Learning Theories Jennie Barnett

Objectives  By the end of the next two sessions you will be able to:  outline 3 learning theories  Behaviourist  Cognitive  Humanist  identify the key principles of each theory as applied to teaching and learning  Compare and contrast the theories

Behaviourist theory  J.B.Watson  Introspection  ‘tabula rasa’  Science

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING  Pavlov  Classical conditioning  Experiments with digestive system in dogs  Learning through association  Reflexes

Behaviourist theory  Thorndike  Instrumental learning  Law of effect  B.F. Skinner  Operant conditioning

Operant Conditioning  Behaviour Shaping  Successive approximations to the goal behaviour  Reinforcement  anything which increases desired behaviour

Reinforcement  Schedules of Reinforcement  Continuous Reinforcement  Fixed Ratio Reinforcement (FR)  Fixed Interval Reinforcement (FI)  Variable Ratio Reinforcement (VR)  Variable Interval Reinforcement (VI):

Reinforcement  Positive  giving something good - increases desired behaviour  Negative  taking away something bad - increases desired behaviour  Punishment  applying something bad - reduces undesired behaviour

Programmed Learning 1 Learning should be fun. However, in the early stages of learning a subject, students often make many errors. Students do [ ] do not [ ] like to make errors?[ ] Click in the correct box

Programmed Learning 2 The basic idea of programmed learning is that the most efficient, pleasant and permanent learning takes place when the student proceeds through a course by a large number of small, easy-to-take steps. If each step the student takes is small, he/she is[ ] is not [ ] likely to make errors[ ]

Gestalt Theory  Wertheimer, Kohler and Koffler  The whole is more than the sum of the parts  Insight learning  transferability

Cognitive Theory  Jean Piaget  Interaction with the environment  Development of ‘schemata’  Active nature of learning  Discovery learning

Cognitive Theory  Jerome Bruner (1966)  Work  from the known to the unknown  from the concrete to the abstract  Relate new knowledge to existing knowledge  Spiral curriculum

Humanist Theory  Carl Rogers  Total personality  Malcolm Knowles  Andragogy  learning contracts

That’s right,well done

Whoops wrong answer!