Learning Theories

There are 3 main schema’s of learning theories; Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Con-
structivism.

Behaviourism
Behaviourism is based on the idea that knowledge is independent and on the exterior
of the learner. In a behaviourist’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 behaviour. 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.

Examples of how: 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.

Cognitivism

In contrast to behaviourism, cognitivism focuses on the idea that students process in-
formation they receive rather than just responding to a stimulus, as with behav-
iourism.There is still a behaviour change evident, but this is in response to thinking
and processing information.

Cognitive theories were developed in the early 1900s in Germany from Gestalt psy-
chology by Wolfgang Kohler. In English, Gestalt roughly translates to the organisa-
tion 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 cog-
nitive 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 reorganises information, ei-
ther by finding new explanations (accommodation) or adapting old ones (assimilation)
and finding an equilibrium between them.

This is viewed as a change in knowledge and is stored in the memory rather than just
being viewed as a change in behaviour.
Cognitive learning theories are mainly attributed to Jean Piaget, forerunner of Con-
structivsm.

Examples of how:

Teachers include linking concepts together, linking concepts to real-world examples,

discussions and problem-solving.

Constructivism

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.

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 how:
Examples of constructivism in the classroom include problem-based learning, re-
search and creative projects and group collaborations.
 Skinner’s Behaviourist Theory

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is based on Thorndike’s “Law of Effect” (1898), in which it is

proposed that behaviours that are followed by positive responses are likely to be re-
peated 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 behaviours that are reinforced
are repeated (strengthened) and those not reinforced tend to dissipate (are weake-
ned).

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 behaviours 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 behaviour 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 calibre. This will create a culture of desired excellence
in the students.
 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?

Learning is the immediate adaptation to new situations. A balance between the pre-
existing mental patterns and the new experience.

Well, there are some basic ideas to get your head around and some stages to under-
stand 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; Pre-operational;

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 de-
fined by age:
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

The Sensorimotor Stage (sensorimotor and cognitive intelligence) runs from 0 - 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 Pre-operational Stage (intuitive intelligence) runs from 2 - 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.

Egocentricity: the child considers his own ego at the centre of each situation, he can’t
imagine other the perspectives than his own, this egocentricity influences behaviour
and thought, including verbal communication.
He applies to all objects his beliefs and thoughts (sun and moon have happy or sad
faces). All objects are animated.

Realism: Infantile realism makes the child incapable to reason hypothetically, so he is

not able to seize in the words other meanings than the strictly literal ones, nor under-
stand the symbolic significance contained in a principle.

The infantile egocentricity and realism are ways of thinking of the child during the
first and second childhood. These tendencies are manifested both in behavior and
language.

Irreversible thinking: The child has a unidirectional thinking.

The Concrete Operational Stage (Primary school) from 7 - 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). Classification - Cooperation and
socialisation.

Reversible thinking: similarities-differences-logical operations (addition and subtrac-

tion)

The Formal Operational Stage (hypothetical and deductive) 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 re-
constructing 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.
Jerome Bruner and Spiral Curriculum (1960)

Learning shifts from Piaget’s genetic model to Bruner’s cognitive model.

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 chil-
dren if structured and presented in the right way.

The spiral curriculum is based on 3 key ideas.

1. Students revisit the same topic multiple times throughout their school career. This
reinforces the learning each time they return to the subject.

2. 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.

3. When a student returns to a topic, new ideas are linked with ones they have pre-
viously 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.

An example of knowledge founded upon cognitive organizers is learning the mother

tongue. The child, in fact, during infancy learns the basic structures of the language,
and he builds new constructions along the lines of the first linguistic structures al-
ready learned.

Bruner’s 3 Modes of Representation (1966)

Following the idea of the spiral curriculum, Bruner presented the idea of three modes
of representation, refering to the way knowledge is stored in memory. Unlike Piaget’s
age-related stages, Bruner’s modes aren’t linked to age, nor are sequential but are
linked to one-another.

1. Enactive or executive (age 0-1 years). Representation of knowledge

through physical actions.

2. Iconic (age 1-6 years). Visual representation of knowledge stored via

visual images.

3. Symbolic (age 7+ years). The use of words and symbols to describe

experiences.

Narrative thinking - Scaffolding - Insegnare a pensare - Learning is an active process:

culture/traditions/social interactions/reading, writing/working/lifestyles are all part of
the learning process.
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner is an American developmental psychologist and professor of cogni-

tion and education. He studied under Erik Ericson and Jerome Bruner.

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

Gardner perceived intelligence as the ability to solve problems or make prod-

ucts that are useful in one or more cultural settings.

Unlike Piaget that believed in a mono-dimensional intelligence, Gardner demonstrat-

ed the existence of multiple forms of intelligence pointing out that every individual
has a unique and unrepeatable cognitive style. These intelligences are also used to
distinguish ourselves from each other. Individuals in fact possess each of them in
varying degrees and they combined them and use them in very personal forms.

Gardner’s 7 Intelligences

1. Linguistic intelligence. The ability to learn and use language in written

and spoken forms to express oneself.

2. Mathematical intelligence. The ability to solve problems logically, to

solve mathematical problems and to perform scientific investigations.

