theories of learning essay questions

3 Learning Theories: Understanding How People Learn

Introduction.

Learning theories describe the conditions and processes through which learning occurs, providing teachers with models to develop instruction sessions that lead to better learning. These theories explain the processes that people engage in as they make sense of information, and how they integrate that information into their mental models so that it becomes new knowledge. Learning theories also examine what motivates people to learn, and what circumstances enable or hinder learning.

Sometimes people are skeptical of having to learn theory, believing those theories will not be relevant in the real world, but learning theories are widely applicable. The models and processes that they describe tend to apply across different populations and settings, and provide us with guidelines to develop exercises, assignments, and lesson plans that align with how our students learn best. Learning theories can also be engaging. People who enjoy teaching often find the theories interesting and will be excited when they start to see connections between the theory and the learning they see happening in their own classrooms.

General Learning Theories

With a basic understanding of learning theories, we can create lessons that enhance the learning process. This understanding helps us explain our instructional choices, or the “why” behind what and how we teach. As certain learning theories resonate with us and we consciously construct lessons based on those theories, we begin to develop a personal philosophy of teaching that will guide our instructional design going forward. This chapter provides a bridge from theory to practice by providing specific examples of how the theories can be applied in the library classroom. These theories provide a foundation to guide the instructional design and reflective practices presented in the rest of this textbook.

As you read, you might consider keeping track of the key points of each theory and thinking about how these theories could be applied to your practice. Figure 3.1 provides you with an example of a graphic organizer, one of the instructional materials that will be discussed in Chapter 11, that you could use to take notes as you read this chapter. In addition to the examples in practice that are provided in this chapter, you might add some of your own.

Figure 3.1: Graphic Organizer for Major Learning Theories

A table with four columns. The columns are labeled theory, major theorists, key concepts, and examples in practice. There are three blank rows where students can take notes.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is based largely on the work of John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. Behaviorists were concerned with establishing psychology as a science and focused their studies on behaviors that could be empirically observed, such as actions that could be measured and tested, rather than on internal states such as emotions (McLeod, 2015). According to behaviorists, learning is dependent on a person’s interactions with their external environment. As people experience consequences from their interactions with the environment, they modify their behaviors in reaction to those consequences. For instance, if a person hurts their hand when touching a hot stove, they will learn not to touch the stove again, and if they are praised for studying for a test, they will be likely to study in the future

According to behavioral theorists, we can change people’s behavior by manipulating the environment in order to encourage certain behaviors and discourage others, a process called conditioning (Popp, 1996). Perhaps the most famous example of conditioning is Pavlov’s dog. In his classic experiment, Pavlov demonstrated that a dog could be conditioned to associate the sound of a bell with food, so that eventually the dog would salivate whenever it heard the bell, regardless of whether it received food. Watson adapted stimulus conditioning to humans (Jensen, 2018). He gave an 11-month-old baby a rat, and the baby seemed to enjoy playing with it. Over time, Watson caused a loud, unpleasant sound each time he brought out the rat. Eventually, the baby associated the rat with the noise and cried when he saw the rat. Although Watson’s experiment is now considered ethically questionable, it did establish that people’s behavior could be modified through control of environmental stimuli.

Skinner (1938) examined how conditioning could shape behavior in longer-term and more complex ways by introducing the concept of reinforcement. According to Skinner, when people receive positive reinforcement, such as praise and rewards for certain behaviors, those behaviors are strengthened, while negative reinforcement will deter behaviors. According to Skinner, by carefully controlling the environment and establishing a system of reinforcements, teachers, parents, and others can encourage and develop desired behaviors (Jensen, 2018). A simple example of behaviorism in the classroom is a point system in which students are awarded points for good behavior and deducted points for unwanted behavior. Eventually, accumulated points might be traded in for rewards like small gifts or homework passes. This approach assumes that motivation is external, in that students will engage in certain behaviors in order to gain the rewards.

Because it emphasizes the external environment, behaviorism largely ignores or discounts the role of internal influences such as prior knowledge and emotion (Popp, 1996). To an extent, behaviorists view learners as blank slates and emphasize the role of the teacher in the classroom. In this teacher-centered approach, instructors hold the knowledge, decide what will be learned, and establish the rewards for learning. Since their experience and prior knowledge are not considered relevant, learners are passive participants simply expected to absorb the knowledge transmitted by the teacher. While the idea of learners as blank slates has fallen out of favor, many of the conditioning aspects of behaviorism remain popular. As almost any student can attest, behavioral methods of reinforcement, such as the point system described above, are still common, especially in younger grades. Recent trends toward gaming in the classroom, where certain behaviors are rewarded with points and leveling up, are based in a behaviorist approach to learning. See Activity 3.1 for a brief activity on behaviorism.

Activity 3.1: Reflecting on Behaviorism

Think of some of your own learning experiences, whether they were in a traditional classroom, through professional development training, or related to personal interests, such as dance or photography lessons. Try to identify a few examples of behaviorism from those experiences and reflect on the following questions:

How did your instructors use behavioral practice in their classrooms?
Did you find those practices motivating? Why or why not?
If you can think of examples of behaviorism from several different learning experiences, were they more appropriate in some situations than others? How so?
Have you ever used, or can you imagine using, behaviorism in your own teaching practice? How so?

Humanism recognizes the basic dignity and worth of each individual and believes people should be able to exercise some control over their environment. Although humanism as an educational philosophy has its roots in the Italian Renaissance, the more modern theorists associated with this approach include John Dewey, Carl Rogers, Maria Montessori, Paolo Freire, and Abraham Maslow. Humanist learning theory is a whole-person approach to education that centers on the individual learners and their needs, and that considers affective as well as cognitive aspects of learning. At its essence, “humanism in education traditionally has referred to a broad, diffuse outlook emphasizing human freedom, dignity, autonomy, and individualism” (Lucas, 1996). Within this broader context, humanism is also characterized by the following tenets (Madsen & Wilson, 2012; Sharp, 2012):

Students are whole people, and learning must attend to their emotional as well as their cognitive state.
Teachers should be empathetic.
Learners are self-directed and internally motivated.
The outcome of learning is self-actualization.

Humanism centers the individual person as the subject and recognizes learners as whole beings with emotional and affective states that accompany their cognitive development. Recognizing the role of students’ emotions means understanding how those emotions impact learning. Student anxiety, say around a test or a research paper, can interfere with the cognitive processes necessary to be successful. Empathetic teachers recognize and try to understand students’ emotional states, taking steps to alleviate negative emotions that might detract from learning by creating a supportive learning environment.

In a library context, Mellon (1986) identified the phenomenon of library anxiety, or the negative emotions that some people experience when doing research or interacting with library tools and services. This anxiety can distract learners and make it difficult to engage in the processes necessary to search for, evaluate, and synthesize the information they need to complete their task. Similarly, in her Information Search Process, Kuhlthau (1990) describes the affective states as well as the cognitive processes students engage in when doing research, acknowledging that their emotions fluctuate among anxiety, optimism, and, ultimately, satisfaction or disappointment.

A humanist approach to education recognizes these affective states and seeks to limit their negative impact. For instance, we can acknowledge that feelings of anxiety are common so learners recognize that they are not alone. We can also explain how the skills students learn are relevant to their lives in and outside of the classroom.

Because humanists see people as autonomous beings, they believe that learning should be self-directed, meaning students should have some choice in what and how they learn. Humanistic education is often connected with student-centered pedagogical approaches such as differentiated curricula, self-paced learning, and discovery learning (Lucas, 1996). Self-directed learning can take many forms, but it generally means that the instructor acts as a guide, and learners are given the freedom to take responsibility for their own learning. Teachers will provide the materials and opportunities for learning, but students will engage with the learning on their own terms. In a library classroom, we can give students choices about the topics they will research or offer learners different types of activities to practice skills and demonstrate what they have learned.

Humanists also believe that learning is part of a process of self-actualization. They maintain that learning should be internally motivated and driven by students’ interests and goals, rather than externally motivated and focused on a material end goal such as achievement on tests, or employment (Sharp, 2012). The expectation is that when students are allowed to follow their interests and be creative, and when learning takes place within a supportive environment, students will engage in learning for its own sake. This emphasis on self-actualization is largely based on Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs. Maslow identified five levels of needs: basic physiological needs such as food, water, and shelter; safety and security needs; belongingness and love needs, including friends and intimate relationships; esteem needs, including feelings of accomplishment; and self-actualization, when people achieve their full potential. Importantly, these needs are hierarchical, meaning a person cannot achieve the higher needs such as esteem and self-actualization until more basic needs such as food and safety are met. The role of the humanist teacher is to facilitate the student’s self-actualization by helping to ensure needs such as safety and esteem are met through empathetic teaching and a supportive classroom.

In his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed , Freire (2000) brings together many of the student-centered elements of humanistic education, with a strong emphasis on social justice aspects of learning and teaching. In contrast to behaviorist approaches, Freire emphasizes the importance of students’ life experience to their learning. He criticizes what he describes as the “banking model” of education, in which students are viewed as passive and empty vessels into which teachers simply deposit bits of knowledge that students are expected to regurgitate on exams or papers without any meaningful interaction. Freire insists that learning must be relevant to the student’s life and the student should be an active participant in order for learning to be meaningful. Freire also emphasized the emancipatory role of education, arguing that the purpose of education was for learners to gain agency to challenge oppressive systems and improve their lives, and praxis, in which learners put abstract and theoretical knowledge into practice in the real world.

While a student-centered approach and choice can be introduced in any classroom, observers note that in an age of curriculum frameworks and standardized tests, where teachers are often constrained by the material, the ability to provide students with choice and allow for exploration is limited (Sharp, 2012; Zucca-Scott, 2010). Librarians often face similar constraints. School librarians also must meet state and district curriculum standards. Academic librarians generally depend on faculty invitations to conduct instruction and need to adapt their sessions to fit the content, time frame, and learning objectives of the faculty member. Nevertheless, we can always find ways to integrate some self-direction. For instance, rather than using planned examples to demonstrate searches, we might have students suggest topics to search. If we plan hands-on practice activities, we could allow learners to explore their own interests as they engage in the activity, rather than limiting them to preselected topics.

Cognitivism

Cognitivism, or cognitive psychology, was pioneered in the mid-twentieth century by scientists including George Miller, Ulric Neisser, and Noam Chomsky. Whereas behaviorists focus on the external environment and observable behavior, cognitive psychologists are interested in mental processes (Codington-Lacerte, 2018). They assert that behavior and learning entail more than just response to environmental stimuli and require rational thought and active participation in the learning process (Clark, 2018). To cognitivists, learning can be described as “acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory so you can make sense of future problems and opportunities” (Brown et al., 2014, p. 2).

Cognitivists view the brain as an information processor somewhat like a computer that functions on algorithms that it develops in order to process information and make decisions. According to cognitive psychology, people acquire and store knowledge, referred to as schema, in their long-term memory. In addition to storing knowledge, people organize their knowledge into categories, and create connections across categories or schema that help them retrieve relevant pieces of information when needed (Clark, 2018). When individuals encounter new information, they process it against their existing knowledge or schema in order to make new connections. Cognitivists are interested in the specific functions that allow the brain to store, recall, and use information, as well as in mental processes such as pattern recognition and categorization, and the circumstances that influence people’s attention (Codington-Lacerte, 2018).

Because cognitivists view memory and recall as the key to learning, they are interested in the processes and conditions that enhance memory and recall. According to cognitive psychology research, traditional methods of study, including rereading texts and drilling practice, or the repetition of terms and concepts, are not effective for committing information to memory (Brown et al., 2014). Rather, cognitivists assert that activities that require learners to recall information from memory, sometimes referred to as “retrieval practice,” lead to better memory and ultimately better learning. For example, they suggest that language learners use flash cards to practice vocabulary words, rather than writing the words out over and over or reading and rereading a list of words, because the flash cards force the learner to recall information from memory.

While testing has fallen out of favor with many educators and education theorists, cognitivists find tests can be beneficial as both a retrieval practice and a diagnostic tool. They view tests not only as a way to measure what has been learned but as a way to practice retrieval of important concepts, and as a way to identify gaps or weaknesses in knowledge so that learners know where to concentrate their efforts (Brown et al., 2014). Cognitivists encourage “spaced practice,” or recalling previously learned information at regular intervals, and “interleaving,” or learning related concepts together to establish connections among them. Their research has found that retrieval is more effective when the brain is forced to recall information after some time has passed, and when the recall involves two or more related subjects or concepts. Finally, cognitivists also promote problem-based learning, maintaining that “trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt” (Brown et al., 2014, p.4).

These processes that enhance memory and recall, and thus learning, have some implications for instructors in creating an optimal environment for learning. Gagné (1985) proposed nine conditions for learning, referred to as the external conditions of learning, or the nine events of instruction:

Gain attention. Engage students’ attention by tying learning to relevant events in their lives and asking stimulating questions.
Inform the learner of the objective. Begin by sharing the learning goals with the students, thus setting expectations and providing a map of the learning.
Stimulate recall of prior learning. Encourage students to remember previously learned relevant skills and knowledge before introducing new information.
Present the stimulus. Share new information. This step depends on the content of the lesson. For instance, a lesson on Boolean operators might begin with a Venn diagram and examples of the uses of and , or , and not .
Provide learner guidance. Facilitate learning by demonstration and explanation.
Elicit performance. Allow time for students to practice skills and demonstrate their abilities. Ideally, students would be given low-stakes opportunities for practice, so they feel comfortable if they do not succeed immediately.
Provide feedback. Offer students input on what they are doing well and where they can improve.
Assess performance. Employ measures such as assignments, activities, and projects to gauge whether learning has occurred.
Enhance retention and transfer. Give students opportunities to practice skills in new contexts, which improves retention and helps students see how the skills are applied to different areas.

Cognitivism remains a popular approach to learning. However, one criticism of cognitive psychology is that, unlike humanism, it does not account for the role of emotions in learning (Codington-Lacerte, 2018). Further, some critics believe that cognitivism overemphasizes memorization and recall of facts to the detriment of higher-order skills such as creativity and problem solving. However, cognitivists argue that the ability to recall facts and concepts is essential to higher-order thinking, and therefore the two are not mutually exclusive but actually interdependent (Brown et al., 2014). Finally, cognitivism is considered teacher-centered, rather than learner-centered, since it emphasizes the role of the instructor in organizing learning activities and establishing the conditions of learning (Clark, 2018). Activity 3.2 is a brief exercise on cognitivism.

Activity 3.2: Reflecting on Cognitivism

Cognitive scientists recommend retrieval practice, including spaced practice and interleaving, over drilling.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion:

What kind of study practices do you tend to use? Do your practices vary depending on the content or material you are studying? How so?
Can you think of ways to integrate retrieval practices into your work for this class?
Spaced practice involves returning to previously learned concepts at later times, but information professionals often teach one-shot sessions. Can you think of ways to integrate spaced practice into a one-shot session?

Constructivism

Constructivism posits that individuals create knowledge and meaning through their interactions with the world. Like cognitivism, and as opposed to behaviorism, constructivism acknowledges the role of prior knowledge in learning, believing that individuals interpret what they experience within the framework of what they already know (Kretchmar, 2019a). Social constructs, such as commonly held beliefs, and shared expectations around behavior and values provide a framework for knowledge, but people “do not just receive this knowledge as if they were empty vessels waiting to be filled. Individuals and groups interact with each other, contributing to the common trove of information and beliefs, reaching consensus with others on what they consider is the true nature of identity, knowledge, and reality” (Mercadal, 2018). Cognitivism and constructivism overlap in a number of ways. Both approaches build on the theories of Jean Piaget, who is sometimes referred to as a cognitive constructivist. However, while cognitivism is considered teacher-centered, constructivism centers the learner by recognizing their role in engaging with content and constructing meaning. Constructivist teachers act as guides or coaches, facilitating learning by developing supportive activities and environments, and building on what students already know (Kretchmar, 2019b).

Piaget discusses the concepts of assimilation, accommodation, and disequilibrium to describe how people create knowledge. In his early work as a biologist, Piaget noticed how organisms would adapt to their environment in order to survive. Through such adaptation, the organism achieved equilibrium. Extending these observations to cognitive science, he posited that human beings also seek equilibrium (Kretchmar, 2019a).

When they encounter new situations, or new information, human beings must find a way to deal with the new information. Similar to the processes described in the section on cognitivism, people will examine their existing knowledge, or schema, to see if the new information fits into what they already know. If it does, they are able to assimilate the information relatively easily. However, if the new information does not fit into what people already know, they experience disequilibrium or cognitive conflict, and must adapt by accommodating the new information. For example, once children learn what a dog is, they might call any four-legged creature they see a dog. This is assimilation, as the children are fitting new information into their existing knowledge. However, as children learn the differences between, say, a dog and cat, they can adjust their schema to accommodate this new knowledge (Heick, 2019).

Disequilibrium and accommodation can be uncomfortable. People might be confused or anxious when they encounter information that does not fit their existing schema, and they might struggle to accommodate that new information, but disequilibrium is crucial to learning (Kretchmar, 2019a). During assimilation, people might be adding new bits of information to their knowledge store, but they are not changing their understanding of the world. During accommodation, as people change their schema, construct new knowledge, and draw new connections among existing areas of knowledge, actual learning occurs, and accommodation requires disequilibrium.

Acknowledging the role of disequilibrium is important for both instructors and students. People naturally want to avoid discomfort, but that can also mean avoiding real learning. As instructors, we can facilitate accommodation by acknowledging that the process might be challenging, and by creating conditions that allow students to feel safe exploring new information. We can reassure learners that feelings of discomfort or anxiety are normal and provide them with low-stakes opportunities to engage with new information.

