SCHEME FOR PROFESSIONALS IN HIGHER EDUCATION THEME 3:

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SCHEME FOR PROFESSIONALS IN HIGHER
EDUCATIONTHEME 3

• HOW PEOPLE LEARN
• AND LEARNING THEORIES
• Jill Adam C101 extn 7408
• Bridget Cooper C117 ext 3584

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• What do you think learning is?
• What do you think learning is in HE?
• What do you know about learning theories in
  relation to the other two?

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History of learning theory

• Learning theory has tended to focus
• on children
• on cognition
• on individuality

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Learning theories - on-line.

• http//tip.psychology.org/theories.html
• Child, D.(2004 edition) Psychology and the
  Teacher
• Key areas
• Motivation theorists
• Behaviourists
• Constructivists
• Social constructivists
• Learning styles
• Multiple intelligences

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Start small then dig deeper

• Read a summary on the web - eg wikipedia
• Read the links about a topic
• Do further searches on the web
• Read the section in D. Child or similar text
• Use the references from the web and from Child to
  read original works and criticism of original
  works
• Make notes on everything you read/ print off and
  annotate web or photocopied material
• Write down every author, date, title, place
  published, publisher -book list for later use
• If you copy quotation you must have the exact
  page reference as well

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http//tip.psychology.org/theories.html
http//www.emtech.net/learning_theories.htmGestal
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Child, D.(2004 edition) Psychology and the Teacher
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BEHAVIOURIST

• THORNDIKE law of effect
• WATSON trial and error learning
• SKINNER operant conditioning rewards and
  punishment, re-inforcement, feedback, programmed
  learning, mastery learning, behaviour
  modification
• PAVLOV classical conditioning

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PAVLOV
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SKINNER
NB thought classrooms not a good place for
positive reinforcement
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B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

• Experiments with rats/pigeons trains them to do
  quite complex tasks through conditioning
• Trial and error produces rewards ie food they
  learn behaviour through continuous
  reinforcement -only get reward when specific
  behaviour produced operant conditioning i.e.
  in education teacher only gives praise when high
  enough quality work is produced
• Q in humans how do we know when high enough
  quality work has been produced to give reward

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• Each step in learning process should be short and
  built on previously learned behaviour
• at first frequent rewards/ reinforcement needed
  and then learning controlled by reinforcement as
  appropriate
• Rewards should quickly follow responses ie
  feedback
• Choice of actions necessary to ensure learning of
  most appropriate action

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Critique?

• Mechanistic
• Experiment with animals what is different about
  humans?
• Not much about language richness and complexity
  of human relationships
• Relates to?
• Drill and skill?
• Behaviour management?
• Q How does this relate to classrooms/lectures?

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COGNITIVE

• Knowledge is constructed through interaction with
  the environment. Cognitive process involves
  acquiring new information which enables learner
  to evolve and transform existing knowledge.
  Dynamic.
• BRUNER Discovery learning - explore problem and
  try out solutions to achieve real understanding
  of principles

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ASSIMILATION ACCOMMODATION

• PIAGET learning is developmental
• Sensory-motor stage
• Pre-operational stage
• Concrete operational stage
• Formal operational stage
• Each stage marks development from practical
  thought to abstract thought

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Constructivists

• Jean Piaget (1896-1980) detailed observations/
  conversations of children learning
• Comes from a biologists perspective
• Development genetic at base development of an
  individuals nervous system - matures over time
  and hierarchical progression through stages
• Key aspect is active learning - child plays an
  active part in constructing his own learning
  self-directed activity, problem solving

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• Child adapts to environment as he acts in it and
  develops schemas (related understandings of
  environment)
• Children assimilate new understandings into
  existing schemas
• When environments change or they encounter
  different objects, people, concepts, they adapt
  their schemas
• Actions, understanding eventually become
  symbolically represented in memory through
  images or symbolic language child internalises
  actions in imagination - thought is internalised
  action from concrete to abstract

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• Heavily influences primary teaching child as
  active learner, discoverer, experimenter with
  lots of different activities, problem solving.
• Strong influence on maths and science at all
  levels - importance of practical, experimental
  aspects of learning
• Opposite of transmissive view of learning -
  child actively constructs his own understanding
  of the world - not the teachers
• Link to Seymour Papert
• http//www.papert.org/
• Learning a cumulative process - level of
  task/discussion v important to learning

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Critique

• Formal stages of learning too fixed
• Doesnt take account enough of individual
  difference
• Very biological - less emphasis on effect of
  human/ social interaction
• Concept formation less influenced by culture-
  society
• Child seen as a something of a lone explorer

