Theories of Learning

• Complex cognitive process

• Behaviour – master skills and form new
concepts
• Learning theories to explain cognitive process
 Learning Teories

how children learn mathematics vs

effective learning

Learning theories:
Behaviourism
Cognitivism and Constructivism,
Humanistic
Behaviourism is based on observable changes in
behaviour. Learning is focused on repeating new
behavioural patterns until they become automatic.

Cognitivism regards observed changes in behaviour

only as indicators as to what is happening inside the
learner's mind. According to Cognitivism,
understanding the thought processes behind the
behaviour is more important than the overt
behaviour itself.

Table 1 summarizes the major differences between

these two groups of learning theories (Hamilton, &
Ghatala, 1994, p.19).
 Major Differences Between Bahaviourism
and Cognitivism
Bahaviourism Cognitivism
Behaviour is analyzed into Deals with global units of
basic molecular units. behaviour.
Behaviour is a result of Behaviour observed is
stimulus-response attributed to the learners’
relationship and is not goals and purpose of the
affected by the purpose learner.
or intention of the
learner.
Focuses on formulating Focuses on describing
laws of behaviour. mental processes
inferred from behaviour.
 Bahaviourism Cognitivism

Principal concepts of stimuli Higher mental processes

responses and reinforcement (thinking, imagining, problem
solving.
Machinelike qualities of human Information processing and
functioning. computer based metaphors.
Main goals to discover Main goals to make useful
predictable relationships bw inferences abt mental
S-R processes that intervene to
influence and determine
behaviour
Scope often intended to explain Generally more limited in
all significant aspects of scope; intended to explain
behaviour. more specific behaviours
and processes.
Pavlov, Skinner, Watson, Hull, Piaget, Bruner, Gestalt,
Thorndike Vygotsky,
 1.3 Cognitivism

• learner as an active participant in the

teaching-learning process
 Jean Piaget

Robert Gagnè Zoltan Dienes

Cognitivists

David Ausubel Jerome Bruner

Richard Skemp
 Piaget’s Theory
• differences between the thinking of younger and older
children regarding 4 aspects:
• CONSERVATION – ability to recognize that properties stay the
same despite changes in appearance.
• DECENTRATION – ability to consider more than one quality at
a time.
• OPERATION (mental) – ability to reverse mental actions.
• EGOCENTRICITY – difficulty in taking another person’s point
of view.
 Piaget’s Theory 2/5:
1. Development - permanent change in
knowledge or behaviour due to maturation
and learning (experience) which occurs over
an extended time span.
2. Cognitive system-highly organized to help us
adapt to the world around us. Experiences are
organized with the aid of schemes,
assimilation, accommodation, and
equilibration.
3. Schemes are units of knowledge which consist
of specific patterns of mental or physical
activity that enable us to understand and
adapt to our environment.
 Piaget’s Theory 3/5:
1. Adaptation refers to our attempts to create an
accurate view of the world around us, and it occurs
through assimilation and accommodation.
2. Assimilation is the process of fitting new information
into existing schemes and has an integrative function.

3. Accommodation is the temporary or permanent

modification of existing schemes in order to interact
more easily with new experiences from the world
around us.
4. Equilibration is the tendency to reduce cognitive
conflict by attempting to maintain a level of balance
through the complementary processes of assimilation
and accommodation.
 Piaget’s Theory 4/5:
8. 4 cognitive developmental stages: (i) sensory-motor (birth
– 2 years); (ii) pre-operational (2 – 7 years); (iii) concrete
operational (7 – 11 years); and (iv) formal operational (11
years and above).
Note: The age limits varies]
9 sensory-motor period: infant child learns to integrate its
various sense impressions into complex schemes. In this
stage, the child knows “how” and begins to learn “what”,
but does not know “why”.
10 pre-operational stage: child learns to speak and to deal
with its world in symbolic terms. Reasoning is egocentric,
and does not realize that object can be transformed
without being changed.
 Piaget’s Theory 5/5:
11 concrete operations: child learns to visualize a whole
series of operations in the mind and to differentiate
oneself from world. Learns that process of transformation
is reversible.
12 formal operations: young person gains ability to think in
abstract terms. That is, the child now knows “why” as
well as “how” and “what”.
Source: Hamilton, R. & Ghatala, E. (1994). Learning and
instruction. New York: McGraw-Hill.
McConnel, James V. (1986). Understanding human
behaviour. 5th edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.
 Jerome Bruner’s Theory 1/3
(1)
• studied how people select, retain, and transform
knowledge.
• learning is an active process allowing deeper
understanding that goes beyond the information given
• Learning - structure of a subject to understand how
things relate meaningfully Thus,
• Learner should be taught to understand concepts
rather than to apply rules without understanding their
significance
 Jerome Bruner’s Theory 2/3
(2)
3 modes of representing mathematical ideas:
• Enactive – mathematical ideas are represented by real
actions or concrete objects without the need for
imagery or words.
• Iconic – mathematical ideas are presented in the form
of pictures or drawings to enable students to think and
visualize image in their minds.
• Symbolic – mathematical ideas are represented by
abstract symbols which enable students to think in the
form of language.
 Jerome Bruner’s Theory 3/3
• (3) Any mathematical idea can be presented in a form
simple enough so that any learner can understand it
at a level suitable to his / her intellectual capacity and
experience. Thus, Bruner suggested the use of the
spiral approach in learning mathematics.
• (4) Bruner suggested that to teach is not a matter of
getting him / her to absorb knowledge passively, but
rather it is to teach him / her to participate in the
learning process actively.
• Conceptions that students arrive at on their own is
usually more meaningful than those proposed by
teachers. He further argued that students are more
likely to remember what they learn if they are
encouraged to make their own discoveries. As such,
students should be given a lot of opportunities to solve
challenging problems either independently or in
groups.
 Constructivism