Social Constructivism

Social constructivism builds on the traditions of constructivism and cognitivism; whereas those theories focus on how individuals process information and construct meaning, social constructivists also consider how people’s interactions with others impact their understanding of the world. Social constructivists recognize that different people can have different reactions and develop different understandings from the same events and circumstances, and are interested in how factors such as identity, family, community, and culture help shape those understandings (Mercadal, 2018).While cognitivists and constructivists view other people as mostly incidental to an individual’s learning, social constructivists see community as central. Social constructivism can be defined as “the belief that the meanings attached to experience are socially assembled, depending on the culture in which the child is reared and on the child’s caretakers” (Schaffer, 2006). Like constructivism, social constructivism centers on the learners’ experiences and engagement, and sees the role of the instructor as a facilitator or guide. Two of the major theorists associated with social constructivism are Pierre Bourdieu and Lev Vygotsky.

Vygotsky built on the work of Piaget and believed knowledge is constructed, but felt that prior theories overemphasized the role of the individual in that construction of knowledge. Instead, he “was most interested in the role of other people in the development and learning processes of children,” including how children learn in cooperation with adults and older or more experienced peers who can guide them with more complex concepts (Kretchmar, 2019b). Vygotsky was also interested in how language and learning are related. He postulated that the ways in which people communicate their thoughts and understandings, even when talking themselves through a concept or problem, are a crucial element of learning (Kretchmar, 2019b). For Vygotsky, interaction and dialogue among students, teachers, and peers are key to how learners develop an understanding of the world and of the socially constructed meanings of their communities.

Bourdieu examined the way in which social structures influence people’s values, knowledge, and beliefs, and how these structures often become so ingrained as to be invisible. People within a society become so enculturated into the systems and beliefs of that society that they often accept them as “normal” and do not see them as imposed structures (Roth, 2018). As a result, individuals might not question or challenge those structures, even when they are unfair or oppressive. In addition to examining how community and culture help shape knowledge, Bourdieu was interested in how issues of class impact learning. He observed that over time, schools developed to reflect the cultures of wealthier families, which enabled their children to succeed because they inherently understood the culture of the classroom and the system of education. We continue to see such issues today, and as discussed more in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, part of our critical practice is to ensure that our classrooms and instructional strategies are inclusive of and responsive to all students.

Activity 3.3 explores how we can use theory to guide our practice.

Activity 3.3: Using Learning Theory to Plan Lessons

While learning theories can be interesting on their own, our goal as instructors is to apply them to classroom practice. Imagine that you are a high school librarian working with a class that has just been assigned a research paper. Your goal for this session is for students to brainstorm keywords and synonyms for their topics, and to learn how to string those words together using the Boolean operators and , or , and not . You want to be sure the students understand the function of the Boolean operators and can remember how to use them for future searches.

Choose one of the learning theories outlined in this chapter and design a brief lesson to teach Boolean operators from the perspective of that theory. Concentrate less on what you would teach but rather on how you would teach it in keeping with the chosen theory:

How would you introduce the topic?
What sort of learning activities would you use?
What would you be doing during the lesson? What would you expect students to do?
How might any of your answers to these questions change if you were to use a different theory as your guide?

Developmental Stages

The learning theories outlined above discuss various cognitive processes involved in learning, as well as some of the motivators and conditions that facilitate learning. While these theories attempt to describe how people learn, it is important to note that individuals are not born ready to engage in all of these processes at once, nor do they necessarily all engage in the same processes at the same time. Rather, more complex processes develop over time as people experience the world and as their brain matures. In addition to studying how people learn, some theorists have also proposed theories or frameworks to describe developmental stages, or the various points in human development when different cognitive processes are enabled, and different kinds of learning can occur.

Piaget outlined four hierarchical stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational (Clouse, 2019), illustrated in Table 3.1. In the sensorimotor stage, from birth to about two years, infants react to their environment with inherent reflexes such as sucking, swallowing, and crying. By about age two, they begin problem solving using trial and error. The preoperational stage, also sometimes called the intuitive intelligence stage, lasts from about ages two to seven. During this time, children develop language and mental imagery. They are able to use their imagination, but they view the world only from their own perspective and have trouble understanding other perspectives. Their understanding of the world during this stage is tied to their perceptions. Children are in the operational stage from about ages seven to 12, during which time they begin to think more logically about the world, can understand that objects are not always as they appear, and begin to understand other people’s perspectives. The final stage, formal operationalism, begins around age 12. At this point, individuals can think abstractly and engage in ideas that move beyond the concrete world around them, and they can use deductive reasoning and think through consequences (Clark, 2018; Clouse, 2019).

Table 3.1: Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Perry’s (1970) Scheme of Intellectual and Moral Development offers another useful framework for understanding the developmental stages of learning. Perry proposed four stages of learning. In the first stage, dualism, children generally believe that all problems can be solved, and that there are right and wrong answers to each question. At this stage, children generally look to instructors to provide them with correct answers. The second stage is multiplicity, where learners realize that there are conflicting views and controversies on topics. Learners in the multiplicity stage often have trouble assessing the authority and credibility of arguments. They tend to believe that all perspectives are equally valid and rely on their own experiences to form opinions and decide what information to trust. In the next stage, referred to as relativism, learners begin to understand that there are different lenses for understanding and evaluating information. They learn that different disciplines have their own methods of research and analysis, and they can begin to apply these perspectives as they evaluate sources and evidence. At this point, learners can understand that not all answers or perspectives are equal, but that some answers or arguments might be more valid than others. In the final stage, commitment, students integrate selected information into their knowledge base. You might notice connections between Perry and the cognitivists and constructivists described above in the way they each describe people making sense of information by comparing new information to existing knowledge. However, Perry organizes the processes into developmental stages that outline a progression of learning.

Understanding the stages laid out by Piaget and Perry, we can develop lessons that are appropriate to learners at each stage. For example, in presenting a lesson on climate change to preoperational students using Piaget’s framework, an instructor could gather pictures of different animal habitats, or take children on a nature walk to observe the surrounding environment. Instructors could ask these children to describe what they see and reflect on their personal experiences with weather, while older children could be asked to imagine how the changes are impacting other people and organisms, anticipate consequences of the impact of climate change, and perhaps use problem solving to propose steps to improve their environment. Considering Perry’s Scheme, instructors might guide students from multiplicity to relativism by explaining scientific methods for measuring climate, and challenging learners to evaluate and compare different sources of information to determine which presents the strongest evidence.

Piaget and Perry offer developmental models that outline stages broadly aligned with a person’s age. Both models assume a relatively linear chronological development, with children and young adults passing through different stages at roughly the same time. Vygotsky, on the other hand, describes a model that focuses more on the content being mastered rather than the age of the student. According to Vygotsky’s theory, known as Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), as learners acquire new knowledge or develop new skills, they pass through three stages, often illustrated as concentric circles, as in Figure 3.2. The center circle, or first zone, represents tasks that the learner can do on their own. The second zone, or the Zone of Proximal Development, represents an area of knowledge or set of tasks that the learner can accomplish with assistance. The tasks and knowledge in this zone require students to stretch their abilities somewhat beyond their current skill level but are not so challenging as to be completely frustrating. The outermost circle, or third zone, represents tasks that the learner cannot yet do. Vygotsky posits that by working within the ZPD, learners can continue to grow their skills and abilities and increase their knowledge (Flair, 2019).

Figure 3.2: The Zone of Proximal Development

Whereas Piaget and Perry’s theories suggest that learners pass through the same stages at roughly the same time, Vygotsky maintains that the ZPD, or the zone of learning that will appropriately challenge the learner, is different for each student, depending on their background knowledge, experience, and ability (Flair, 2019). The same individual can experience different ZPDs in different subject areas; they might be advanced in math and able to take on material above their grade level but might find languages more challenging. Like with social constructivism, interaction with others is central to ZPD. According to Vygotsky, learning takes place when students interact with others who are more knowledgeable, including peers and instructors, who can provide guidance in the ZPD (Schaffer, 2006).

Math can provide a good example of working within the ZPD. Once students are comfortable with addition, they can probably learn subtraction with some help from a teacher or other peers but are probably not ready to learn long division. Our challenge as instructors is to identify the ZPD for each student so that we are neither boring learners with material that is too easy nor overwhelming them with material that is too hard. Chapter 7 discusses methods for assessing learners’ background knowledge to help determine the appropriate level of learning.

Most of the educational theories and frameworks outlined in this chapter were developed with a focus on children and young adults. While many of the principles can apply to an adult audience, they do not necessarily account for the specific issues, challenges, and motivations of adult learners. Yet, many information professionals will work mostly or even exclusively with adults. Academic librarians and archivists largely work with students who are at least 17 years old and, as the numbers of nontraditional students continue to increase, will find themselves increasingly working with older learners. Likewise, information professionals in corporations and medical and legal settings work almost exclusively with adults. Public librarians see a range of patrons, and many public libraries are increasing educational programming for their adult patrons. This section presents the educational concept of andragogy, which addresses teaching and learning for adults.

Knowles proposed andragogy as “the art and science of helping adults learn” (1988, p. 43). Andragogy is based on a set of assumptions about the ways in which adult learners’ experience, motivations, and needs differ from those of younger students, and suggests that traditional classroom approaches developed with younger students in mind will not necessarily be successful with adult learners. Perhaps one of the biggest differences between child and adult learners, according to Knowles (1988), is that adults are interested in the immediate applicability of what they are learning and are often motivated by their social roles as employees, parents, and so on. As Knowles notes, in traditional classrooms, children are usually taught discrete subjects like math, reading, and history, and their learning is focused on building up knowledge for the future. Young students might not use geometry in their everyday lives, but it forms a foundation for more complex math and for future job or life tasks like measuring materials for home repairs.

Adults, on the other hand, are already immersed in the social roles for which younger students are only preparing, and they want to see how their learning applies to those roles. Thus, Knowles suggests that adults will be interested in a competency-based, rather than a subject-based, approach to learning. Further, as autonomous individuals, adults are likely to be more self-directed in their learning. That is, they will want to, and should be encouraged to, take an active part in the design and planning of lessons, providing input on content and goals. Finally, Knowles also argues that adults’ wider experience and larger store of knowledge should be a resource for learning.

Knowles (1988, p. 45) organized his approach around four assumptions of adult learners:

Their self-concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward a self-directed human being.
They accumulate a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasingly rich resource for learning.
Their readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of their social roles.
Their time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and, accordingly, their orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of performance-centeredness.

Later, he elaborated with two additional assumptions, summed up by Merriam et al. (2007):

The most potent motivations are internal rather than external.
Adults need to know why they need to learn something.

Certain understandings follow from Knowles’ assumptions that we can use to guide our practice with adult learners. To begin with, we should recognize and respect adults’ tendency to be self-motivated and self-directed learners. After all, in most states, school attendance is compulsory up to a certain age, and relatively strict curriculum standards are set by each state, meaning that children have little choice about attending school in some form or about what content they learn. At least in theory, adults have a choice about whether to attend college or engage in other kinds of learning opportunities such as workshops and professional development and continuing education courses. Presumably, adults are motivated to pursue these opportunities for a specific reason, whether out of personal curiosity, to advance in their careers, or to gain a new skill. These adult learners will likely have opinions and ideas about what they want to learn and perhaps even how they want to engage with the content, so Knowles suggests we provide adult learners with choices and opportunities for input to help shape the curriculum.

Adult learners also have a larger store of knowledge and experience than their younger counterparts. From a cognitivist or constructivist point of view, adults have a larger schema against which to compare new information and make new connections. As instructors, we should recognize this store of knowledge and find ways to integrate it into the classroom, by providing ample opportunity for reflection and using guiding questions to encourage learners to draw on that knowledge. We can approach adult learners as peers or co-learners, acting more as coaches or facilitators in the learning process than as the more directive teacher associated with a traditional school classroom. This focus on learner-centered approaches and a democratic environment overlaps with humanistic and constructivist approaches to teaching.

Points three, four, and six in Knowles’ list of assumptions underscore the importance of relevance and transparency for adult learners. Knowles suggests that adults have different priorities in learning, perhaps in part because they are learning by choice and are in a better position to direct their own learning. Adult learners also tend to have more demands on their time than younger students; they may have families and jobs that impact the time they have to devote to their studies. Thus, adult learners want to see the applicability of what they are learning and might be resistant to work or information that seems incidental. We should be transparent with our adult students, both about what they will learn and how that learning is important and relevant. Sharing learning goals is an important step toward transparency, as it can help set expectations so that students understand the purpose of the lesson and activities. To illustrate relevance, we can provide concrete examples of how the learning can be applied in practice. One could argue that all students, not just adults, deserve transparency and to see the relevance of lesson goals and learning. Knowles’ point is that adults are more likely to expect, and perhaps appreciate, such transparency.

While some controversy exists over whether andragogy really constitutes a theory per se or is more a set of guiding principles or best practices, the assumptions provide helpful guidance to instructors not just in how they organize content but also in how they frame the lesson and its purposes. Based on these assumptions, we can take certain steps to set an appropriate environment for adult education (Bartle, 2019):

Set a cooperative learning climate.
Create mechanisms for input.
Arrange for a diagnosis of learner needs and interests.
Enable the formulation of learning objectives based on the diagnosed needs and interests.
Design sequential activities for achieving the objectives.
Execute the design by selecting methods, materials, and resources.
Evaluate the quality of the learning experience while rediagnosing needs for further learning.

As noted above, andragogy overlaps with other theories such as humanism and constructivism, and some of the principles of andragogy, like transparency, would benefit all learners. Still, this framework is useful in reminding instructors that adult learners likely have different priorities and motivations, and thus some differences in classroom approach might be warranted.

In addition to how people learn, we should also know something about why people learn. What motivates a student to put the time and effort into learning a skill or topic, and what can we do to cultivate that motivation? Svinicki (2004) offers an intriguing model that amalgamates some of the prevailing theories of motivation in learning. She suggests that motivation is a factor of the perceived value of the learning, along with students’ belief in their own self-efficacy, or their belief in their ability to achieve the goal. As Svinicki explains, “motivation involves a constant balancing of these two factors of value and expectations for success” (2004, p. 146). Most of the learning theories outlined above address motivation implicitly or explicitly. For instance, behaviorists talk in terms of reinforcement, or external motivators, as students strive to avoid negative consequences and achieve the rewards of good work. Humanists, on the other hand, focus on the internal motivation of self-actualization. As instructors, we can create environments to increase our learners’ motivation or their perception of the value of the goal and their self-efficacy:

Emphasize the relevance of the material. As outlined in the section on andragogy, learners are motivated when they see the benefits of learning and understand why the material is important. Instructors should explain how the effort individuals put into learning can help them achieve personal goals, such as getting a good grade on a paper or finding a job.
Make the material appropriately challenging. Reminiscent of the Zone of Proximal Development, material that is too easy will be boring for learners, while material that is too challenging will be overwhelming and frustrating.
Give learners a sense of choice and control. Choice allows learners to have a stake in the class, while control helps them determine the level of risk they will take and thus increase their confidence. We can foster choice and control by allowing learners options in the types of activities and assignments they engage in, or in the topics they research.
Set learners up for success. Clear expectations for the class or the assignment help learners understand what a successful performance or project looks like. By providing meaningful feedback, we can guide learners toward success.
Guide self-assessment. When learners accurately assess their current level of knowledge and skill, they can make reasonable predictions of the likelihood of their success with the current material.

Activity 3.4 offers an opportunity to reflect on motivation in learning.

Activity 3.4: What Motivates You?

Think back on learning experiences such as courses or workshops where you felt more or less motivated as a learner. These experiences could be related to academics, hobbies, sports, or other interests.

In the experiences in which you felt motivated, what steps did the instructor take that helped you feel motivated?
In the experiences where you felt less motivated, what could the instructor have done differently?
In each case, what role did self-efficacy, or your confidence in your own abilities, play?

Growth Mindset

Dweck’s (2016) mindset theory has gained much attention in the field of education over the last few decades and has some implications for student motivation. Although this theory is somewhat different in its conceptualizations than those described in the rest of this chapter, it is included here both because of its popularity and because it provides interesting insight into how instructors can coach learners to understand and build on their potential. Dweck’s theory is less about how people learn and more about how their attitude toward learning and their self-concept can impact their ability and willingness to learn. According to Dweck, people tend to approach learning with a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Those with more of a fixed mindset tend to believe that ability is innate; either people are born with a certain talent and ability, or they are not. If individuals are not born with natural ability in a certain area, they would waste time working on that area because they will never truly be successful. People with more of a growth mindset, on the other hand, tend to believe that ability is the outcome of hard work and effort. These people see value in working at areas in which they are not immediately successful because they believe they can improve. Even when they are good at something, they are willing to continue to work at it because they believe they can continue to get better (Dweck, 2016).

These mindsets can have a profound impact on how a person approaches learning (Dweck, 2016). People with a fixed mindset will view low grades or poor test performance as a sign of their lack of natural ability and are likely to become discouraged. They might try to avoid that subject altogether or resign themselves to failure because they do not believe that practice or study will help them improve. Instead, they will tend to stick to subjects in which they already perform well. People with a growth mindset take an opposite view. They tend to view low grades or poor performance as a diagnostic tool that helps them see where they need to concentrate their efforts in order to get better. They are willing to put in extra effort because they believe that their hard work will lead to improved performance. They are also willing to take risks because they understand that failure is just part of the process of learning. We can see connections between Dweck’s theory and Piaget’s argument that the discomfort of disequilibrium is necessary to learning.