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Social Constructivists

• Currently very fashionable in both traditional
  education and computer mediated education
• Like Piaget they believe people construct their
  own understanding but that this occurs within a
  cultural setting with much greater influence by
  people and environment around the child -hence
  social constructivism
• Greater emphasis on role of teacher or expert
  adult and peer support child learns as part of
  a wider social/cultural group

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Vygotsky (1896-1934)

• Very influential currently
• Importance of building concepts
• Importance of appropriate support or scaffolding
  from knowledgeable other
• need to know how, when, how much to scaffold
  -when to withdraw support
• Concept of the ZPD zone of proximal development
  - the area in which a child can progress in
  learning with the help of a more knowledgeable
  adult or peers
• Emphasises role of talk in learning

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• Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and Language.
  Cambridge, MA MIT Press.
• Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society.
  Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press

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Linked theorists

• Also Bruner, Chomsky, Bakhtin - emphasis on
  cognitive aspects of learning and the role of
  language in learning
• Bruner interested in adults and development of
  elaborate concepts
• Chomsky -complexity of language in humans -not
  enough to study animals like Skinner and co, or
  as computer input/output theory
• http//www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/bak
  htin.html

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Learning styles links in part to intelligences

• Attributes categories of learners with particular
  features attached to their learning
• Adaptors innovators
• auditory kinesthetic-tactile visual verbal
  
• Reflector theorist - activist - pragmatist
• Critique - simplistic categorisation -
  shouldnt learners develop multiple skills --
  multi-sensory learning?

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Multiple Intelligences/master apprentice

• Howard Gardner complexity of intelligence
• Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial,
  musical, bodily-kinaesthetic and interpersonal
  (knowledge of emotions, needs of others) and
  intrapersonal (self-knowledge regarding emotions
  and control/harnessing of emotions), naturalist,
  spiritual and existential
• Working alongside knowledgeable/ skilled other
  and applying theory practically important for
  internalising learning

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COGNITIVE

• Straightforward exposition of knowledge by a
  teacher more effective and less time consuming
  than discovery learning
• AUSUBEL reception learning, that is
  instruction. Emphasise need for learning to be
  meaningful - should relate to learners existing
  knowledge

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AUSUBEL
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HUMANISTIC

• Focus on the PROCESS of learning as reaction
  against Behaviourism
• Learning is a total personality process
• Life is a learning experience
• True education is individual and about personal
  growth

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UNDERSTANDING LEARNING

• Despite an awareness of learning theories, much
  teaching and learning support occurs without
  knowledge of how students learn
• However, there are no simple answers to how do
  we learn? and how can we guarantee learning?
• University students may not be adult learners
• But they are a diverse, ever changing population,
  demanding diverse types of learning.
• (for some), this invites the incorporation of
  associated adult learning theory -
  andragogy,

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ANDRAGOGY

• KNOWLES The science and art of helping adults
  to learn adult self-directed learner, the
  learning contract. learner controls content
• CARL ROGERS facilitation of learning with a
  focus on the interpersonal relation- ships
  between learner and the facilitator based on
  trust. Experiential learning is the only true
  learning. Learner controls process.

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ADULT LEARNING THEORY

• ANDRAGOGY (Knowles 1980)
• Theory is based upon
• Adults are self-directed learners
• Personal experiences make each learner unique
• Adults need to learn in order to face and cope
  with life challenges

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KEY CHANGES IN TRADITIONAL TO NEW MODEL (1)

• Traditional Model
• Sitting getting (lectures only) turn off
• Tutor predetermines the knowledge skills
  required
• Tutor organises the content into a presumed
  logical sequence
• Leaves participants struggling
  in application

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KEY CHANGES IN TRADITIONAL TO NEW MODEL (2)

• The New Model
• Self direction has become a key-stone in the
  methodology of andragogy.The needs and the
  experiences of the learner take precedence over
  the expertise of the instructor Knowles (1984)
• Andragogical Process Design
• Tutor is a facilitator
• Tutor prepares set of procedures to
  involve learners in determining
  training elements

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7 Elements of Adult Learning Theory Process

• Climate setting
• Mutual planning
• Diagnosing learning needs
• Objective setting
• Designing learning plans
• Help learners carry out their plans
• Involve learners in evaluating their
  learning

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Conclusions

• All theories have some relevance - none are all
  encompassing because of complexity of human
  brain, experience, social context, perspectives
• So which theories most obviously at work in
  secondary schools, HE, Web-based learning and
  why?

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New kids on the HE block.. learning theory..
rhetoric and reality - authors PGCHE Leeds
Metropolitan 2006/7
A journal article - Incubator journal - or
further afield Journal of Higher
Education http//www.questia.com/library/jp-journ
al-of-higher-education.jsp?CRIDjp_journal_of_high
er_educationOFFIDse1jpKEYjournal_of_higher_edu
cation