Transcript presentation source - Arkansas Tech Faculty Web Sites

Viewpoints on learning
A review of learning theories
Primitive views of intelligence
• Single factor--gray matter--and mostly
inherited
• Considered crystallized and un-alterable
from birth
• Environment was not considered a factor
First beginnings of scientific
thought
• Charles Spearman (1863-1945) for whom
the Spearman correlation was also named
• Used correlation to prove that there were at
least two factors of intelligence
• Two-factor theory--a general or inherited
factor, and a specific factor, which we
would today attribute to environment
Edward L. Thorndike
• 1874-1949
• Proposed three kinds of intellience-abstract, concrete, and social
• This was going on at a time when most
inquiry in the behavioral sciences was still
rather impressionistic and qualitative, not
empirical
Louis L. Thurstone
• 1887-1955
• In 1933 proposed a seven factor theory of
intelligence
Joy Paul Guilford
• In various revisions
found 90, then 120,
then 150, and finally
200 independtly
opearting, verifiable
factors in
intelligence.
• Has some
explanations for LD:
• Chief obstacle: how
do we apply a 200
factor theory of
intelligence?
Wechsler Intelligence Scale
theory
• A de facto theory of
intelligence with 13
factors
• After all, that’s what
we test, isn’t it?
• Six factors are verbal
(and presumed
heavily
environmental)
• Seven factors are
performance (motor)
and might be
assumed to be
somewhat hereditary.
• WAIS was developed
in 1949; WISC and
WPPSI followed; WISCIII is used now
Multiple Intelligences--Howard
Gardner, 1989 & 1993
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Linguistic
Musical
Logical-mathematical
Spatial
Bodily-kinesthetic
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
A great synthesis--Robert Gagne
(1972)
• Signal learning
(classical
conditioning)
• Stimulus-response (
B. F. Skinner)
• Motor chaining
• Verbal chaining
• Multiple
discrimination
learning
• Concept learning
• Principle learning
• Problem solving
• Gagne’ removed us
from either-or!
While all of the behaviorism was going on, a radically
different view of intelligence was being spawned by
developmental psychologists such as Jean Piaget.
Features of his theories included:
Stage transition
Use of schemata or thoughts in explaining learning
Assimilation and accommodation
Cognitive dissonance (Piaget; also Leon Festinger, 1957)
The importance of environment
The following slides are from the new
brain research that has been coming out
in the past five years or so.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
“Educators must develop a basic understanding
of the psychobiology of the brain to enable them
to evaluate emerging educational applications.”
Robert Sylwester
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
There are two types of brain cells.
Neurons
10% of your brain cells are neurons.
Glia
90% of your brain cells are glia.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
• The average three-pound brain contains about
100 billion neurons.
• The average three-pound brain contains about
1000 billion glial cells.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
The average three-pound brain has about
one quadrillion connections between
neurons.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
It is the connection between neurons that
makes us “smart”.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
• Heredity provides about 30-60% of our
brain’s wiring.
•40-70% of our wiring comes from
environmental impact.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
“Experience is the chief architect of the
brain.”
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
•Neurons consist of a cell body, an axon
and dendrites.
Brain Basics: How Neurons Communicate
The axon sends
.
information.
Dendrites
The dendrites and cell
body receive information.
Axon
Cell Body
.
The action inside the cell is
electrical.
The action between cells
is chemical.
.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
Reoccurring electrical stimulation between cells
promotes cell growth. This cell growth occurs in the
form of dendrite branching. More dendrite branches
create more connections. Hence, better understanding.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
•We learn on many levels at once. The cellular level is
just one way learning occurs. Learning and behavior are
also strongly affected by the other chemicals in the
brain: the monomines and peptides.
•Some estimate that over 98% of the brain’s
communications occur through peptides and perhaps only
2% occurs through the synapses.
Brain Basics: The Memory Process
Rehearsal
Sight
Elaboration and
Organization
Sound
Smell
Taste
Touch
Sensory
Memory
Initial
Processing
Short Term
Memory
Long Term
Memory
Retrieval
Not transferred to short term memory and
so not stored in the memory system
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
Sensory memory influences different
areas of the brain.
Brain Basics: Reaction to Stimuli
This slide represents blood
flow changes that occur
while an individual is seeing
words in print.
Brain Basics: Reaction to Stimuli
This slide represents
blood flow changes that
occur while an individual
is hearing words.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
Memory is a process rather than a skill or
a thing. A given “memory” is not created
or stored in one single place in the brain.
Brain Basics: The Learning Process
Sensory
Memory
Senses
receive
information.
Limbic
System
Brain determines
which information
is emotionally
important enough
to attend to.
Short-term
Memory
Neurons are
stimulated.
Electrochemical
activity
strengthens
the synapse.
Long-term
Memory
Repeated
activation
improves
message
Transmission.
The more these networks of neurons are used,
the stronger they become…the more easily
they are accessed and information recalled.
Brain Basics: M -Space
The capacity of short-term memory appears to develop
with age. The number of spaces increases by one unit
every other year beginning at age three.
Juan Pascual-Leon, 1970
The m-space capacity of
individuals increases at
about this rate but can
vary up or down by up to
two units for each
age group.
3
5
7
9 11
Age
13
15
Brain Basics: Chunking
A chunk is any cohesive group of items of information that we
can remember as if it were a single item.
The difference between novices and experts in a field appears
to be that experts tend -- because of a great deal of experience
in a field -- to organize information into much larger chunks,
while novices work with isolated bits of information.
Benjamin Bloom
Brain Basics: Schemas
Our neural networks make up a map that represents our
general knowledge about the world. This neural map is
often called “schema”. Our schema provides us with the
way for us to understand a subject or the world around us.
“In order to comprehend, we select a schema
that seems appropriate
and fill in the missing information.”
Pat Wolfe
Without the appropriate schema, students have no way
to assimilate new information.
Brain Basics: The Brain and Learning
For more information about the brain and
learning, visit the ArtFul Minds web site.
http://library.advanced.org/50072/
Best applications of all of the
theories (1)
• Do nothing aversive unless there are very
clear-cut reasons for doing so.
• Have some exposition time, but also much
hands-on time for students to explore.
• Tolerate some ambiguity. No two students
learn things entirely alike.
• The behaviorists are correct about the
optimal sequencing of instruction
Best applications (2)
• Genetics lays the basic pattern, but
environment offers a lot of room for change
• Positive reinforcement, for whatever it may
mean to any given student, is not out of
date.
• Arranging the conditions of learning
(Gagne’) can enhance learning
opportunities, but not guarantee them.
Best applications--3rd
• Learning occurs best when people feel free
to make some mistakes
• Learning occurs best when people have
some idea of what the new learning will
look like in operation--in short, modeling
• Learning occurs best when people can be
shown connections between what they
already know and the new piece of
information