Understandably, people with a growth mindset are usually more successful learners because they believe in their own ability to learn and grow. Luckily, Dweck maintains that these mindsets themselves are not necessarily immutable. That is, a person with a fixed mindset can be coached to adopt a growth mindset. Learners can begin by recognizing when they are engaging in fixed mindset thinking, for instance when getting anxious about mistakes or telling themselves that they are “no good” at something. Once learners understand that this thinking is counterproductive, they can change their thinking to adopt a more encouraging voice.

Importantly, Dweck notes that encouraging a growth mindset in the classroom does not mean lowering standards for learning. She maintains that instructors should have high standards but also create a supportive and nurturing atmosphere. To begin with, instructors themselves must believe that learning and growth are possible, and not give up on students who are struggling. Instructors can model this belief for students by replacing fixed mindset feedback with growth mindset feedback. For example, Dweck suggests that if learners are struggling, instructors can respond by telling them they have not succeeded yet. The word “yet” implies that they will achieve the necessary learning; they just need to keep working at it. In that way, instructors can reframe mistakes and struggles as opportunities to learn rather than as failures. Instructors should encourage and appreciate effort as well as learning. In other words, rather than focusing only on a student’s achievement, instructors can praise the effort and hard work that led to that achievement. At the same time, Dweck (2015) notes that a growth mindset is not just about effort. In addition to putting in the work, learners must also be willing to try different strategies and be open to feedback on their performance. The goal is to help students view challenges as part of the learning process and to work with them rather than to fear or avoid them.

Learning theories are meant to help instructors understand the processes and circumstances that enable learning and, by extension, offer guidance in developing activities and environments that best support learning. But what to make of the fact that there are so many different theories and that some contradict each other? The truth is that the human brain and its cognitive processes are incredibly complex and not yet fully understood. Learning theorists do their best to describe how people learn based on careful observation and experimentation, but no learning theory is perfect. Indeed, each theory has its critics, and the various theories go in and out of favor over time. Even so, the theories provide us with an empirically based understanding of how learning occurs.

Further, these theories are not mutually exclusive. We do not have to strictly adhere to one theory but can combine elements across theories in ways that resonate with our teaching styles and reflect our best understanding of our students. For instance, a teacher might draw on elements of cognitivism to enhance students’ retention and recall but also develop group activities that promote social constructivism through peer-to-peer communication. Especially with younger children, instructors might draw on behaviorism by using rewards and positive reinforcement to motivate student engagement with the content, but also integrate humanism by empathizing with students and use constructive feedback to encourage a growth mindset. We can use our understanding of developmental stages to create lessons and activities that provide an appropriate level of challenge to help students grow in their understanding. Ultimately, we should view learning theories as guidelines, not rules, and draw on them in ways that reflect our own values and understandings.

Keeping this idea of learning across theories in mind, we can sum up the key takeaways from this chapter:

Learning is the change in knowledge, behavior, or understanding that occurs when people make connections between new information and their existing knowledge. Various theories attempt to describe the factors that enable the learning process.
Learning does not happen in the same way or at the same time for all students. Understanding developmental stages can help instructors align instruction with student readiness. Adult learners may have needs and constraints that differ from younger learners.
The learning process is influenced by internal factors such as the student’s level of motivation and feelings of self-efficacy, and external factors such as the classroom environment and the adults and peers with whom the learner interacts.
Creating a democratic, empathetic, and supportive learning environment
Assisting students in becoming self-directed learners and enhancing their motivation by offering a sense of control and choice in their learning
Acknowledging that learning can be challenging, and helping students develop the mindset and self-efficacy that will support their persistence
Offering regular and meaningful feedback

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PSYC 7010: LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT SPECIFIC LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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The Power Point Presentations can be viewed directly using Internet Explorer or can be downloaded by clicking the right mouse button and viewed using Power Point or the PowerPoint 97 Viewer . Exams will all be essays; guidelines for writing an essay are provided at the end of the objectives.

The following textbooks have student study guides with practice tests that can help you organize your knowledge:

Eggen & Kauchak, Educational psychology: Windows on classrooms (5th ed.)
Slavin, Educational psychology (7th ed.)

1. Define educational psychology and discuss how it can help teachers and administrators to carry out their respective roles. Include in your discussion how the use of the scientific method and research have impacted the development of a knowledge base for educational psychology. [ PPT Presentation: Introduction ] [ PPT Presentation: Research ]

2. Compare and contrast the following terms : a. learning, maturation, and development; b. aptitude and achievement; c. instruction, assessment, and evaluation; d. reliability and validity; e. traditional assessment and performance assessment; f. formative assessment and summative assessment; g. norm-referenced evaluation and criterion-referenced evaluation. Why is assessment and evaluation of aptitude and achievement such an important issue in today's schools. Make some recommendations you would make for how assessment and evaluation should be done at the grade level and subject you teach. [Dietel et al., 1991]

3. Draw and discuss a model of the teaching-learning process . Name and define each of the categories of variables in your model and identify some of the research that has been used to build the model. (Be certain to identify the source of your model.) [ PPT Presentation #1 ] [ PPT Presentation # 2 ] [ PPT Presentation # 3 ] [ McIlrath & Huitt , 1995; Huitt , 1999]

4. Define and discuss academic learning time (ALT) and how it might be improved? (be specific about whether the proposed changes relate to the school or to the classroom; if to the classroom, whether they relate to instruction or management). How does ALT relate to John Carroll's model of school learning? Which theoretical approach to learning is the concept of ALT most closely linked? [PPT Presentation]

5. Provide an overview of the systems model of human development presented in class, describing how the behavioral, cognitive, humanistic and learning/development theories address different factors in this model. [ PPT Presentation - Basics ] [ PPT Presentation - Context ]

6. Discuss at least 5 important trends that are presently influencing or are likely to influence education during the next 20 years. Include in your discussion the impact the transition to the information age is having on the required knowledge, attitudes, and skills required for successful adult living. Make recommendations on how professional educators should respond to changing conditions. [ PPT Presentation ] [ Connections video ][ PPT in Spanish ]

7. Name and discuss the essential foundations and competencies needed to work effectively in the information age as developed by the (U.S. Department of Labor) Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Discuss Dr. Huitt's critique of the SCANS report in terms of important attitudes, knowledge, and skills for being successful in the information age? How do these compare to the concept "Becoming a Brilliant Star?" What evidence would you use to persuade students, parents, educators and community members that these are indeed important? How is this view similar or different from Dr. Clarken's model "Becoming Our True Selves?" [See # 4 above; Huitt , 1997; Huitt , 2004] [ Brilliant Star ] [ Clarken, 2004 ]

PROCESS VARIABLES AND LEARNING THEORIES

8. Define learning and describe the major focus and assumptions of the behavioral, cognitive, constructivistic, humanistic, and social cognitive theories of learning. Describe some implications of classroom and school practice that can be derived from these theories. [PPT Presentation]

9. Compare and contrast three major behavioral theories of learning , giving examples of how each of these can be used in the teaching-learning process. [ PPT Presentation ]

10. Define operant learning and give original examples of four different methods for altering behavior using this theory. Discuss how this theory can be applied to the teaching-learning process, including how the Premack principle can be used to determine reinforcers. Additionally, name and define each of the schedules of reinforcement, and give an example of each kind as it might be used in the classroom. [ PPT Presentation ]

11. Define and discuss the major viewpoints and theories related to cognition and memory in the systems model of human behavior. [ PPT Presentation -- Overview ] [ PPT Presentation--Constructivism ][ PPT-Constructivism in Spanish ]

12. Define and differentiate the stage, levels-of-processing, parallel distributed processing, and connectionist models of information processing. Draw and discuss the information-processing model of memory and give an example of how it works. Discuss the kinds of stimuli likely to arouse the orienting response and describe how short-term memory and long-term memory operate. Discuss some principles for getting information into both types of memory. How might these principles be implemented to improve instruction? [ PPT Presentation -- Information Processing ] [ PPT Presentation -- Stage Model ] [ PPT Presentation --Using the Theory ] [ PPT Presentation - Terms ]

13. Describe each of the six levels of Bloom's taxonomy of the cognitive domain , providing an original example of actions students might take to demonstrate competency at each level. [ PPT Presentation--Domains ]

14. Describe intellectual development according to Piaget , including a discussion of both the process and the stages of development. Note behavioral characteristics of each stage, describing how assimilation and accommodation are exemplified for each stage of development. Describe specific actions that teachers can take to incorporate Piaget's theory into the classroom. [183-217] [ PPT Presentation-Process ] [ PPT Presentation-Stages ]

15. Describe cognitive development according to Jerome Bruner and Lev Vygotsky. Compare Piaget's theory to Vygotsky's sociohistorical theory of cognitive development. How do these relate to other cognitive theories and to constructivism ? What does Bruner add to this discussion? [PPT Presentation]

16. Define critical thinking and discuss why it is an important topic to be addressed by today's educators. How is critical thinking similiar to and different from creativity? [ Hummel & Huitt , 1994][ PPT Presentation ]

17. Define metacognition and describe five ways to help students increase their metacognitive skills. [PPT Presentation]

18. What is the SQ3R/SQ4R/PQ4R method of study? What is the relationship of study habits and attitudes to achievement? What can you as a teacher do to improve these in students? [PPT Presentation]

Classroom Processes

19. Discuss J. B. Carroll's model of school learning . Relate Carroll's model to Bloom's model of mastery learning and to the concept of Academic Learning Time. [ PPT Presentation ]

20. Describe why planning is an important classroom activity. Name and define the major steps often used by educators in the planning process . Provide an original example of how you might use this process. Write an instructional objective for six different topics according to the standards set forth by either Mager or Gronlund. [ PPT Presentation--Planning ] [PPT Presentation--Objectives ]

Instruction

21. Name and discuss four different categories of models of instruction , relating each category to a theoretical approach to learning and to a component of mind or behavior. [Huitt, Monetti & Hummel, in press] [ PPT Presentation--Overview ] [ PPT Presentation--Direct Instruction ]

22. Describe how the cognitive approach has impacted the direct instruction model . How can mastery learning combined with direct instruction utilize both a behavioral and cognitive approach? [PPT Presentation]

23. Name and describe at least three general categories of classroom management activities a teacher might use if implementing a behavioral approach to classroom management, giving original examples of each. State which of these principles would be especially important during the first week of school year, and why. How does this conceptualization relate to the three aspects of classroom management: obedience, responsibility, and solidarity? [Randolph & Evertson, 1994] [ PPT Presentation--Overview ]

24. Using the research on the first-week management behavior of effective classroom teachers, state what you would do during your first week as a new teacher and why you would do that. Discuss the difference between focusing on increasing on-task behavior or decreasing off-task behavior (Give specific, original examples, not just generalities.). [ PPT Presentation ]

25. Name and discuss the major viewpoints and theories related to affective and emotion in the systems model of human behavior. [PPT Presentation]

26. Describe each of the five levels of Krathwol's affective domain , providing an original example of actions students might take to demonstrate competency at each level. [PPT Presentation]

27. Name and define five values you believe are especially important for students in the 21st century. Support your proposal with research, theory, and statements the requirements of being successful in an information age economy. How would recommend educators go about teaching those values? How is values education related to character education? [ PPT Presentation ]

28. Name and describe Erikson's theory of psychosocial development . Note behaviors associated with each stage and the implications of the theory for classroom practice. Evaluate the theory--that is, what evidence exists for its validation or what evidence would lead you to reject it? [ PPT Presentation ]

29. Describe how optimism, enthusiasm, and empathy might influence the teaching/learning process. [PPT Presentation]

30. Name and discuss the major principles and objectives of humanistic education . Describe what a teacher might do in order to implement these principles. Summarize the findings from the meta-analyses examining the outcomes of open education discussed in your text. Include findings regarding both achievement and affective outcomes. [PPT Presentation]

Conation, Volition, and Self-Regulation

31. Name and discuss the major viewpoints and theories related to conation, volition, and self-regulation in the systems model of human behavior. [PPT Presentation]

32. Define the terms self-concept and self-esteem and discuss how these might influence learning. [PPT Presentation] 33. Name and discuss the stages in Maslow's hierarchy of needs . How does this theory relate to achieving excellence in the nine areas of life presented in the "Becoming a Brilliant Star" exercise discussed in class? [PPT Presentation] 34. Discuss social learning theory and the social cognition theory of learning. Define conation , describe how it works and how it might develop. How does goal-setting impact conation and learning? How does conation relate to self-regulation and self-control? What can educators do to help students develop conation? [ PPT Presentation-Social Learning and Social Cognition ] [PPT Presentation-Conation] 35. Describe some implications of social learning theory and social cognition theory for instructional practice. How can cooperative learning be incorporated into a direct instruction format? What would we have to do to encourage the development of self-regulation? How does this theory relate to the research on the impact of teacher expectations and efficacy on student performance. What can teachers do to maximize the positive effects of teacher efficacy? [Ashton, 1984] [PPT Presentation]

36. Define learning and compare and contrast the factors that behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and social cognitive theorists believe influence the learning process . Mention ways in which the theories are alike and ways in which they are different and how each can be used by educators to improve student learning. [PPT Presentation]

37. Name and discuss at least 5 principles of learning that most learning theorists agree on, regardless of their theoretical orientation. Give specific examples of how these principles could be used in the classroom. [PPT Presentation]

38. Discuss how your view of humankind's spiritual nature might influence your interpretation of human growth and development literature as well as the teaching/learning process. [ PPT Presentation ]

39. Describe the structure and functioning of the brain and other components of humankind's biological nature that might influence human growth and development as well as the teaching/learning process. [PPT Presentation] [ PPT Presentation - Physical Development ]

40. Name and define the major aspects of the systems model of human behavior presented in class. Be certain to distinguish between internal and external influences on development. Explain why context is such an important aspect of human behavior at this point in history. How can such a model help educators in their professional roles? [see #3 above; summarize #6, #16, #21, #24, #25] [PPT Presentation]

1. reliability and validity; 2. formative and summative evaluation; and 3. criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests .

Discuss how and when these concepts would be important in classroom assessment, evaluation, and grading practices relative to the important variables discussed in this course. [Dietel et al., 1991; Popham, 1999][PPT Presentation]

42. Compare and contrast the behavioral, cognitive, social cognitive, and humanistic learning theories and describe important assessment issues highlighted by each theory. Describe some assessment procedures that can address these issues. [PPT Presentation]

a. Completion and Short-Answer Items; b. Essay Items; c. Multiple-Choice, Matching and True/False Items.

Ashton, P. (1984). Teacher efficacy: A motivational paradigm for effective teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 35( 5),28-32.
Clarken, R. (2004, October 30). The process of becoming our true selves . Presentation at the Forum for Integrated Education and Educational Reform sponsored by the Council for Global Integrative Education, Santa Cruz, CA. Retrieved November 2004, from http://mediasite.nmu.edu/MediasiteLive30/LiveViewer/NoPopupRedirector.aspx?peid=0a145154-c21e-487b-a109-86e1498f5006&shouldResize=False
Dietel, R., Herman, J., & Knuth, R. (1991). What does research say about assessment ? Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL).
Huitt, W. (1995, November 6). Success in the information age: A paradigm shift . Workshop presentation at the Georgia Independent School Association, Atlanta, Georgia. Available online at http:// chiron .valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/context/infoage.html
Huitt, W. (1997, April 18). The SCANS report revisited . Paper delivered at the Fifth Annual Gulf South Business and Vocational Education Conference, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA. Available online at http:// chiron .valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/student/scanspap.html
Huitt, W. (1999, April 20). Implementing effective school achievement reform: Four principles . Paper presented at the School Counseling Summit, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA. Available online at http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/files/school_reform.html
Huitt, W. (2006, April 26). Becoming a Brilliant Star: A model of formative holistic education. Paper presented at the International Networking for Educational Transformation (iNet) Conference , Augusta, GA. Available at http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/brilstar.html [ PowerPoint ] [ mp3 ]

Huitt, W. (2006, April 25). Educational accountability in an era of global decentralization . Paper presented at the International Networking for Educational Transformation (iNet) Conference , Augusta, GA. Available at http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/papers/edaccount.doc [ PowerPoint ] [ mp3-Part1 ] [ mp3-Part2 ]

Huitt, W., Monnetti, D., & Hummel, J. (in press). Designing direct instruction. In C. Reigeluth and A. Carr-Chellman, Instructional-Design Theories and Models: Volume III, Building a Common Knowledgebase . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Available online at http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/papers/designing_direct_instruction.doc

Hummel, J., & Huitt, W. (1994). What you measure is what you get. GaASCD Newsletter: The Reporter , 10-11.

McIlrath, D., & Huitt, W. (1995, December). The teaching-learning process: A discussion of models. Educational Psychology Interactive . Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University.
Popham, W. J. (1999), Why standardized tests don't measure educational quality. Educational Leadership, 56 (6), 8-15.
Randolph, C., & Evertson, C. (1994). Images of management for learner-centered classrooms. Action in Teacher Education , 55-64.
Use complete sentences
Use proper punctuation
Use proper spelling
What is the issue to be addressed?
Why is this issue important?
What will be included in your answer; how will your answer be organized?
Body -- Present information in clear, concise, and logical manner
Summarize your main points
Relate information in body to original proposition (why is this issue important?)

Some examples of good essay writing are provided by the Educational Testing Service, developer of the GRE-Writing Test.

There are a number of common errors in student writing that you should avoid. If you are not comfortable with writing, you might want to write some sample essays have have them checked by someone in the student writing center located in West Hall, Room 204.

