Constructivism is more a philosophy (i.e. way of
  seeing the world), not a set of strategies.
• The nature of reality mental representations
  have real ontological status just as the world
  out there does. Or, reality is more in the mind
  of the knower, the knower constructs (interprets)
  a reality based upon his/her apperceptions.
• The nature of knowledge it is individually
  constructed its inside peoples minds, not out
  there.

37
Constructivism (cont.)

• Human interaction we rely on shared or
  negotiated meanings, better thought of as
  cooperative than authoritative or manipulative in
  nature.
• The nature of science-it is a meaning making
  activity with the biases and filters accompanying
  any human activity.

38
Philosophy or Rules?

• If we see the world in constructivist terms, we
  go about our jobs in a different way. But this
  difference cannot be reduced to a discrete set of
  rules or techniques.
• Too often, constructivism is equated with low
  structure and permissiveness-imposing predefined
  learning goals or a learning method is somehow
  interfering with students construction of
  meaning. This maybe true in extreme cases.

39
One example

• Scott, a teacher, who holds definitely
  constructivistic and anti-authoritarian
  philosophy wrote in journal Third hour
  composition I went to a seating chart, the first
  time Ive done that here. I caught them as they
  came in and told them where to sit. Great
  improvement! Everyone working hard on their
  papersI sense that students are relieved that
  Ive imposed more structure. Imposing a seating
  chart is a clear act of asserting authoritative
  control and imposing structure. Is Scott
  betraying his principles, or can an ostensibly
  objectivist instructional technique actually
  serve his constructivist learning and teaching
  goals? The students answer clearly indicate that
  they view it as supporting their own learning
  goals.

40
Creativity vs. Discipline

• Yet to help students become creative, some kind
  of discipline and structure must be provided.
• Creativity arises out of the tension between
  spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like
  river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the
  various forms which are essential to the work of
  art The significance of limits in art is seen
  most clearly when we consider the question of
  form. Form provides the essential boundaries and
  structure for the creative act (Laurel, 1991,
  p.101).
• The point is that a given instructional strategy
  takes on meaning as it is used, in a particular
  context.

41
Holistic way of observing

• Hence, instructional strategies that impose
  structures may actually help students knowledge
  construction.
• One instructional strategy cannot tell whether it
  hinders or serves constructivist learning goals,
  rather the entire situation needs to be examined
  to make the judgments.

42
Constructivism (more claims)

• 2. You do not have to be a philosopher to take a
  position.
• 3. Basically, nobody admits to be an
  objectivism.
• Objectivism is primarily a pejorative label given
  by constructivists to the offending others.
• Realists (other name) believe there is a
  reality exists, and the quality of mental
  representations can be judged by their
  correspondence to the reality (another hotly
  debated issue).

43
What is your take on?

• There are many different interpretations of
  constructivism. An example a Florida
  politician's position on a county option to
  permit the sale of liquor
• if by whiskey, you mean the water of life that
  cheers mens souls, that smoothes out the
  tensions of the day, that gives gentle
  perspective to ones view of life, then put my
  name on the list of the fervent wets.
• If by whiskey, you mean the devils brew that
  rends families, destroys careers and ruins ones
  ability to work, then count me in the ranks of
  the dries.

44
Constructivism (still more claimswould it end? )

• Neither side is right. Mind is not a box that
  inside the box are reflections of what lies
  outside.
• The starting point is recognizing that we simply
  are in the world, working, acting and doing
  things. Hence individual cognition is dethroned
  as the center of the universe and placed back
  into the context of being par of the world.

45
Debate

• Prepare a debate on the benefits of using
  directed vs. constructivist models for teaching
  and learning.
• Each group should gather evidence to support
  arguments on one of the following aspects of one
  of the models real, practice problems they
  address the soundness of their underlying
  theories the usefulness in preparing students
  for future education and work. (6 groups total).
  
• Conduct the debate in class.

46
Bibliography

• Dorin, H., Demmin, P., Gabel, D. (1990).
  Chemistry The study of matter. (3rd ed.).
  Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall, Inc.
• OCSLD The oxford centre for Staff and Learning
  Development. http//www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocs
  d/2_learntch/theories.html 09/18/2003
• Roblyer, M., Edwards, J. (2000). Integrating
  educational technology into teaching (2 ed.). New
  Jersey Prentice-Hall.
• Wilson, B. (1997). Reflections on constructivism
  and instructional design. In C. Dills A.
  Romiszowski (Eds.), Instructional development
  paradigms. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Educational
  Technology Publish. http//carbon.cudenver.edu/bw
  ilson/construct.html 09/18/2003