Bruner’s spiral curriculum (see below) is a great example of constructivism in action.Īs students are constructing their own knowledge base, outcomes cannot always be anticipated, therefore, the teacher should check and challenge misconceptions that may have arisen. Students need to have a prior base of knowledge for constructivist approaches to be effective. Students adapt their models of understanding either by reflecting on prior theories or resolving misconceptions. Learning, therefore, is unique to the individual learner. ConstructivismĬonstructivism is based on the premise that we construct learning new ideas based on our own prior knowledge and experiences. Cognitive learning theories are mainly attributed to Jean Piaget.Įxamples of how teachers can include cognitivism in their classroom include linking concepts together, linking concepts to real-world examples, discussions and problem-solving. This is viewed as a change in knowledge and is stored in the memory rather than just being viewed as a change in behavior. In cognitivism theory, learning occurs when the student reorganizes information, either by finding new explanations or adapting old ones. 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.Ĭognitivism 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. There is still a behavior change evident, but this is in response to thinking and processing information.Ĭognitive theories were developed in the early 1900s in Germany from Gestalt psychology by Wolfgang Kohler. 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. It is great for establishing rules, especially for behavior management. 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.īehaviorism involves repeated actions, verbal reinforcement and incentives to take part. I use a similar approach to classroom management. 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. 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. A non-educational example of this is the work done by Pavlov. Learning is achieved when the provided stimulus changes behavior. Through this interaction, new associations are made and thus learning occurs. In a behaviorist’s mind, the learner is a blank slate that should be provided with the information to be learnt. Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism.īehaviorism is based on the idea that knowledge is independent and on the exterior of the learner. In this complete summary, we will look at the work of the following learning theorists.ĭespite the fact there are so many educational theorists, there are three labels that they all fall under. Learning theories are a set of principles that explain how best a student can acquire, retain and recall new information. Since Plato, many theorists have emerged, all with their different take on how students learn. 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!). 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. 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. There are 3 main schemas of learning theories Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism. 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?
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