Last updated: January 2005

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Each learning theory can provide us insight into how we obtain knowledge and provide us with guidance in creating opportunities that help our students learn.

By Paul Holt
Nov 14, 2023

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Learning theories help explain the different ways people acquire, retain, and remember knowledge.
While there are different theories on how we learn, many of them have similarities and overlapping ideas.
There is no right or wrong learning theory. The importance of knowing how people learn is to create better learning environments that promote a love for learning and a yearning for excellence among students.

Learning is often defined as a lasting change in behavior or knowledge that is a result of experience. It is a complex, multi-step process that allows us to acquire knowledge and skills. And it is a universal experience. All of us engage in this process, but it can happen in different ways. Moreover, learning can be a personal experience.

Different variables can influence the learning process, such as biological, social, emotional, cognitive, and cultural factors. This is why it is important for educators and students to understand the different ways people acquire and retain knowledge. Knowing this can help facilitate deeper, more engaging learning experiences, which can lead to better learning.

In this article, we’ll explain the different learning theories and how they differ from each other. We’ll also examine how we can use these to choose techniques, strategies, and tools that can help us create better learning environments that promote learning in the online classroom. If you want to learn more about any of the theories, including how to apply them in the classroom, click on the link at the end of each section.

Transformative Learning Theory

The Transformative Learning Theory was introduced by Jack Mezirow in 1978. Using the results of a study he conducted on adult learning, he theorized that learning starts when a person’s worldview is challenged when an experience doesn’t align with his current belief or assumption about the world.

This event causes the individual to reflect on the experience. Does what he believes in still hold true? Examining his past ideas and understanding (a.k.a. critical reflection) helps him obtain a new perspective, which, in turn, allows him to acquire new knowledge. When that new knowledge is expressed through action – a change in behavior, then the whole process can be considered a transformative learning experience.

Now, according to Mezirow, transformative learning is a journey – a series of phases that start with a disorienting dilemma and end with reintegration, where we fully embrace the new concept and apply it in our lives. Let’s use an example to explain this concept further:

A student who always believed that online classes were boring is unexpectedly required to study at home because of the pandemic. This is the disorienting dilemma.
He is resistant to the idea, but after a few classes, he realizes that it can be fun.
He also comes to the realization that studying at home does have benefits.
He starts to question why he was so resistant to it before. He shares his experience with his classmates and learns that they also had the same thoughts.
He starts to look at how he can make online learning more effective and engaging. He even shares his discoveries with his classmates.
He starts to create a plan, even downloading apps to help him learn more effectively online.
He now believes that online learning can be even better than going to class in person. He may even start to look for programs that offer online classes or request his school to start an eLearning program.

As educators, we can use the core principles of the Transformative Learning Theory to design more effective learning experiences. Our duty is to provide students with opportunities where their existing beliefs and assumptions are challenged. We also need to ensure that they have a safe space where they can share their thoughts and experiences. The teacher’s role is to be a facilitator and guide, helping the students identify and discuss the assumptions and biases that influence their worldview.

For students, the Transformative Learning Theory teaches us to always keep an open mind. We need to learn how to view things from different perspectives and reflect on them, asking probing questions and analyzing our previous understanding. With transformative learning, we can practice freedom of thought and even obtain personal growth.

A group of young people sitting in a circle and engaging in lively and enjoyable conversation

Connectivist Learning Theory

Compared to other learning theories, the Connectivist Learning Theory is a relatively new concept. It was first introduced in 2005 by George Siemens and Stephen Downes in response to the modern learning landscape. According to this theory, “knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks.”

What does that mean? In layman’s terms, learning occurs through the sharing of ideas, opinions, and resources. Simply put, it is our interactions with others that promote learning. Thanks to technology, we can easily connect with various sources of ideas and knowledge – people, organizations, and communities. According to the Connectivism Learning Theory, the more connections a person has, the easier it is for him to acquire knowledge.

This theory is already in practice in classrooms today, though we might not be aware of it. The teacher and all the students can each be considered a source. After all, we all have knowledge that we can share. In class, the students can connect with the teacher and their classmates to exchange information, forming a network of knowledge within that group. Everyone is an active participant in their own learning process.

Outside of the classroom, each person is also connected to other sources – larger networks of knowledge such as online communities, blogs, and forums. Because technology has allowed us to stay connected to so many varied sources of knowledge, we can pick and choose what we learn, how we learn, and where we learn.

How do we put the Connectivism Learning Theory into practice? Unlike traditional teaching techniques, connectivism emphasizes student-centered learning . Educators act as facilitators, leveraging digital tools and online resources to create opportunities for students to expand their learning networks. Some examples include using social media for brainstorming and discussions among students, apps like Khan Academy that gamify learning, and online simulations to help students put their learning into practice.

Students, on the other hand, can be more proactive in their learning. They can create more learning opportunities that are aligned with their interest and preferences by leveraging technology. Connectivism teaches us that while learning is personal, it is not an individualistic activity. It is through the sharing of knowledge with others that we can truly thrive.

Cognitive Learning Theory

As we’ve discussed above, the Transformative Learning Theory is focused on adult learning. The Connectivism Learning Theory, on the other hand, states that learning occurs outside of ourselves through our connections and interactions with others. In comparison, the Cognitive Learning Theory focuses on the internal – how our brain processes information, stores it, and retrieves it. Moreover, this theory states that knowledge-building is a passive activity.

The Cognitive Learning Theory was introduced by Jean Piaget in 1936. He believed that it wasn’t enough for us to measure learning according to a person’s behavior. It was also important for us to understand the internal mental processes involved in the acquisition of knowledge.

According to the Cognitive Learning Theory, learning occurs when we process information, understand how a concept can be used, and organize the ideas into categories or schema. We then store the information in our memory, connecting it with our existing knowledge. Later on, we can retrieve this newly constructed knowledge and apply it in a real-world setting.

There are different ways to apply the Cognitive Learning Theory in the classroom. These include journaling for self-reflection, creating visual diagrams to help link concepts together, and group discussions and problem-solving involving real-world examples.

Behavioral Learning Theory

Unlike the Cognitive Learning Theory, which focuses on the internal processes involved in learning, the Behavioral Learning Theory only focuses on the external – on behavior. According to this theory, all human behavior is learned, and our behaviors are simply a reaction to external stimuli. In addition, learning behaviors can be accomplished through association and reinforcement.

One great example of learning through association is Pavlov’s experiment. He was able to teach dogs to associate the ringing of a bell with the arrival of food. When the dogs smell the food, it automatically triggers their hunger, which causes them to salivate. Because the dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell with food, just hearing the ringing bell can cause them to feel hunger and salivate – even if there is no actual food.

As for reinforcement, we’re all familiar with the concept of reward and punishment. We’re more likely to learn a behavior if we get something good out of it. We’re less likely to repeat a behavior if we get punished.

Compared to other learning theories, behaviorism sees the learner as a passive participant. It does not consider the role of existing knowledge, prior experience, and emotion in learning. Instead, behaviorists consider learners to be blank slates waiting to absorb the knowledge given by the teacher.

There are several ways we can apply behaviorism in the classroom. Educators can provide regular reviews and guided practice. They can employ game-based learning activities and implement a reward system to increase motivation and engagement.

Constructivist Learning Theory

The core principle of the Constructivist Learning Theory is that learning involves actively constructing knowledge based on what we already know and what we have experienced. That’s not all. Learning is also influenced by our environment, social interactions, beliefs, culture, and even language. Because of this, learning is a personal process. No two people will have the same constructed knowledge because all of us have different interpretations of our experiences.

In Constructivism, the teacher serves as a coach and a facilitator, providing students with opportunities to explore topics and ask questions, reflect on information, and practice critical thinking skills. Some examples of teaching methods that employ Constructivist Learning Theory include problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and cooperative learning.

Humanistic Learning Theory

According to the Humanistic Learning Theory , humans are inherently good and will always choose the best for themselves and for others. We are born with the motivation to be the best version of ourselves. Moreover, we need to feel positive in order to be open to learning and achieve the best results.

What does all of these mean? Like many other learning theories, the focus of the Humanism Learning Theory is on the learner. The learner is autonomous and able to choose what and how he or she wants to learn. In addition, we need to be motivated to learn. It is the teacher’s role to guide and encourage the learner in pursuing his interests.

What makes this learning theory different from all the others? First, the Humanism Learning Theory places importance on student-led evaluation. Instead of a grading system, students are encouraged to set their own standards and evaluate their progress based on that.

Second, this theory emphasizes on the importance of the “whole being.” Learning is not just about intellect. Feelings, self-esteem, social skills, and practical skills are just as important as the acquisition of knowledge. For example, a child who is anxious and worried would have difficulty focusing on the lesson, hindering the learning process. The teacher should help the child overcome his feelings of anxiety and provide him with a learning environment where he feels safe and comfortable.

Third, punishments and negative feedback are not appropriate methods for correcting a behavior. Because students are all fundamentally good, educators need to look at the underlying reasons why a student is misbehaving. Which of his needs are not currently being fulfilled?

The Humanism Learning Theory uses a student-centered approach, which means that the teacher serves as a facilitator and model in the classroom. He or she is responsible for helping students create goals, providing different learning opportunities to engage their interests, and giving them the flexibility to choose their modes of participation.

Like Constructivism, the Humanism Learning Theory promotes independence and a love for learning. But its scope goes far beyond – cultivating a person’s motivation for self-growth.

Social Learning Theory

The main idea of the Social Learning Theory is that we learn by observing and imitating the behavior of others. This learning is not limited to what we observe face-to-face. We also learn from what we see on media, from both real and fictional people. We can also learn from the verbal instruction of others or through reading.

Another important point of the Social Learning Theory is that we can learn from direct and indirect experience. What does this mean? We don’t need to learn something by directly experiencing it. We don’t even have to imitate a behavior in order to learn it. In addition, seeing the consequences of another person’s action can influence whether we imitate the behavior or not.

Let’s look at a few examples to explain this theory better:

A little girl learns how to perform a dance by watching a TikTok video.
An employee arrives at work on time because he saw a colleague get a deduction on his salary for being late.
A preschooler participates in a game because he saw his classmate receiving a reward for joining the activity.

The Social Learning Theory is like the Behavioral Learning Theory combined with the Cognitive Learning Theory. This is because it defines learning as a cognitive-behavioral process. It makes use of reinforcement as well as cognitive skills such as attention, observation, and retention.

It also has certain similarities with Constructivism and Connectivism, where a person learns from his social interactions, especially when he interacts with others who are more proficient than him.

The similarities don’t end there. Like many other learning theories, employing game-based learning activities and simulations is one of the ways to apply the Social Learning Theory in the classroom. Collaborative activities such as peer coaching and group projects can also provide students with opportunities to learn from each other.

The most important thing for educators to keep in mind is that our students are a product of their environment. Everything they experience will have an impact on who they are today. The lesson that the Social Learning Theory imparts is for us to be positive role models that can help shape them into contributing members of society.

Experiential Learning Theory

The Experiential Learning Theory is quite simple. It states that we learn by doing and by reflecting on the experience. Learning, according to this theory, is an active process, a cycle that has four stages. First, the learner encounters an experience. He is actively engaged in it, asking questions, experimenting, investigating, etc. Second, he thinks about the information he gained from the experience. Third, he connects this new idea to past knowledge or modifies his past knowledge to fit the new understanding. Fourth, he tries out what he has learned.

While there are stages in learning, everyone has his own preference for the way they learn. Our preferences are influenced by our genetics, environment, and life experiences. What does this mean? Simply put, you can start anywhere in the cycle based on what suits you best. For example, you may prefer to learn about riding a bike by watching others riding their bikes and reflecting on your observations. Or you may prefer to start with an abstract concept, so you decide to read about it first. Others may be more inclined to just try riding the bike straight away.

Similar to many learning theories, the Experiential Learning Theory has a student-focused approach. Educators serve as facilitators and guides, providing students with opportunities to practice their skills. They should also make sure that students have periods for reflection before and after the experience.

Integrating experiential learning in the classroom also uses many of the same activities mentioned earlier, such as interactive games and online journaling for self-reflection. Other activities that promote experiential learning include virtual tours, science experiments, and role-playing.

No two people learn in the exact same way. Everyone has their own way of acquiring and understanding knowledge. For educators, understanding the different ways people learn is a critical step toward creating an optimal learning environment that addresses the needs and desires of the students.

Using these learning theories as lenses to look at their work can help teachers find the right approach for effective instruction and classroom management.

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15 Learning Theories in Education (A Complete Summary)

So what are educational learning theories and how can we use them in our teaching practice? There are so many out there, how do we know which are still relevant and which will work for our classes?

There are 3 main schemas of learning theories; Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. In this article you will find a breakdown of each one and an explanation of the 15 most influential learning theories; from Vygotsky to Piaget and Bloom to Maslow and Bruner.

Swimming through treacle!

That’s what it feels like when you are trying to sort through and make sense of the vast amount of learning theories we have at our disposal.

Way back in ancient Greece, the philosopher, Plato , first pondered the question “How does an individual learn something new if the subject itself is new to them” (ok, so I’m paraphrasing, my ancient Greek isn’t very good!).

Since Plato, many theorists have emerged, all with their different take on how students learn. Learning theories are a set of principles that explain how best a student can acquire, retain and recall new information.

In this complete summary, we will look at the work of the following learning theorists.

Despite the fact there are so many educational theorists, there are three labels that they all fall under. Behaviorism , Cognitivism and Constructivism .

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is based on the idea that knowledge is independent and on the exterior of the learner. In a behaviorist’s mind, the learner is a blank slate that should be provided with the information to be learnt.

Through this interaction, new associations are made and thus learning occurs. Learning is achieved when the provided stimulus changes behavior. A non-educational example of this is the work done by Pavlov .

Through his famous “salivating dog” experiment, Pavlov showed that a stimulus (in this case ringing a bell every time he fed the dog) caused the dog to eventually start salivating when he heard a bell ring.

The dog associated the bell ring with being provided with food so any time a bell was rung the dog started salivating, it had learnt that the noise was a precursor to being fed.

I use a similar approach to classroom management.

I adapt my body language .

I have taught my students that if I stand in a specific place in the classroom with my arms folded, they know that I’m getting frustrated with the level of noise and they start to quieten down or if I sit cross-legged on my desk, I’m about to say something important, supportive and they should listen because it affects them directly.

Behaviorism involves repeated actions, verbal reinforcement and incentives to take part. It is great for establishing rules, especially for behavior management.

Cognitivism

In contrast to behaviorism, cognitivism focuses on the idea that students process information they receive rather than just responding to a stimulus, as with behaviorism.

There is still a behavior change evident, but this is in response to thinking and processing information.

Cognitive theories were developed in the early 1900s in Germany from Gestalt psychology by Wolfgang Kohler. In English, Gestalt roughly translates to the organization of something as a whole, that is viewed as more than the sum of its individual parts.

Cognitivism has given rise to many evidence based education theories, including cognitive load theory , schema theory and dual coding theory as well as being the basis for retrieval practice.

In cognitivism theory, learning occurs when the student reorganizes information, either by finding new explanations or adapting old ones.

This is viewed as a change in knowledge and is stored in the memory rather than just being viewed as a change in behavior. Cognitive learning theories are mainly attributed to Jean Piaget .

Examples of how teachers can include cognitivism in their classroom include linking concepts together, linking concepts to real-world examples, discussions and problem-solving.

Constructivism

Students need to have a prior base of knowledge for constructivist approaches to be effective. Bruner’s spiral curriculum (see below) is a great example of constructivism in action.

As students are constructing their own knowledge base, outcomes cannot always be anticipated, therefore, the teacher should check and challenge misconceptions that may have arisen. When consistent outcomes are required, a constructivist approach may not be the ideal theory to use.

Examples of constructivism in the classroom include problem-based learning, research and creative projects and group collaborations.

learning theories summary, behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism.

1. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget is an interesting character in Psychology. His theory of learning differs from many others in some important ways:

First, he focuses exclusively on children; Second, he talks about development (not learning per se) and Third, it’s a stage theory, not a linear progression theory. OK, so what’s he on about?

Well, there are some basic ideas to get your head around and some stages to understand too. The basic ideas are:

Schemas : The building blocks of knowledge.
Adaptation processes : These allow the transition from one stage to another. He called these: Equilibrium, Assimilation and Accommodation.
Stages of Cognitive development : Sensorimotor; Preoperational; Concrete Operational; Formal Operational.

So here’s how it goes. Children develop Schemas of knowledge about the world. These are clusters of connected ideas about things in the real world that allow the child to respond accordingly.

When the child has developed a working Schema that can explain what they perceive in the world, that Schema is in a state of Equilibrium .

When the child uses the schema to deal with a new thing or situation, that Schema is in Assimilation and Accommodation happens when the existing Schema isn’t up to the job of explaining what’s going on and needs to be changed.

Once it’s changed, it returns to Equilibrium and life goes on. Learning is, therefore, a constant cycle of Assimilation; Accommodation; Equilibrium; Assimilation and so on…

All that goes through the 4 Stages of Cognitive Development , which are defined by age:

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

The Sensorimotor Stage runs from birth to 2 years and the child spends their time learning basic Schemas and Object Permanence (the idea that something still exists when you can’t see it).

The Preoperational Stage runs from 2 years to 7 years and the child develops more Schemas and the ability to think Symbolically (the idea that one thing can stand for another; words for example, or objects). At this point, children still struggle with Theory of Mind (Empathy) and can’t really get their head around the viewpoints of others.