3. Musical intelligence. Having skill in appreciation, composition and per-

formance of musical patterns, including the ability to recognise tone,
pitch and rhythm.

4. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Using mental abilities to coordinate

body movements to solve problems.

5. Spatial intelligence. Being able to recognise and use patterns in a wide

or confined space.

6. Interpersonal intelligence. The capacity to understand the

desires, motivations and intentions of other people.

7. 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 compli-
ment 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 de-
structive 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 intelli-
gence, 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.

Naturalist Intelligence

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

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 (in a large circle that includes the needs, goals and tasks
that characterise the subjects psychological growth).

1. Trust Vs. Mistrust (Age 0 – 1.5 Infancy). In this first stage, infants must
learn that adults can be trusted. If treated poorly children may grow up feeling
mistrust towards people.

2. Autonomy Vs. Shame (Age 1.5 – 3 Early childhood). The “me do it’ stage,
children start to make decisions and show preferences of elements in their envi-
ronment 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.

3. Initiative Vs. Guilt (Age 3 – 5 Early childhood). 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.

4. Industry Vs. Inferiority (Age 5 – 12 School age). 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.

5. Identity Vs. Role Confusion (Age 12 – 18 Adolescence). 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.

6. Intimacy Vs. Isolation (Age 18 – 40 Young adulthood). As students pro-

gress into early adulthood their focus shifts to making and maintaining strong,
intimate relationships with others.

7. Generativity Vs. Stagnation (Age 40 – 65 Middle adulthood). 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.

8. Ego Integrity Vs. Despair (Age 65+ Maturity.). Those in late adulthood re-
flect on their lives, feeling a sense of satisfaction or failure. Those who feel fai-
lure will often obsess with ideas of what they “should have” or “could have”
done.
Educational Implications of Erikson’s Theory of Psy-
chosocial 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.
Kolb’s Experiential Theory According to Kolb the learning process is very
complex and multi dimensional. The cycle comprises four different stages of learning
from experience. This can be entered at any point but all stages must be followed in
sequence for successful learning to take place. Experiential learning is the practice of
learning through doing. The subject learns through the concrete experience that he
observes and reflects on until he reaches abstract concepts.

Kolb’s Experiential 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”

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.
The diverger learner is both concrete and reflective. These learners search for the
answers to why and how. They learn best by observing and gathering information.
Their imagination is rich they produce many ideas especially new ones.

An assimilator prefers thinking and reflecting over acting. They are those who as-
similate and combine ideas and experiences thus formulating theories. Logic, organi-
zation and a strong sense of control are essential characteristics for assimilators.
They benefit most when given time to reflect on new information.

Convergers also prefer to work alone but with their ideas. They search for well-de-
fined tasks and learning by trial and error. This type of learner is an expert problem
solver although they prefer to learn alone.

Lastly, accommodators or adjusters are people oriented and adjust immediately to

new situations. They are the extrovert of the Kolb Learning Styles. Accommodators
are action-oriented and task motivated. They are creative in their learning process
taking risks while avoiding routine. Feeling and intuition have great value to these
learners.
Vygotsky’s Theory of Learning

Vygotsky takes a different approach to Piaget’s idea that development precedes learn-
ing.

Instead, he reckons that social learning is an integral part of cognitive development

and it is culture, not developmental Stage that underlies cognitive development. Be-
cause of that, he argues that learning varies across cultures rather than being a uni-
versal 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 so-
cial 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 Vy-
gotsky, 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, chil-
dren 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 a person who literally knows more than the child. Working collabora-
tively, 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.

SCAFFOLDING: Temporary supports that make content more accessible for begin-
ning language learners. This is called the Zone of Proximal Development. As the
student becomes more competent the support is gradually removed until the student
is able to perform the task without assistance.

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) internalising it is enormously powerful in cementing understanding about the

world.

For Vygotsky learning is achieved through continuous collaborative interaction with

the adult teacher and the experienced classmates; this way every student can solve
increasingly complex problems and develop higher forms of thinking. What today
children are able to achieve with the help of others, tomorrow they will be able to car-
ry it out independently.

Learning is a social process and classes and schools are social spaces; students do
not learn and isolation, but in collaboration with teachers, their companions and with
all the school-staff allowing intellectual, social, and cultural development.

In this “learning environment” students live and mature experiences that can pro-
gressively develop their skills and make them able to educate and direct their minds.

Learning takes place in a climate of positive relationships in class. The class becomes
the place of participation into the activity of learning in a sensitive, supportive and
promotional context.
Meaningful learning
Meaningful learning is that kind of learning which allows the integration of the new in-
formation with the information already possessed developing the ability of problem-
solving, critical thinking, meta-reflection and turning knowledge into skills.

Learning by doing the student as the protagonist of learning. The student is active
in the construction of his knowledge in meaningful contexts.

It is also about a constructive process that requires a continuous reflection on the

older knowledge challenged by the new one; in this way the learning process can be
seen from Piaget’s point of view in the context of a passage from one stage of “assim-
ilation” to a phase of “adjustment" where the real learning occurs.

Rogers’ Humanist Theory and HUMANISM

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

Humanism
Humanism was developed to contrast cognitivism and behaviourism. Both Rogers and
Maslow 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-actualisation.

• 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 sup-
porting 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 ra-
ther 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 re-
spect 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”.