• origin constructivism can be traced back to the work of two

recognized cognitive psychologists, namely, Piaget and Bruner
who emphasized the importance of active student
participation and mental construction of ideas in the learning
process.
• Constructivism provides teachers with an understanding on
how students learn mathematics and guides them to use
instructional strategies that begin with students rather than
with themselves (Van de Walle, 2001).
• students must be encouraged to participate actively in the
process of understanding mathematical concepts.
 Postman and Weingartner (1969) suggested the
following instructional guidelines in accordance to this
assumption.
• “In class, try to avoid telling your students any answer… Do
not prepare a lesson plan. Instead confront your students with
some sort of problem which might interest them. Then, allow
them to work the problem through without your advice or
counsel. Your talk should consist of questions directed to
particular students, based on remarks made by those
students. If a student asks you a question, tell him that you
don’t know the answer, even if you do. Don’t be frightened by
the long stretches of silence that might occur. Silence means
that the students are thinking.”
fundamental principles of constructivist mathematics
teachers:
(1) Knowledge cannot simply be transferred ready-
made from teacher to student but has to be actively
built up by each learner in his or her own mind. In
other words, knowledge is actively constructed by
the learner, and not passively received from the
environment.
(2) Coming to know is an adaptive process that
organizes one’s experiential world; it does not
discover an independent, pre-existing world outside
the mind of the knower.
• Apart from active involvement with the
physical world, some constructivist
mathematics teachers also believe that social
interaction and communication can assist
students to construct their own
understanding. They argued that social
interaction provides a forum in which
questions are debated, ideas are discussed,
and criticized constructively.
 Structure the lessons to challenge Encourage cooperative learning in
students’ perceptions. completing tasks.

Encourage students to explain their

Help students to realise the relevance of ideas. Teachers appreciate students’
the curriculum to their daily life. ideas.

Evaluate learning through daily activities

in class, not only in the form of written
tests.
life..
Encourage students to solve problems,
analyse, predict, explore and make
hypotheses.
life..

Encourage inquiry by the students

through open questions and encourage
them to discuss with each other.

Give adequate time for students to

answer questions and relate ideas that
have been generated.

Figure 4. Role of Teachers in a Constructivist Classroom

• You can read more about constructivism at the following sites :
• Website with good constructivism primer, classroom tips and links:
• http://www.sedl.org/scimath/compass/v1n03/
• Website with resources for constructivist instruction:
• http://hale.pepperdine.edu/~rsaldric/construct.html
• Website about social constructivism :
• http://www.clas.ufl.edu/anthro/soc-of-know.html
• Constructivism links on web :
• http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mrgder/itc_data/constructivism.html
• http://thalis.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour/articles/constr.html
 Summary
• The cognitivist theories of learning claim that
behaviour cannot be understood by analyzing it into
molecular units. The whole is more than the sum of
its components. They emphasize central processes
and are interested in behaviour only as a means of
inferring mental activity.

• Two basic principles of Constructivism are (a)

knowledge is actively constructed by the learner,
not passively received from the environment, and
(b) coming to know is an adaptive process that
organizes one’s experiential world; it does not
discover an independent, pre-existing world
outside the mind of the knower. In addition, social
processes of communication and negotiation can
also assist the construction of knowledge.
 Example
Addition facts to 18

Place Value Commutatve

Addition facts to 10
Grouping and
associative
By 10s Concept of Addition properties of
addition
 Implications In the classroom
• Prepare a lesson plan for the behaviorist, the
cognitivist and the constructivist approach in a
topic of mathematics showing the different
roles of the mathematics teacher and the
pupils and the method and techniques used.