The Concrete Operational Stage runs from 7 years to 11 years and this is the Stage when children start to work things out in their head rather than physically in the real world. They also develop the ability to Conserve (understand that something stays the same quantity even if it looks different).

The Formal Operational Stage runs from 11 years into adulthood and this is where abstract thought develops, as does logic and cool stuff like hypothesis testing.

According to Piaget, the whole process is active and requires the rediscovery and reconstructing of knowledge across the entire process of Stages.

Understanding the Stage a child is in informs what they should be presented with based on what they can and cannot do at the Stage they’re in.

Piaget’s work on cognitivism has given rise to some brilliant work from people like John Sweller who developed the fantastic Cognitive Load Theory and John Flavell’s work on metacognition

2. Vygotsky’s Theory of Learning

Vygotsky takes a different approach to Piaget’s idea that development precedes learning.

Instead, he reckons that social learning is an integral part of cognitive development and it is culture, not developmental Stage that underlies cognitive development. Because of that, he argues that learning varies across cultures rather than being a universal process driven by the kind of structures and processes put forward by Piaget.

Zone of Proximal Development

He makes a big deal of the idea of the Zone of Proximal Development in which children and those they are learning from co-construct knowledge. Therefore, the social environment in which children learn has a massive impact on how they think and what they think about.

They also differ in how they view language. For Piaget, thought drives language but for Vygotsky, language and thought become intertwined at about 3 years and become a sort of internal dialogue for understanding the world.

And where do they get that from? Their social environment of course, which contains all the cognitive/linguistic skills and tools to understand the world.

Vygotsky talks about Elementary Mental Functions , by which he means the basic cognitive processes of Attention, Sensation, Perception and Memory.

By using those basic tools in interactions with their sociocultural environment, children sort of improve them using whatever their culture provides to do so. In the case of Memory, for example, Western cultures tend towards note-taking, mind-maps or mnemonics whereas other cultures may use different Memory tools like storytelling.

In this way, a cultural variation of learning can be described quite nicely.

What are crucial in this learning theory are the ideas of Scaffolding, the Zone of Proximal Development ( ZPD ) and the More Knowledgeable Other ( MKO ). Here’s how all that works:

More Knowledgeable Other

The MKO can be (but doesn’t have to be) a person who literally knows more than the child. Working collaboratively, the child and the MKO operate in the ZPD, which is the bit of learning that the child can’t do on their own.

As the child develops, the ZPD gets bigger because they can do more on their own and the process of enlarging the ZPD is called Scaffolding .

Vygotsky Scaffolding

Knowing where that scaffold should be set is massively important and it’s the MKO’s job to do that so that the child can work independently AND learn collaboratively.

For Vygotsky, language is at the heart of all this because a) it’s the primary means by which the MKO and the child communicate ideas and b) internalizing it is enormously powerful in cementing understanding about the world.

That internalization of speech becomes Private Speech (the child’s “inner voice”) and is distinct from Social Speech , which occurs between people.

Over time, Social Speech becomes Private Speech and Hey Presto! That’s Learning because the child is now collaborating with themselves!

The bottom line here is that the richer the sociocultural environment, the more tools will be available to the child in the ZPD and the more Social Speech they will internalize as Private Speech. It doesn’t take a genius to work out, therefore, that the learning environment and interactions are everything.

Scaffolding is also an integral part of Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction .

3. Bloom’s Domains of Learning

In 1956, American educational psychologist, Benjamin Bloom, first proposed three domains of learning; cognitive, affective and psycho-motor . Bloom worked in collaboration with David Krathwohl and Anne Harrow throughout the 1950s-70s on the three domains.

The Cognitive Domain (Bloom’s Taxonomy)

This was the first domain to be proposed in 1956 and it focuses on the idea that objectives that are related to cognition could be divided into subdivisions and ranked in order of cognitive difficulty.

These ranked subdivisions are what we commonly refer to as Bloom’s taxonomy . The original subdivisions are as follows (knowledge is the lowest with evaluation being the most cognitively difficult):

Understanding
Application

However, there was a major revision of the subdivisions in 2000-01 by Bloom’s original partner, David Krathwohl and his colleague, Lorin Anderson (Anderson was a former student of Bloom’s).

The highlights of this revision were switching names of the subdivisions from nouns to verbs, thus making them easier to use when curriculum and lesson planning .

The other main change was the order of the top two subdivisions was reversed. The updated taxonomy is as follows:

The Affective Domain

The affective domain (sometimes referred to as the feeling domain) is concerned with feelings and emotions and also divides objectives into hierarchical subcategories. It was proposed by Krathwohl and Bloom in 1964.

The affective domain is not usually used when planning for math and sciences as feelings and emotion are not relevant for those subjects. However, for educators of arts and language, the inclusion of the affective domain is imperative wherever possible.

The ranked domain subcategories range from “receiving” at the lower end up to “characterization” at the top. The full ranked list is as follows:

Receiving. Being aware of an external stimulus (feel, sense, experience).
Responding. Responding to the external stimulus (satisfaction, enjoyment, contribute)
Valuing. Referring to the student’s belief or appropriation of worth (showing preference or respect).
Organization. The conceptualizing and organizing of values (examine, clarify, integrate.)
Characterization. The ability to practice and act on their values. (Review, conclude, judge).

The Psychomotor Domain

The psychomotor domain refers to those objectives that are specific to reflex actions interpretive movements and discreet physical functions.

A common misconception is that physical objectives that support cognitive learning fit the psycho-motor label, for example; dissecting a heart and then drawing it.

While these are physical (kinesthetic) actions, they are a vector for cognitive learning, not psycho-motor learning.

Psychomotor learning refers to how we use our bodies and senses to interact with the world around us, such as learning how to move our bodies in dance or gymnastics.

Anita Harrow classified different types of learning in the psycho-motor domain from those that are reflex to those that are more complex and require precise control.

Reflex movements. These movements are those that we possess from birth or appear as we go through puberty. They are automatic, that is they do not require us to actively think about them e.g. breathing, opening and closing our pupils or shivering when cold.
Fundamental movements. These are those actions that are the basic movements, running, jumping, walking etc and commonly form part of more complex actions such as playing a sport.
Perceptual abilities. This set of abilities features those that allow us to sense the world around us and coordinate our movements in order to interact with our environment. They include visual, audio and tactile actions.
Physical abilities. These abilities refer to those involved with strength, endurance, dexterity and flexibility etc.
Skilled movements. Objectives set in this area are those that include movements learned for sport (twisting the body in high diving or trampolining), dance or playing a musical instrument (placing fingers on guitar strings to produce the correct note). It is these movements that we sometimes use the layman’s term “muscle memory”.
Non-discursive communication. Meaning communication without writing, non-discursive communication refers to physical actions such as facial expressions, posture and gestures.

4. Gagné’s Conditions of Learning

Robert Mills Gagné was an American educational psychologist who, in 1965 published his book “The Conditions of Learning”. In it, he discusses the analysis of learning objectives and how the different classes of objective require specific teaching methods.

He called these his 5 conditions of learning, all of which fall under the cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domains discussed earlier.

Gagné’s 5 Conditions of Learning

Verbal information (Cognitive domain)
Intellectual skills (Cognitive domain)
Cognitive strategies (Cognitive domain)
Motor skills (Psycho-Motor domain)
Attitudes (Affective domain)

Gagné’s 9 Levels of Learning

To achieve his five conditions of learning, Gagné believed that learning would take place when students progress through nine levels of learning and that any teaching session should include a sequence of events through all nine levels. The idea was that the nine levels of learning activate the five conditions of learning and thus, learning will be achieved.

Gain attention.
Inform students of the objective.
Stimulate recall of prior learning.
Present the content.
Provide learning guidance.
Elicit performance (practice).
Provide feedback.
Assess performance.
Enhance retention and transfer to the job.

Benefits of Gagné’s Theory

Used in conjunction with Bloom’s taxonomy, Gagné’s nine levels of learning provide a framework that teachers can use to plan lessons and topics. Bloom provides the ability to set objectives that are differentiated and Gagné gives a scaffold to build your lesson on.

5. Jerome Bruner

Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum (1960)

Cognitive learning theorist, Jerome Bruner based the spiral curriculum on his idea that “ We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development” .

In other words, he meant that even very complex topics can be taught to young children if structured and presented in the right way. The spiral curriculum is based on three key ideas.

Students revisit the same topic multiple times throughout their school career. This reinforces the learning each time they return to the subject.
The complexity of the topic increases each time a student revisits it. This allows progression through the subject matter as the child’s cognitive ability develops with age.
When a student returns to a topic, new ideas are linked with ones they have previously learned. The student’s familiarity with the keywords and ideas enables them to grasp the more difficult elements of the topic in a stronger way.

Bruner’s 3 Modes of Representation (1966)

Following the idea of the spiral curriculum, Bruner presented the idea of three modes of representation. These modes of representation refer to the way knowledge is stored in memory. Unlike Piaget’s age-related stages, Bruner’s modes are loosely sequential.

Enactive (age 0-1 years). Representation of knowledge through physical actions.
Iconic (age 1-6 years). Visual representation of knowledge stored via visual images.
Symbolic (age 7+ years). The use of words and symbols to describe experiences.

6. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

learning theories summary, maslow's hierarchy of needs

The basic premise for Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that students progress through a set of sequential needs from physiological to self-actualization. As they move up through the levels, they feel more comfortable in their learning environment and have the confidence to push further.

It’s important to note that any group of students will have learners at different levels, some may not have the lower levels met at home so making sure these students feel safe and secure is of the utmost importance as they will find it very hard to move to the upper levels.

Maslow’s theory lends itself more to building student/teacher relationships rather than lesson or curriculum structure. You can have the best resources and most tightly planned lessons in the world but if you don’t show enthusiasm, passion and empathy it will be very difficult for your students to feel their needs have been met .

7. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner is an American developmental psychologist and professor of cognition and education at the Harvard graduate school at Harvard University. He studied under Erik Ericson (Below) and Jerome Bruner (above).

He published “Frames of Mind” in 1983, in it, he laid out his theory of “multiple intelligences”.

Gardner perceived intelligence as the ability to solve problems or make products that are useful in one or more cultural settings.

He developed a list of criteria he would use to judge possible contenders for the title “intelligence”. Candidates had to satisfy a range of the conditions on his list and also be able to solve genuine problems of difficulties. Initially, Gardner named seven intelligences.

Gardner’s 7 Intelligences

Linguistic intelligence. The ability to learn and use language in written and spoken forms to express oneself.
Mathematical intelligence. The ability to solve problems logically, to solve mathematical problems and to perform scientific investigations.
Musical intelligence. Having skill in appreciation, composition and performance of musical patterns, including the ability to recognize tone, pitch and rhythm.
Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Using mental abilities to coordinate body movements to solve problems.
Spatial intelligence. Being able to recognize and use patterns in a wide or confined space.
Interpersonal intelligence. The capacity to understand the desires, motivations and intentions of other people.
Intrapersonal intelligence. The capacity to understand your own fears, feelings and motivations.

The Importance of Multiple Intelligence in the Classroom

Gardner suggested that the intelligences rarely operate independently and compliment each other as students learn new skills and solve problems. He also commented that the intelligences are amoral, meaning they can be used for constructive or destructive purposes.

Whilst Gardner’s theory hasn’t been hugely accepted in the field of Psychology, it has had a strong positive response in education , especially in the US.

In the face of criticism that it is hard to teach things in the frame of a certain intelligence, Gardner replied by stating that the seven intelligences give 7 ways to teach a subject, allowing multiple strategies to be used, thus allowing all students to make progress.

Gardner believes that all seven intelligences are required to live life well and education systems should include all seven not just the more academic first two.

Naturalist Intelligence

Since its original publication, Gardner has since added an eighth intelligence; Naturalist intelligence. This deals with an individual’s ability to perceive, recognize and order features from the environment.

8. Erikson’s 8 Stages of Psychological Development

Erik Erikson was a stage theorist who developed Freud’s “Psychosexual Theory” and adapted it into a psychosocial (having both psychological and social aspects) theory encompassing eight stages.

According to Erikson, we experience eight stages of development during our life span. Within each stage, there is a dilemma that we must resolve in order to feel a sense of competence and will allow us to develop as a well-adjusted adult.

Erikson’s 8 Stages

Trust Vs. Mistrust (Age 0 – 1.5). In this first stage, infants must learn that adults can be trusted. If treated poorly children may grow up feeling mistrust towards people.
Autonomy Vs. Shame (Age 1.5 – 3). The “me do it’ stage, children start to make decisions and show preferences of elements in their environment such as what clothes to wear or what toy they prefer. If children are not allowed to explore these preferences they may develop low self-esteem and shame.
Initiative Vs. Guilt (Age 3 – 5) . This stage involves children learning to plan and achieve goals involving others. If parents or teachers allow children to explore this and support their choices they will develop a sense of purpose and strong self-confidence.
Industry Vs. Inferiority (Age 5 – 12). In this stage, children start comparing themselves with their peers. Success at this will result in a sense of accomplishment in their school work, social and family activities and sports.
Identity Vs. Role Confusion (Age 12 – 18). Students in this stage are asking themselves “Who am I” and “What do I want to do in my life”. They will try out multiple roles during this time to find what one “fits” best. A strong sense of identity and an ability to defend their core beliefs in the face of other opinions would be considered success at this stage.
Intimacy Vs. Isolation (Age 18 – 40). As students progress into early adulthood their focus shifts to making and maintaining strong, intimate relationships with others.
Generativity Vs. Stagnation (Age 40 – 65). In middle adulthood, people are concerned with contributing to society either through their work or parenthood. Continued self-improvement for the benefit of other people figures strongly here.
Ego Integrity Vs. Despair (Age 65+). Those in late adulthood reflect on their lives, feeling a sense of satisfaction or failure. Those who feel failure will often obsess with ideas of what they “should have” or “could have” done.

Educational Implications of Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Within an educational frame, Erikson’s work gives us as teachers a framework to base our teaching on. Knowing what questions our students are asking of themselves and the world around them allows us to plan effectively.

Problems arise when our class has children at different stages in it, in this case, we must carefully differentiate our pedagogy to allow supportive learning for all students.

9. Kolb’s Experiential Theory

Kolb’s experi e ntial learning cycle.

David Kolb, an American education theorist proposed his four-stage experiential learning theory in 1984. It is built on the premise that learning is the acquisition of abstract concepts which can then be applied to a range of scenarios.

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” – Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Each stage in the cycle both supports and leads into the next stage. Learning is achieved only if all four stages have been completed, however, a learner may travel around the cycle multiple times, further refining their understanding of the topic.

No one stage is an effective learning strategy on its own, for example, if the reflective observation stage is skipped, the learner could continue to make the same mistakes.

10. The Peter Principle

The Peter Principle was developed by American educational theorist Laurence Peter and was explained in the book “The Peter Principle” that Peter wrote with his colleague, Raymond Hull.

Originally the book was supposed to be a satirical view on how people are promoted in organizations but it became popular as it actually made a valid point.

Whilst not strictly a learning theory, it does have some crossover to the classroom. The Peter Principal deals with four levels of competence. They could give a teacher planning a long term teaching strategy a framework to use when thinking about how students progress.

Unconscious Incompetence. Not knowing how to do a task without knowing you don’t know.
Conscious Incompetence. You still don’t know how to do the task but now you know you don’t know. You are aware of a gap in your knowledge.
Conscious Competence. You can now do the task but it requires a lot of concentration.
Unconscious Competence. You can perform the task with ease. This is achieved by repeated practice.

I’m sure you can see how this would translate to a student’s learning journey.

Further Reading: Peter, L. J., & Hull, R. (1969). The peter principle .

11. Laird’s Sensory Theory

In 1985 Dugan Laird stated in his book Approaches to Training and Development that learning occurs when the senses are stimulated.

He quoted research that found that 75% of an adult’s knowledge was obtained by seeing. 13% was through hearing, the remaining 12% was learned through touch, smell and taste combined.

Based on this research, providing visual prompts for students will enhance their learning. However, making your lessons a multi-sensual experience will enhance learning even further. It’s worth considering this when planning your lessons.

12. Skinner’s Behaviorist Theory

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is based on Thorndike’s “Law of Effect” (1898), in which it is proposed that behaviors that are followed by positive responses are likely to be repeated and those that are followed by negative responses, not repeated.

Skinner refined the Law of Effect by introducing “reinforcement” into the descriptions. Using Skinner’s new description we end up with; those behaviors that are reinforced are repeated (strengthened) and those not reinforced tend to dissipate (are weakened).

Positive Reinforcement

From a classroom management perspective, positive reinforcement is an essential strategy for teaching students how to act and conduct themselves.

Positive reinforcement (e.g. praise) should be given for behaviors that are desirable, for example, verbally answering questions in class . Initially, this should be done for all answers given, regardless of whether they are correct. This will build a culture of answering questions.

As the behavior in question becomes commonplace, the teacher should then both reduce the frequency of the reinforcement and, as in our above example, only give it for correct answers.

Ultimately the teacher will reduce the frequency of the positive reinforcement to only those responses of the highest caliber. This will create a culture of desired excellence in the students.

13. Rogers’ Humanist Theory

Developed by the American psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1980s, facilitative learning is a humanistic approach to learning.

Humanism was developed to contrast cognitivism and behaviorism. Both Rogers and Maslow (see above) based their work in humanism. The key perspectives of humanism are as follows:

People have a natural desire to learn in order to achieve self-actualization (see Maslow’s theory above).
It is not the outcome that is the most important part of education, it is the process of learning itself.
The students themselves should be in control of their learning and it should be achieved through observing and exploring.
The teacher should be an encouraging role model, motivating, guiding and supporting students on their own personal journey.

Facilitative Learning

Rogers’ views the teacher as a facilitator to learning rather than just a conveyor of knowledge. The success of the teacher is in their ability to build positive relationships with students.

Roger’s proposed three attitudinal core characteristics that a teacher should possess for facilitative learning to be successful:

Realness. The teacher should be themselves and use their own personality when teaching. Being “real” with students breeds an ethos of trust between students and a teacher. The teacher should be able to convey their feelings rather than just being a monotonal, monochromatic robot.
Prizing, Accepting and Trusting. A teacher should care about their students and accept their feelings, regardless of whether they assist or detract from learning. Through these characteristics, deeper trust and respect is built.
Empathy. Understanding the student’s perception of learning and their feelings.

The effectiveness of facilitative learning also requires certain traits to be present in the student. They should be motivated , aware of the facilitative conditions they have been provided with and aware that the task they have been given is useful, realistic and relevant.

If all these characteristics are present then, in the words of Rogers himself:

“learning becomes life, and a very vital life at that. The student is on his way, sometimes excitedly, sometimes reluctantly, to becoming a learning, changing being”. – Rogers, Carl R. The Interpersonal Relationship in the Facilitation of Learning. In Humanizing Education: The Person in the Process. Ed. T. Leeper. National Education Association, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, p1-18. 1967.

14. Canter’s Theory of Assertive Discipline

Assertive discipline is a structured system to enable teachers to manage their classrooms. It focuses on the teacher developing a positive behavior management strategy rather than being dictatorial.

Canter’s proposition is that the teacher has the right to decide what is best for their students and that no student should prevent any other from learning.

The teacher should very clear boundaries as to how they expect their students to behave and work, the students should know what these boundaries are and any deviation should be met with an assertive action from the teacher.

This all sounds quite draconian, right?

However, if the teacher gives a firm, clear instruction and those instructions are met, they should be followed by positive reinforcement (see Skinner above). Any deviation from the instruction should be met with negative consequences that the students have prior knowledge of.

The behavior management guru, Bill Rogers, bases his strategies on the assertive teacher model , which I know from personal use, works incredibly well.

15. Dreikur’s Classroom Management Theory

Rudolf Dreikur proposed the theory that mutual respect should be the basis for discipline and that this mutual respect motivates learners to display positive behaviors.

He believed students have an innate desire to feel like an accepted member of a group and to feel like they have value and confidence to contribute to that group. Dreikur called this desire to belong, the “genuine goal of social behavior”.

If students are unable to achieve this goal, they start a series of “goals of misbehavior”. The resulting misbehavior is a misguided attempt at gaining the sense of belonging they are missing.

Dreikur’s 4 Goals of Misbehavior

Gain power and control.
Gain revenge.
Display feelings of inadequacy.

If a student fails to gain social status by gaining attention , they move on to trying to gain power and control, failure at each successive level ultimately ends with feelings of inadequacy.

How to Combat the 4 Goals of Misbehavior.

Gain Attention. Ignore the attention-seeking and use positive reinforcement when positive behavior is shown. Distract the student by offering alternate actions or choices e.g. “Please could you hand out the books”.

Gain Power and Control. Focus on all the good behavior in the class, while ignoring the attempt to gain power, on no account should you engage in a battle for power. Bill Rogers, the behavior expert, calls this the black dot, white square approach.

Gain Revenge. Remember that the student is trying to gain a sense of belonging and this revenge-seeking is a masked attempt to gain it. Away from other students, let the student know that you care about them and their education, that despite their actions you want the best for them.

Display Feelings of Inadequacy. At this stage, the student has given up on themselves. This stage will manifest in the form of “not doing” (not doing homework, not participating etc.). Students at this stage should be shown how to recognize small successes and achievements. Showing an interest in them and their work will always help slowly bring a student out of this stage.

Learning Theories Summary

I know what you’re thinking. “How the hell am I supposed to do all of these” or “which ones should I use” or “I’m more confused than ever!”.

That’s how I felt when I was doing my teacher training. The truth is, great teaching involves a cocktail of most of these at some point (and a few actual cocktails at the weekend to recover!).

If you are just starting out on your journey as a teacher and you are worried that you’ll do it wrong, just remember these basic principles:

Building positive relationships with students is the bedrock of EVERYTHING.
Setting clear boundaries that students are aware of.
Consequences of breaking those boundaries are also known in advance.
Focus on and reward the positive things that happen in your classroom (positive reinforcement).
Treat your students as people with thoughts and feelings of their own that, while may seem irrelevant to you, they are not to them.
It is easier and more effective to change your perspective to theirs than make them change to yours.
Remember, their world is not the one you grew up in.

I hope you found this article useful, I know it reminded me of a good few things that I may have been slacking with. Feel free to share it with your teacher friends, I’m sure they will appreciate it.

Learning Theories FAQ

Behaviorism involves repeated actions, verbal reinforcement and incentives to take part. It is great for establishing rules, especially for behavior management . Behaviorism is based on the idea that knowledge is independent and on the exterior of the learner. In a behaviorist’s mind, the learner is a blank slate that should be provided with the information to be learnt. Through this interaction, new associations are made and thus leaning occurs. Learning is achieved when the provided stimulus changes behavior.

In contrast to behaviorism, cognitivism focuses on the idea that students process information they receive rather than just responding to a stimulus, as with behaviorism. There is still a behavior change evident, but this is in response to thinking and processing information. In cognitive load theory , learning occurs when the student reorganizes information, either by finding new explanations or adapting old ones.

Constructivism is based on the premise that we construct learning new ideas based on our own prior knowledge and experiences. Learning, therefore, is unique to the individual learner. Students adapt their models of understanding either by reflecting on prior theories or resolving misconceptions. Students need to have a prior base of knowledge for constructivist approaches to be effective. Bruner’s spiral curriculum is a great example of constructivism in action.

8 thoughts on “15 Learning Theories in Education (A Complete Summary)”

What a great overview! Thank you

Is there a new paradigm of AI-assisted education? Everybody uses this kind of education both in learning and teaching, yet there is not a universal theory of such that subject.

Wow..indeed a phenomenal explanation of various learning theories Thank you.

Thank you very much for this article. I’m in pre-major classes for my K-5 degree & licensure, and I’m developing my POE. This might be the most helpful resource I have found so far.

Thanks a lot.

This article is very helpful; it summarizes almost all the theories I encountered during my PGDE. In addition, although in summary, it clarifies many unclear terms I came across during my training.

You do such a great job of summarising the theories. Thank you for this! It can be overwhelming as a new teacher to get all these theories and get the cocktail that fits best to own’s teaching style. Also, thank you for simplifying and creating light moments about the theories. The seven principles are practical and applicable in any teaching situation.

You are awesome!

Thank you for this wonderful overview of the theories by these developmental greats. Summarized beautifully for easy reading and a very useful refresher. It is a most helpful reference for my studies.

Extremely well written. Covers all the theorists. Read and absorb Dr. B.

5 educational learning theories and how to apply them

By Michael Feder

This article has been vetted by University of Phoenix's editorial advisory committee. Read more about our editorial process.

Reviewed by Pamela M. Roggeman , EdD, Dean, College of Education

At a glance

There are five primary educational learning theories : behaviorism, cognitive, constructivism, humanism, and connectivism.
Additional learning theories include transformative, social, and experiential .
Understanding learning theories can result in a variety of outcomes , from improving communication between students and teachers to determining what students learn.
Learn more about how University of Phoenix can aid you in your educational journey at phoenix.edu .

This article was updated on 12/4/2023.

How educational learning theories can impact your education

Teaching and learning may appear to be a universal experience. After all, everyone goes to school and learns more or less the same thing, right? Well, not quite.

As the prolific number of educational theorists in learning suggests, there’s actually an impressive variety of educational approaches to the art and science of teaching. Many of them have been pioneered by educational theorists who’ve studied the science of learning to determine what works best and for whom.

"Learning is defined as a process that brings together personal and environmental experiences and influences for acquiring, enriching or modifying one’s knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, behavior and worldviews," notes the International Bureau of Education . "Learning theories develop hypotheses that describe how this process takes place."

Generally, there are five widely accepted learning theories teachers rely on:

Behaviorism learning theory
Cognitive learning theory
Constructivism learning theory
Humanism learning theory
Connectivism learning theory

Educational theorists, teachers, and experts believe these theories can inform successful approaches for teaching and serve as a foundation for developing lesson plans and curriculum.

Learn more about degree offerings at University of Phoenix!

What are learning theories?

Theories in education didn’t begin in earnest until the early 20th century, but curiosity about how humans learn dates back to the ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They explored whether knowledge and truth could be found within oneself (rationalism) or through external observation (empiricism).

By the 19th century, psychologists began to answer this question with scientific studies. The goal was to understand objectively how people learn and then develop teaching approaches accordingly.

In the 20th century, the debate among educational theorists centered on behaviorist theory versus cognitive psychology. Or, in other words, do people learn by responding to external stimuli or by using their brains to construct knowledge from external data?

The five educational learning theories

Today, much research, study, and debate have given rise to the following five learning theories:

Why are learning theories important?

It is part of the human condition to crave knowledge. Consequently, numerous scientists, psychologists, and thought leaders have devoted their careers to studying learning theories. Understanding how people learn is a critical step in optimizing the learning process.

It is for this reason that teacher colleges or educator preparation programs spend so much time having teacher candidates study human development and multiple learning theories. Foundational knowledge of how humans learn, and specifically how a child learns and develops cognitively, is essential for all educators to be their most effective instructors in the classroom.

Pamela Roggeman, EdD, dean of University of Phoenix’s College of Education , explains her take on the role learning theory plays in preparing teachers:

"Just as no two people are the same, no two students learn in the exact the same way or at the exact same rate. Effective educators need to be able to pivot and craft instruction that meets the needs of the individual student to address the needs of the ‘whole child.’ Sound knowledge in multiple learning theories is a first step to this and another reason why great teachers work their entire careers to master both the art and the science of teaching."

Although espousing a particular learning theory isn’t necessarily required in most teaching roles, online learning author and consultant Tony Bates points out that most teachers tend to follow one or another theory, even if it’s done unconsciously.

So, whether you’re an aspiring or experienced teacher, a student, or a parent of a student (or some combination thereof), knowing more about each theory can make you more effective in the pursuit of knowledge.

Are there other theories in education?

Like students themselves, learning theories in education are varied and diverse. In addition to the five theories outlined above, there are still more options, including:

Transformative learning theory: This theory is particularly relevant to adult learners. It posits that new information can essentially change our worldviews when our life experience and knowledge are paired with critical reflection.
Social learning theory: This theory incorporates some of the tacit tenets of peer pressure. Specifically, students observe other students and model their own behavior accordingly. Sometimes it’s to emulate peers; other times it’s to distinguish themselves from peers. Harnessing the power of this theory involves getting students’ attention, focusing on how students can retain information, identifying when it’s appropriate to reproduce a previous behavior, and determining students’ motivation.
Experiential learning theory: There are plenty of clichés and parables about teaching someone something by doing it, although it wasn’t until the early 1980s that it became an official learning theory. This approach emphasizes both learning about something and experiencing it so that students can apply knowledge in real-world situations.

How educational theories influence learning

Educational theories influence learning in a variety of ways. For teachers, learning theory examples can impact their approach to instruction and classroom management. Finding the right approach (even if it’s combining two or more learning theories) can make the difference between an effective and inspiring classroom experience and an ineffective one.

Applied learning theories directly impact a classroom experience in a variety of ways, such as:

Providing students with structure and a comfortable, steady environment.
Helping educators, administrators, students and parents align on goals and outcomes .
Empowering teachers to be, as Bates says, "in a better position to make choices about how to approach their teaching in ways that will best fit the perceived needs of their students."
Impacting how and what a person learns.
Helping outsiders (colleges, testing firms, etc.) determine what kind of education you had or are receiving.
Allowing students a voice in determining how the class will be managed .
Deciding if instruction will be mostly teacher-led or student-led .
Determining how much collaboration will happen in a classroom.

How to apply learning theories

So, how do learning theories apply in the real world? Education is an evolving field with a complicated future . And, according to Roggeman, the effects of applied educational theory can be long-lasting.

She explains:

"The learning theories we experienced as a student influence the type of work environment we prefer as adults. For example, if one experienced classrooms based heavily on social learning during the K-12 years, as an adult, one may be very comfortable in a highly collaborative work environment. Reflection on one’s own educational history might serve as an insightful tool as to one’s own fulfillment in the workplace as an adult."

Educational theories have come a long way since the days of Socrates and even the pioneers of behaviorism and cognitivism. And while learning theories will no doubt continue to evolve, teachers and students alike can reap the benefits of this evolution as we continue to develop our understanding of how humans most effectively learn.

Educational theories of learning are one thing. Adult learning theories are another. Learn more on our blog.

Ready to put theory into practice? Explore Foundations in Virtual Teaching at University of Phoenix!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Feder is a content marketing specialist at University of Phoenix, where he researches and writes on a variety of topics, ranging from healthcare to IT. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars program and a New Jersey native!

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How do i write a college paper about using non-nursing theory in nursing practice.

The first step in writing about non-nursing theory as applied to nursing practice is deciding what theories you are going to use. Non-nursing theory refers to any theory that is not nursing-specific, which means that there are countless options you could choose to write your paper. These different theories can be applied, with varying degrees of success, to nursing. The theories we would choose include Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs , Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development theory , and Bandura’s social learning theory . We picked these three because they are the three psychosocial theories....

I\'m looking for an essay emotional development that is [description, e.g., research-based, persuasive, historical]. What options do you have?

Here are some options for an essay on emotional development: 1. Research-based essay on emotional development: This essay can explore the latest scientific research on emotional development, including the impact of genetics, early experiences, and environment on the development of emotions. It can also discuss various theories of emotional development, such as attachment theory and social learning theory. 2. Persuasive essay on the importance of emotional development: This essay can make a case for why emotional development is crucial for overall well-being and success in life. It can discuss the benefits of emotional intelligence, empathy, and self-regulation, and argue for the importance....

Learning Theory Several Theories Are

Learning tends to be associated with specific ways of considering events and establishes a student's "explanatory style," or the components of permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization. Permanence refers to someone believing that negative events and/or their causes are permanent, despite the fact that evidence, logic, and past experience indicate that they are instead temporary: "I'll never be good in English." Pervasiveness is generalizing, so a negative aspect of a situation is thought to extend to others as well: "I failed math, so I'll fail all my courses." Personalization deals with whether individuals attribute negative events to personal flaws or to outside circumstances or people. They tend to blame themselves for everything: "It's always my fault." To overcome such helplessness, teachers have to incorporate means of gaining self-worth and learned optimism with activities identifying negative interpretations of events, assessing their accuracy and generating more accurate interpretations. The encouragement of gaining mastery over acquiring….

Bransford, J.D. (Ed) (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Caine, R.N., & Caine, G. (1997). Education on the edge of possibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic,1983

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Learning Theory The Process Through Which Humans

Learning Theory: The process through which humans learn has been an issue of significant concern since the emergence of formal education thousands of years ago. In attempts to understand the process of human learning, there have been several theories and concepts that have been developed from time to time. These concepts and theories have particularly been a reflection of the various paradigm shifts in thought and practice. The most significant shift or event that contributed to understanding the process of human learning took place in the past century. This shift resulted in the development of a plethora of ideas regarding the most appropriate practices for encouraging learning. Notably, the shift led to the development of learning theory because of the extensive considerations by early educators and philosophers. Learning theory is centered on identifying the best practices for encouraging learning since it traces the roots of learning and how the process of learning….

References:

Edgar, D.W. (2012). Learning Theories and Historical Events Affecting Instructional Design in Education: Recitation Literacy Toward Extraction Literacy Practices. SAGE Open, 2(4). Retrieved from http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/2/4/2158244012462707.full

Knowles, M.S., Holton, E.F. & Swanson, R.A. (2011) The Adult Learner., Oxford, UK: Elsevier,

Retrieved from http://theteachingdoc.hubpages.com/hub/Malcolm-Knowles-and-Adult-Learning-Theory

Learning Theory and Its Implications for the

Learning Theory and Its Implications for the Theory and Practice of Instructional Design Paradigm Shift in Instructional Learning Theory PARADIGM SHIFT IN INSTRUCTIONAL LEARNING ecause of the global changes transforming every aspect of life there is a need to transform traditional instruction into learner-centered instruction. This requires a re-thinking of the roles played by the teacher and the students in the learning process which involves a major change in one's basic assumption on how people learn. According to Chickering and Gamson (1987 p. 3) "learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much by just sitting in a class listening to teachers memorizing prepackaged assignments and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, related it to past experiences, apply it to their lives." Research on cognition reveals that students who reflect on their learning are better learners than those who do not (Cross, 1996, p.6).….

Bibliography

Reigeluth, Charles M. 1999. Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory. Vol. II. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

ERIC Digest. A Paradigm Shift from Instruction to Learning. http://itech1.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper17/paper17.html. What Is the New Paradigm of Instructional Theory by Reigeluth, Charles M. Indiana University www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802pages/mergel/brenda.html. http://www.indiana.edu/~idtheory/green2.html . Instructional Design Theories and Models. Vol II by Charles M. Reigeluth, Editor. 1999. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. http://www.indiana.edu/~idtheory/home.html

Learning Theory An Assessment of Applicability

The Applicability of Learning Theory Learning is a complex process by which an individual acquires and modifies their knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and skills through study, instruction or experience. Theories provide a framework for understanding how learning occurs and the factors that influence its effectiveness. Learning theories are complex and comprehensive principles that explain how individual learn, develop, and progress (Rosser-Majors, 2017). They acknowledge that human beings learn differently and attempt to contextualize the learning process. Four of the most common learning theories are behaviorism, constructivism, cognitivism, and humanism. This text analyzes the learning process as portrayed by these four theories, the ideologies within each theory, and evidence-based application of learning theory to enhance learning. Behaviorism Theory Behaviorism theory emphasizes the role of external factors/stimuli in shaping an individual’s behavior (Rosser-Majors, 2017). Behaviorists argue that all behavior is an association between an environmental stimulus and the individual’s response to the same. As such, learning….

Learning Theory and Grief

Operant Conditioning and Grief Because grief is an emotional process, many people are reluctant to believe that grief can, in many ways, be explained through operant or classical conditioning principles. However, the biochemical underpinnings of many type of love relationships serve as reward systems that can actually condition a person to feel love, which can result in grief when the object of affection is no longer available. In both sexual relationships and parent-child relationships, the body releases chemicals at certain times during the relationship- sexual intercourse, nursing, holding an infant, and hugging are all related to the body's release of hormones. Classical or operant conditioning principles suggest, then, that the presence of the loved one will, eventually be sufficient to stimulate the release of those hormones. If the loved one resides with the person who has done the learning or spends sufficient time with them, then it seems clear that the….

Describing How a Selected Learning Theory Impacts Curriculum Design

Learning theories play a large role in the cultivation of curriculum within the realm of education. The purpose of this discussion is to describe how a selected learning theory influences curriculum. For the purposes of this discussion, we will focus on Social learning theory. Our research will contain a discussion of the learning theory, a description of how it affects curriculum design, and thoughts on the use of the theory in the 21st century schools. Discussion of Social Learning Theory There are many different learning theories that exist and are used to shape what students learn in the classroom. According to an article in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, social learning theory asserts, "behaviors modeled by others may be imitated in other relationships. Specifically, behaviors of higher status individuals are more likely to be imitated by individuals of lower status (eese-Weber, 2000)." In other words, this theory asserts that human behavior….

Ewen, R.B. (1998). An Introduction to Theories of Personality (5th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Horner, S.L. (2001). The Effects of Observational Learning on Preschoolers' Book-Related Behaviors and Alphabet Knowledge. Child Study Journal, 31(1), 1. Retrieved October 25, 2004, from Questia database, http://www.questia.com .

Blackhurst, A.E. Keel, M.C., & Slaton, D.B.(2001). Acquisition of Content Area Vocabulary for Students with Learning Disabilities. Education & Treatment of Children, 24(1), 46.

Observational (Social) Learning: An Overview. Retrieved October 23,2004 from; http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/soccog/soclrn.html

Personal Learning Theory The Author

wilderdom.com/experiential/ExperientialWhatIs.html)." Experiential education comes in many shapes and sizes Experiential education is widely implemented across a range of topics and mediums - for example, outdoor education, service learning, internships, and group-based learning projects. Many educational projects are experiential, but don't refer to themselves as such (e.g., excursions, physical education, manual arts, drama, art, and so on)." The value of experiential education is instrumental to my learning theory. I remember the first time I assisted in a classroom and saw how valuable it is when utilized correctly. I was helping with a math lesson in a first grade classroom. The teacher had drawn an equation the board of 2 plus 3 equals 5. She had the students first discuss the equation and talk about things that could be added. The list was endless and fun and included pet dogs, cats, little sisters and brothers. It had the students laughing and paying close attention. The next….

Albert Bandura

http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/bandura.html

Passages by Albert Bandura ( http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/effquotes.html )

Bandura: Beliefs, Bobo, and Behavior http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/0701/keynote.html

Dispositional and Learning Theory

Dispositional and Learning Theory The objective of this study is to describe the role of personality in affecting situational behavior and examine the personality characteristics attributed to each of the theories. This work will additionally explain the interpersonal relational aspects associated with the theories selected. Personality is defined by Gordon Allport as the "dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine a person' behavior and thought." (Psychological Musings, 2011, p.1) Dispositional theory is reported to be such that "holds an optimistic view of human nature and believes healthy people are consciously motivated, maintain healthy relationships, and relate realistically to their environment." This theory is reported to be such that provides a description of personality traits referred to as 'dispositions'. It was theorized by Allport that "central traits from the fundamental structure of individual personalities and secondary traits contribute to less important characteristics." (Psychological Musings, 2011, p.1) Allport is noted….

Critique of Learning Perspectives on Personality (2003) Wilderdom. 29 Sept 2003. Retrieved from: http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/L9-4CritiqueLearningTheory.html

Introduction to Learning Perspectives on Personality (2003) Wilderdom 29 Sept 2003. Retrieved from: http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/L9-0LearningPerspectivesPersonality.html

Introduction to Personality (2011) Psychological Musings. 8 May 2011. Retrieved from: http://psychological-musings.blogspot.com/2011/05/introduction-to-personality.html

Personality Analysis: Humanist/Existential and Learning Theories (2011) Psychological Musings. 27 May 2011. Retrieved from: http://psychological-musings.blogspot.com/2011/05/personality-analysis.html

Curriculum Design Selected Learning Theory

" How much the design of cuiculum may affect the student in tems of leaning outcomes is anothe vey impotant consideation in this humanistic theoy of Combs and Snygg. Diffeentiation in the Peceptions of Leaning Style Just as diffeent individuals have diffeent tastes, views and pesonalities the theoies of leaning ae diffeentiated as well. Some of the leaning styles that exist ae Leaning pefeences that exist ae based in (1) Concete leaning (2) Abstact leaning (3) Teache-stuctued leaning (4) Student stuctued leaning (5) Intepesonal leaning; and (5) Individual leaning. The diffeentiation that exists in elation to styles of leaning is that upon which the many diffeent theoies of leaning ae based in thei beliefs. Fo example concete leaning is based on a belief o a theoy that tangible, specific and pactical tasks focused on skills is the most desiable method while in the methods that suppot abstact leaning the pefeence is fo….

references reflect curricular change. Medical Teacher 24(1), pp. 32-40

Richards, Ann C. Ed.D (2003) the Relationship Between Behavior and Experience: Fundamental Premise 2001 November 21. Presented at the Second National Symposium on Educator Dispositions. 21 November, 2003.

Kell, C & van Deursen, R. (2000) the fight against professional obsolescence should begin in the undergraduate curriculum, Medical Teacher, 22(2), pp. 160-163

Boeree, George C. (1998) Personality Theories: Donald Snygg & Arthur Combs. Online available at; http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/snygg&combs.html

Selected Learning Theory: Impact on Curriculum Design

Transformational Learning Theory in the Context of Adult Learning

Transformational Learning More than twenty-five years ago, Jack Mezirow initiated a profound movement in the field of adult education, that of transformative learning theory. Since this time, the concept of transformative learning has been a topic of much research and theory building in the field of adult education as described in more detail in this research paper. Although Mezirow is considered to be the major developer of transformative learning theory, other perspectives about transformative learning have emerged and are still emering, indicating that Mezirow's work was just a beginning. Today there are four major models of transformative learning: the cognitive-rational approach of Mezirow, Freire's social transformation, the concept of development by Daloz and spirituality dimensions advocated by Dirkx and Healey. And, critics such as oyd, and Clark and Wilson have criticized Mezirow's theory as too rationally driven. Even so, Merizow's theory still serves as a widely-used foundation to explain or compare the….

Boyd, R.D., and Myers, J.G..(1988, October-December). Transformative education. International Journal Of Lifelong Education 7, no. 4, 261-284.

Clark, M.C., & Wilson, A.L. (1991). Context and rationality in Mezirow's theory of transformational learning. Adult Education Quarterly, 41(2), 75-91.

Cranton, P.(1994). Understanding and promoting transformative learning: a guide for educators of adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Daloz, L. (1986). Effective teaching and mentoring. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Brain-Based Learning Theory

rain-ased Learning Theory Learning does not only bring enlightenment to the weary souls but it also helps us learn, grow and be what we are potentially able to become. Therefore education plays a vital role in inculcating a sense of responsibility in children and to assist them in learning other highly important social skills. Thus through adequate instructional framework and effective and logical application of the learning theories, both educators and learners can considerably reap benefits of teaching and learning respectively. The purpose of this analytical research paper is to apply brain base learning theory in the most effective manner to the instructional design. The passages below will aim at the accomplishment of six distinct goals. We begin with the comprehension of the theory and principles of instructional design thereby defining it in detail. GOAL I: Understand the Theoretical Foundations and Principles of Instructional Design The term instructional design is not easy to….

Berger C. & Kam R (1996). Definitions of Instructional designs. Adopted from "training and instructional design," applied research lab, Penn State University. Retrieved February 15, 2003 at http://www.umich.edu/~ed626/define.html

Smith, P. & Ragan, T.(1993). Instructional design. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Leigh D. A Brief History of Instructional Design. Retrieved February 16, 2003 from: http://www.pignc-ispi.com/articles/education/brief%20history.html

Dorin, H., Demmin, P.E., Gabel, D. (1990). Chemistry: The study of matter. (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.

Examining Different Learning Theories

Dominant Learning Theories Excellence in the field of pedagogy depends on an understanding of the major learning theories and models along with an ability to use them when appropriate. Even if one doesn't agree with these major learning theories, it's still important to be aware of them as a professional. A strong comprehension of the major learning theories can also help to guide one's actions and choices as an educator, scholar or general pedagogue. Behaviorism, for example, is a major learning theory which asserts that the bulk of learning that occurs in human beings is done through conditioning. This is important as it puts a lot of focus on the power of the environment and how the environment can shape a person's behaviors through the stimuli acquired. Behaviorism is a school of learning which pays very little attention to mental states, finding things like moods and emotions to be too subjective. This….

Cherry, K. (2014). What Is Behaviorism? Retrieved from about.com: http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/f/behaviorism.htm

Euromedinfo.eu. (2013). Behavioral, cognitive, humanist approaches. Retrieved from euromedinfo.eu: http://www.euromedinfo.eu/behavioral-cognitive-humanist-approaches.html/

Fritscher, L. (2014). Cognitive Theory. Retrieved from about.com: http://phobias.about.com/od/glossary/g/cognitivethedef.htm

Psychological Learning Theories There Are

Thus instrumental condition would rely on the notion that a person generates a response rather than an environmental stimulus. I have found that both people and stimulus may elicit certain behaviors both in and outside of the classroom. Instrumental conditioning is modeled after animal experiments which showed that the individual's environment can reinforce response controls, thus the best responses occur when reinforcement of a particular behavior is given. This I have learned to be the case in the classroom most assuredly, where students are more likely to exhibit positive behaviors more frequently when they are reinforced immediately for demonstrating positive behaviors. Generally the patterns that emerge from such conditioning are self-directed, meaning that I have found that most students engage in behaviors and continue to engage in behaviors which they find result in a positive response regardless of the environment they are placed in. With regard to controlling adverse behavior, instrumental….

Chang, Min-Yu S. (1998). "Learning Theory and Advertising." CIA Advertising. 23,

October 2004, Available: http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/student/98_spring/theory/learning.html

Klein, S.B. (2002). "Principles and Applications of Appetitive Conditioning." Mississippi

State University. McGraw Hill. Education. 22, October, 2004, Available:

Traditional Learning Theories Behavioral Constructivism and Cognitive

learning theories, and apply them to the adult learning environment. Specifically behavioral, constructivist, and cognitive learning theories are examined. Behavioral Learning Theories This approach to learning suggests that learning is the result of external stimulus and response to stimulus, thus the learner's environment is the primary factor influencing learning (Hergenhahn & Olson, 1997). The focus of the behavioral learning model is changes in behavior facilitated by stimuli provided by the learner's environment; not stimuli produced by the learner. einforcement of stimuli in the environment are thought to effect change and therefore become critical to the learning process in this learning theory model. The learner's responses to stimuli can be strengthened depending on how one is conditioned to respond; meaning, in the behavioral model, positive reinforcement can serve to enforce positive learning. Also important to the behavioral model is repetition and generalization of important learning concepts (Hartley, 1998). These serve to give the….

Bruner, J.S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. Harvard University Press. Cambridge.

Bruner, J.S. (1996). The culture of education. Harvard University Press. Cambridge.

Hartley, J. (1998). Learning and studying. A research perspective. London: Routledge.

Huang, Hisu-Mei. (2002). Toward constructivism for adult learners in online learning environments. British Journal of Educational Technology. Vol 33, No. 1, 27-37.

Integrating Learning Theories With Personal Philosophy

Integrating Learing Theories Integrating Learning Theories In adult education, there are number of theories utilized to influence the tools educators are using to connect with students. To fully understand them requires looking at the different ones. This will be accomplished by focusing on simulating the ideal teaching philosophy, current research in adult theory, comparing / contrasting them and analyzing those which integrate with our personal teaching philosophy. Together, these elements will highlight the best techniques for reaching out to adult learners. Simulate the ideal teaching philosophy The ideal teaching philosophy is one that connects to individuals using their unique learning styles and has a way of reinforcing them. This involves having a combination of active classroom discussion, group work and hands on training. During this process, they will utilize technology to enhance their understanding of key concepts and focus on meeting important objectives in the course. When this happens, the individual is able to….

Davis, D. (2011). The Adult Learner's Companion. Boston, MA: Wadsworth.

Jacobs, F. (2010). The Adult Learner's Guide. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Robert, P. (2013). Adult Education. New York, NY: Routledge.

Ross, J. (2011). Research on Adult Learners. Peer Review, 31 (1), 53- 61.

Learning Theory: The process through which humans learn has been an issue of significant concern since the emergence of formal education thousands of years ago. In attempts to understand the…

Learning theories play a large role in the cultivation of curriculum within the realm of education. The purpose of this discussion is to describe how a selected learning theory…

" How much the design of cuiculum may affect the student in tems of leaning outcomes is anothe vey impotant consideation in this humanistic theoy of Combs and Snygg. Diffeentiation…

rain-ased Learning Theory Learning does not only bring enlightenment to the weary souls but it also helps us learn, grow and be what we are potentially able to become. Therefore…

Dominant Learning Theories Excellence in the field of pedagogy depends on an understanding of the major learning theories and models along with an ability to use them when appropriate. Even…

Thus instrumental condition would rely on the notion that a person generates a response rather than an environmental stimulus. I have found that both people and stimulus may…

13 Key Theories of Learning and Development

Key theories of learning and development.

Unlearning Box

“He is just so lazy – sits there and refuses to do any work. And his parents are no help – they never return phone calls or emails. Why bother?”

This is an actual statement by a teacher frustrated with a fourth grader in her classroom. What this teacher did not know was the context in which the student was living. He was homeless and living out of his mother’s car. His mother couldn’t pay her cell phone bill, so had no way of receiving phone calls or emails. The teacher failed to realize what else could be contributing to his “laziness”: hunger, fear, lack of adequate care, and a parent unavailable to him with her own struggle to survive.

In order to teach our students, we have to know them. Multiple influences affect our students and their environments.

Chapter Outline

Systems that influence student learning, theoretical perspectives on development.

In this chapter, we will investigate how different systems influence learning and we will explore two theoretical perspectives on development.

As humans grow and develop, there are many different systems that influence this development. Think about systems as interrelated parts of a whole, just like the solar system is made up of planets and other celestial objects. Two theories that consider various impacts on student learning are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

One way to conceptualize influences on student learning is through need systems. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (see Figure 2.2) theorized that people are motivated by a succession of hierarchical needs (McLeod, 2020). Originally, Maslow discussed five levels of needs shaped in the form of a pyramid. He later adjusted the pyramid to include eight levels of needs, incorporating need for knowledge and understanding, aesthetic needs, and transcendence. Figure 2.2 depicts these eight needs in hierarchical order. The first four levels are deficiency needs, and the upper four are growth needs. The first four are essential to a student’s well being, and they build on each other. These deficiency needs must be satisfied before a person can move on to the growth needs. Moving to the growth needs is essential for learning to truly occur. Now we will examine each of the elements within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in more depth.

Of the eight levels, the first is physiological needs. These needs include food, water, and shelter. In this case, do students have a home where they are properly nourished? If not, students who are not attending to their work may be hungry, not just daydreaming. This is why free and reduced breakfast and lunch programs are so essential in schools.

Safety and security needs are the second level of the pyramid. Students need to feel that they are not in harm’s way. Schools are responsible for maintaining safe environments for students and classrooms need to feel safe and secure. This requires classroom rules that all students follow, including protecting students from bullying and threatening behavior. There are effective and less effective ways to structure a classroom so that it is safe for all students.

The third level of Maslow’s hierarchy is love and belonging. In schools, these needs are met primarily through positive relationships with teachers and peers, and people with whom students regularly interact. Feelings of acceptance are necessary here, and teachers can play a huge role in creating these feelings for students. It is critical that teachers are non-judgmental towards their students. It does not matter how you, as a teacher, may feel about a student’s lifestyle choices, beliefs, political views or family structures; it matters how a student perceives you as someone who accepts them, no matter what.

The fourth and final level of deficiency needs is esteem needs: self-worth and self-esteem. Students must have experiences in schools and classrooms that lead them to feel positive about themselves. Self-esteem is what students think and feel about themselves, and it contributes to their confidence. Self-worth is students knowing that they are valuable and lovable.

Figure 2.2: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Following the four deficiency needs in Maslow’s hierarchy are growth needs. Once students reach growth needs, they are ready for true, meaningful learning. The fifth element, the need to know and understand, is also referred to as cognitive needs. It is our job as educators to motivate students to want to know and understand the world around them. In order to do this, we must be sure we are providing our students with questions that move them to higher-order thinking skills. An instructional model that is well-developed and utilized in many classrooms is Bloom’s Taxonomy . It can be used to classify learning objectives, and it is a way to encourage students to think more deeply about content and motivate them to want to know more.

The sixth level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is aesthetic needs. At this level, we can learn to appreciate the beauty of the natural world. When we are focused on deficiency needs in the lower levels of Maslow’s theory, it is more difficult to see the beauty in our environment and surroundings. In education, students need to be exposed to the beauty that is reflected in the arts: music, visual arts and theatre. Most schools separate these into distinct periods or blocks; however, it is essential that arts are also integrated into the curriculum. Additionally, students should be exposed to arts outside of Western art so they encounter art forms that include representations of all cultures, including their own.

Self-actualization is the seventh need on the pyramid and is another growth need. Maslow indicated that this happens as we age. It is our intrinsic need to make the most of our lives and reach our full potential. A way of thinking about this is to consider what we think of our ideal selves–or, for young people, how they see themselves or what they see themselves having achieved and broadly experienced as they get to later stages in life.

Finally, transcendence needs are the highest on Maslow’s hierarchy. Maslow (1971) stated, “transcendence refers to the very highest levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos” (p. 269). Though most of us in K-12 schools will not experience students at this level, it is important to note that this is the goal in life, according to Maslow.

Critical Lens: Origins of Theories

Sometimes we hold theories as universal truths without stopping to consider the context in which they were made. For example, Bridgman, Cummings, and Ballard ( 2019 ) recently investigated the origin of Maslow’s theory and discovered that he himself never created the well-known pyramid model to represent the hierarchy of needs. Furthermore, there are concerns that Maslow appropriated his theory from the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation. Dr. Cindy Blackstock (Gitksan First Nation member, as cited in Michel, 2014 ) explains the Blackfoot belief involves a tipi with three levels: self-actualization at the base; community actualization in the middle; and cultural perpetuity at the top. Maslow visited the Siksika Nation in 1938 and published his theory in 1943. Bray (2019) explains more about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and its alignment with the Siksika Nation. You should be informed of Maslow’s hierarchy, but you should also be aware that critiques of this theory exist.

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Teachers need to determine students’ areas of strength and need to allow students to work and grow in those areas. One approach to doing this is to determine students’ strengths in different intelligence areas. Theorist Howard Gardner (2004, 2006) initially proposed eight multiple intelligences (see Figure 2.3), but he later added two more areas: existential and moral intelligence. Though there is little educational research evidence to support instructing students in these eight intelligences (for example, you should not plan a lesson eight different ways to address all eight intelligences in one lesson!), Gardner’s goal was to ensure that teachers did not just focus on verbal and mathematical intelligences in their teaching, which are two very common foci of instruction in schools.

Figure 2.3: Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Similarly, while we often can hear reference to learning styles (often including visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic, or VARK), they have no research-based support. Instead, “people’s approaches to learning can, do, and should vary with context. Rather than assessing and labeling students as particular kinds of learners and planning accordingly, a wise teacher will do the following:

Offer students options for learning and expressing learning
Help them reflect on strategies for mastering and using critical content
Guide them in knowing when to modify an approach to learning when it proves to be inefficient or ineffective in achieving the student’s goals” (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2018, p. 161-162).

Learn more about the myth of learning styles in the video below.

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While all human beings are unique and grow, learn, and change at different rates and in different ways, there are some common trends of development that impact the trajectories our students follow. Two foundational theories of development are Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.

Cognitive Developmental Theory: Piaget

Cognitive developmental theorists such as Jean Piaget posit that we move from birth to adulthood in predictable stages (Huitt & Hummel, 2003). These theorists argue these stages of development do not vary and are distinct from one other. While rates of progress vary by child, the sequence is the same and skipping stages is impossible. Therefore, progression through stages is essentially similar for each child.

In 1936, Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development for children:

the sensorimotor stage , which ranges from birth to age two;
the preoperational stage , ranging from age two through age six or seven;
the concrete operational stage , ranging from age six or seven through age 11 or 12;
and the formal operational stage , ranging from age 11 or 12 through adulthood.

Piaget argued that key abilities are acquired at each stage. We will now look at each stage in depth, along with videos demonstrating these abilities in action.

In the sensorimotor stage , little children learn about their surroundings through their senses. In addition, the idea of object permanence is emphasized. This is a child’s realization that things continue to exist even if they are not in view. An example is when parents play peek-a-boo with their infants. The child sees that the parent or caregiver is actually gone when the parent’s or caregiver’s hands are in front of their faces. The video below demonstrates the idea of object permanence.

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In the preoperational stage , children develop language, imagination, and memory, working toward symbolic thought. One of the key ideas is the principle of conservation , meaning that specific properties of objects remain the same even if other properties change. The notion of centration is critical here in that children only pay attention to one aspect of a situation. An example is filling a shallow round container with water, then pouring the same amount of water into a skinny container. The child in the preoperational stage will say that there is now more water in the skinny container, even though no additional liquid was added. The video below demonstrates the principle of conservation.

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Additionally, in the preoperational stage, Piaget suggested that children have egocentric thinking, meaning that they lack the ability to see situations from another person’s point of view. The video below demonstrates the idea of egocentrism .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OinqFgsIbh0&feature=related

In the concrete operational stage , children begin to think more logically and abstractly and can now master the idea of conservation as they work toward operational thought. Children in this stage are less egocentric than before. Key developments in this stage include the notions of reversibility , which is defined as the ability to change direction in linear thinking to return to starting point, and transitivity , which is the ability to infer relationships between two objects based upon objects’ relation to a third object in serial order. The video below demonstrates the ideas of reversibility and transitivity.

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Finally, the formal operational stage continues through adulthood. This is when we can better reason and understand hypothetical situations as we develop abstract thought. Key ideas include metacognition , which is the ability to monitor and think about your own thinking; and the ability to compare abstract relationships, such as to generate laws, principles, or theories. The video below demonstrates the idea of hypothetical thinking, where we see how a boy in the concrete operational stage and a woman in the formal operations stage respond to the same scenario.

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In addition to his four stages of cognitive development for children, Piaget also discussed how we add new information to our existing understandings. Key terms in his conceptualization of cognitive constructivism include schema, assimilation, accommodation, disequilibrium, and equilibrium. Schema refers to the ways in which we organize information as we confront new ideas. For example, children learn what a wallet is and that it generally contains money. Next they learn that a wallet can be carried in various places, i.e. a pocket or a purse. The child is making a connection now between the idea of a wallet and the category of places where it can be carried. The child’s schema is developing as ideas begin to interconnect and form what we can call a blueprint of concepts and their connections.

In order to develop schema, Piaget would have said that children (and all of us) need to experience disequilibrium . Children are in a state of equilibrium as they go about in the world. As they encounter a new concept to add to their schema, they experience disequilibrium where they need to process how this new information fits into their schema. They do this in two ways: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation uses existing schema to interpret new situations. Accommodation involves changing schema to accommodate new schema and return to a state of equilibrium. Let’s try an example. A child knows that banging a fork on a table makes noise, and the fork does not break. That child and concept are in a state of equilibrium, with the existing schema of knowing banging things on tables does not break the item. The next day, a parent gives the child a sippy cup. The child bangs it on the table and it also does not break, so the child assimilates this new object into their existing understanding that banging items on tables does not break the item. One day, a parent gives the child an egg. The child proceeds to bang it on the table, but what happens? The egg breaks, sending the child’s schema–everything that they bang on the table remains unbroken–into a state of disequilibrium. That child must accommodate that new information into their schema. Once this new information is accommodated, the child can once again move into equilibrium. The video below explains the idea of schema, assimilation and accommodation.

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Sociocultural Theory: Vygotsky

Whereas Piaget viewed learning in specific stages where children engage in cognitive constructivism (Huitt & Hummel, 2003), thus emphasizing the role of the individual in learning, Lev Vygotsky viewed learning as socially constructed (Vygotsky, 1986). Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist in the 1920s and 1930s, but his work was not known to the Western world until the 1970s. He emphasized the role that other people have in an individual’s construction of knowledge, known as social constructivism . He realized that we learned more with other people than we learned all by ourselves.

One of the major tenets in Vygotsky’s theory of learning (Vygotsky, 1986) is the zone of proximal development. As shown in Figure 2.4, the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help.

Figure 2.4: Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky’s often-quoted definition of zone of proximal development says ZPD 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, p. 86). The concept of scaffolding is closely related to the ZPD. Scaffolding is a process through which a teacher or more competent peer gives aid to the student in her/his ZPD as necessary, and tapers off this aid as it becomes unnecessary, much as a scaffold is removed from a building during construction. While we often think of a teacher as the more “expert other” in ZPD, this individual does not have to be a teacher. In fact, sometimes our own students are the more “expert other” in certain areas. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes that we can learn more with and through each other.

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CRITICAL LENS: CONTEXT MATTERS

As we examine these four theories, it is also important to analyze the context of this work: these theorists and researchers all identified as White, often working with individuals close to them to conduct research (for example, Piaget studied his own children). We all absorb certain beliefs and social norms from our communities, so knowing that these theories came from communities that represented fairly limited diversity is important.

In this chapter, we surveyed two systems that influence students’ learning (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences) and two theoretical perspectives on development (Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory).

As we saw in the Unlearning Box at the beginning of this chapter, all of our students bring different characteristics with them to our classrooms. While some (not all!) students may share certain characteristics and overall developmental trajectories, teachers must acknowledge that each student in the classroom has individual strengths and needs. Only once we know our students as individual learners will we be able to teach them effectively.

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Theories of teaching and learning Essay

Introduction, bio-ecological theory, intellectual development theory, psychosocial theory, social cultural theory.

Theories of teaching and learning are mainly the steps taken in the process of educating children. Below are examples of theories of teaching and learning:

This theory is mainly characterized by change in a child’s development which is influenced by the relationship in the external factors.

Bronfenbrenners developed this theory associating a child’s development to its environment; the name of the theory was later changed to bio-ecological theory because he believed a child’s own biology is the primary environment that influences the child’s development.

Interaction between a child and its environment is different depending on how close they are and this can be discussed under the following subtopics; microsystem – the is the closest layer to the child mainly the parents who influence the development of the child (Berk & Winsler 1995).

Those close to the child also includes the family, church, school and neighbors, they can either bring the child closer or make the child move further away (Bronfenbrenner 1990).

Exosytem – this includes the larger social systems where the child is not involved directly but through those who are close to him but contributes to his development..

Macro-system and chrono-system-macro-system is the outermost developmental tool which comprises of beliefs, customs and law while chrono-system is mainly the time dimension of things as it relates to a child’s environment.

Intellectual theory is basically a theory of knowledge that states that people get knowledge and meaning of things from interactions between their experiences and ideas.

In the past intellectual theory was not valued they viewed knowledge as us use of common sense for example people in the traditional set up did not see the value of children playing however Jean Piaget did not agree with the traditional view as he saw play as an important and necessary part of the student’s cognitive development.

He argued that knowledge is found from experience through the process of accommodation and assimilation (Woodfolk & Margetts 2007). Constructivist theories are influential and students are expected to learn main ideas on their own through discovery learning.

Teachers at this stage need to be innovative and creative; they should arrange the classrooms in a manner that will make students able to think beyond the literacy focus for example making use of the available technology like introduction of the interactive whiteboard with pictures and numbers (Leiteberg 1976).

“The psychosocial development theory by Erickson explains eight stages under which a child develops from childhood through to be an adult.

The first stage in the theory is the infant stage from birth to one year. This is the stage where the child depends on the parents fully right from dressing, food, and comfort.

Parents are expected to expose the child to warmth, reliable, and dependable affection, hence making the child secure, also he is visited by friends and relatives in this stage. Childhood, 2 to 4 years – this is the stage where the child begins to explore their surroundings.

During this particular stage, parents are encouraged to be on the watch out especially in the activities their children are involved in as they tend to be curious of so many things some of which are dangerous. Kids also tend to develop their first interests like he wants to go out all the time and sometimes enjoy music playing on the radio.

Preschool, 4 to 6 years – during this stage, a child is noted to have the desire to do what the people around him/her are doing. A child who is at this stage is able to identify and note what is going on around them.

It is at this stage that as an adult one would make up stories that would explain to a child what is really going on around us. According to him the struggle experienced during this stage is resolved by identifying the social role of an individual (Honig Fetterman 1992).

School going Age: 6 to 12 Years – the stage marks the period where a child can learn create and achieve a number of things through acquired skills and knowledge.

During this stage a child is able to relate with his/her peers. Its important to note that when one a child experiences any social discrimination during this stage it is most likely to destroy the child’s self esteem and also creates room for other social problems to arise.

For this theory to be realized in the classroom, it is important for the teachers to have classroom principles from cognitive psychology which involves meaningful learning, organization, visual materials and good explanations given (Moll 1994).

Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years – this is the stage associated with identity and role of the kids. Young adulthood: 18 to 35 – categorized with solidarity and intimacy.

This is the stage where they believe to be grown ups and they can survive on there on they even get intimacy at this stage.

Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65 and Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death – this is the final stages in this theory, they concentrate more on work adults may reach this stage and start being misery at their experiences and perceived failures.

Hewson, Posner, Strike & Gertzog, are the people who came up with the social cultural theory. This theory was developed by a team of competent scientific researchers and philosopher in the 1980s at the Cornell University.

It states that revolution has been taking place on a consistent pattern first a dominant scientific paradigm which was a way of seeing, thinking, valuing and doing things evolving from the interpersonal to the intrapersonal. (Wooldfolk 2004).

According to the theory, social interaction to the child results into step by step growth of the child as well as behavioral change. Vygotsky believes that development is of a child depends on the way the child interacts with the people around them and the things around them.

The theory is categorized into three stages: The first stage is learning through imitation, the second stage is by learning through instructions that requires the child to remember instructions from the instructor and use these instructions to self-control.

The last stage is through collaborative learning, these involves a group of people who understand each other and work together it can be categorized with peer pressure (Ormrod 2003). A supportive classroom is important where the child feels free and can talk freely to the teachers and other students promote his development.

Teachers should create an environment where there are lots of tools that can be used to manipulate the students’ way of thinking and develop an understanding, for example the teacher can use questions as a way of confirming if they recognized the concept and correct where they are wrong and also help refine their thinking, students learn new information more easily when they can relate it to something they already know (Kane 1996).

Those who are learning are normally resistant to change because they believe in what they know however cognitive conflicts have been used to develop strategies in teaching for conceptual change (Snowman 2009).

In conclusion the theories of teaching and learning are important because they help the teachers to meet the instructional needs of all the students and help them grow up from dependent to independent adult people.

The teachers in this case have a duty to set up a classroom that is attractive and comfortable so as to enable the children to be free and can discuss issues with there teachers without fear.

Finally the teachers must keep in mind that how they treat and educate the students will determine there future therefore they should set a good background in order to create a better future for them.

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Bronfenbrenner, U. (1990). Discovering what families do. In Rebuilding the Nest: A New Commitment to the American Family. Family Service America . Web.

Honig, W., Fetterman J. G. (1992). Cognitive Aspects of Stimulus Control . Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

Kane, R., (1996). The Significance of Free Will . Oxford: Oxford.

Killeen, P. (1987). “Emergent Behaviorism”, in S. Modgil and C. Modgil (eds.), B. F. Skinner: Consensus and Controversy , New York: Falmer.

Leiteberg, H. (1976). Handbook of Behavior Modification and Behavior Therapy , Englewoood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.

McInerney, D.M. & McInerney, V. (2006). Educational Psychology: Constructing Learning (4 th edition). Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education.

Moll, C. (1994). Vygotsky and Education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology . New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ormrod, J. E. (2003). Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (4 th Ed.) . Merrill Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River.

Snowman, J. (Ed). (2009). Psychology – Applied to teaching – 1st Australian Edition. Milton, Qld: John Wiley & Sons.

Woodfolk, A. & Margetts, K. (2007). Educational Psychology. Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education.

Wooldfolk, A. (2004). Educational Psychology – International Edition. Boston: Pearson and Allyn & Bacon.

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Behaviorism

Cognitivism

Constructivism

1. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

2. Vygotsky’s Theory of Learning

Zone of Proximal Development

More Knowledgeable Other

Vygotsky Scaffolding

3. Bloom’s Domains of Learning

The Cognitive Domain (Bloom’s Taxonomy)

The Affective Domain

The Psychomotor Domain

4. Gagné’s Conditions of Learning

Gagné’s 5 Conditions of Learning

Gagné’s 9 Levels of Learning

Benefits of Gagné’s Theory

5. Jerome Bruner

Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum (1960)

Bruner’s 3 Modes of Representation (1966)

6. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

7. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Gardner’s 7 Intelligences

The Importance of Multiple Intelligence in the Classroom

Naturalist Intelligence

8. Erikson’s 8 Stages of Psychological Development

Erikson’s 8 Stages

Educational Implications of Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

9. Kolb’s Experiential Theory

10. The Peter Principle

11. Laird’s Sensory Theory

12. Skinner’s Behaviorist Theory

Operant Conditioning

Positive Reinforcement

13. Rogers’ Humanist Theory

Facilitative Learning

14. Canter’s Theory of Assertive Discipline

15. Dreikur’s Classroom Management Theory

Dreikur’s 4 Goals of Misbehavior

How to Combat the 4 Goals of Misbehavior.

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