Transcript Learning Theories Presentation

Impact on Adult Education Program
By Claudia Gomez
10/12/2008
EDTC 3320
LEARNING THEORIES
B.F Skinner Behavioral
Theorist

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) was an influential American
Psychologist, author, inventor, advocate for social reform and poet. He was
the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958
until his retirement in 1974. He invented the operant conditioning chamber,
innovated his own philosophy of science called Radical Behaviorism.
He became famous for his work with rats using his "Skinner Box". He took
the extreme liberty of transferring his experience and theories of rats
directly to human beings. It should be kept in mind that rats and people are
tremendously different creatures, yet Skinner had no problem with easily
assuming what was true for rats, on a very simple scale, would be applicable
to human beings in very different and complex situations.
Jean Piaget Cognitive
Theorist

Jean Piaget [ʒɑ̃ pjaʒɛ] (1896-1980) was a Swiss philosopher, natural
scientist, and developmental theorist, well known for his work studying
children, his theory of cognitive development, and for his epistemological
view called “genetic epistemology."
Piaget, of course, argued that intellectual development reached its zenith
with the full attainment of formal operations in late adolescence, and no
further growth is possible, save for some specialization in areas of interest
to the individual. Formal operations, however, pertains to only one
dimension of adult thinking, that is, logical-mathematical and scientific
reasoning.
Cognitivism vs. Behaviorism
 Behaviorism equates learning with changes in either the form or
frequency of observable performance.
 Behaviorists assess the learners to determine at what point to begin
instruction as well as to determine which reinforces are most effective
for a particular student. The most critical factor, however, is the
arrangement of stimuli and consequences within the environment.
The cognitive approach focuses on the mental activities of the learner
that lead up to a response and acknowledges the processes of mental
planning, goal-setting, and organizational strategies.
Cognitive designers use techniques such as advance organizers,
analogies, hierarchical relationships, and matrices to help learners relate
new information to prior knowledge. Forgetting is the inability to
retrieve new information from memory because of interference, memory
loss, or missing or inadequate cues needed to access information.
Cognitivism’s Impact on
Learning
 Because of the emphasis on mental structures, cognitive theories
are usually considered more appropriate for explaining complex
forms of learning (reasoning, problem-solving, informationprocessing) than are those of a more behavioral perspective.
 cognitive emphases imply that major tasks of the
teacher/designer include (1) understanding that individuals bring
various learning experiences to the learning situation which can
impact learning outcomes;
 determining the most effective manner in which to organize and
structure new information to tap the learners’ previously
acquired knowledge, abilities, and experiences
Behaviorism’s Impact on
Learning
 Behavioral theories imply that teachers ought to arrange
environmental conditions so that students respond properly to
presented stimuli. Cognitive theories emphasize making
knowledge meaningful and helping learners organize and relate
new information to existing knowledge in memory.
Instruction must be based on a student’s existing mental
structures, or schema, to be effective. It should organize
information in such a way that learners are able to connect new
information with existing knowledge in some meaningful way.
Applicability of Behaviorism
Theory
 Behaviorists attempt to prescribe strategies that are most useful
for building and strengthening stimulus-response associations,
including the use of instructional cues, practice, and
reinforcement.
 Behaviorism was used as the basis for designing many of the
early audio-visual materials and gave rise to many related
teaching strategies, such as Skinner’s teaching machines and
programmed texts.
 More recent examples include principles utilized within
computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and mastery learning.
Applicability of Behaviorism
contd’..
 An emphasis on producing observable and measurable outcomes
in students [behavioral objectives, task analysis, criterionreferenced assessment
 Pre-assessment of students to determine where instruction
should begin learner analysis
 Emphasis on mastering early steps before progressing to more
complex levels of performance sequencing of instructional
presentation, mastery of learning of cues, shaping and practice to
ensure a strong stimulus-response association simple to complex
sequencing of practice, use of prompts
 Use of reinforcement to impact performance [tangible rewards,
informative feedback
Applicability of Cognitivism
 Cognitivists make use of feedback (knowledge of results) to guide
and support accurate mental connections.
 Cognitivists look at the learner to determine his/her disposition
to learning, (i.e., How does the learner activate, maintain, and
direct his/her learning?).
 Cognitivists examine the learner to determine how to design
instruction so that it can be readily assimilated (i.e., What are the
learners’ existing mental structures?).
 Cognitivism emphasizes the role that environmental conditions
play in facilitating learning. Instructional explanations,
demonstrations, illustrative examples and matched nonexamples are all considered to be instrumental in guiding student
learning.
Contrast between Cognitivism
and Behaviorism
Cognitivism
Behaviorism

An internal process that isn't necessarily
reflected in an organism's behavior. Believes
that some learning processes are unique to
humans.


As a relatively permanent change in behavior
brought about by experience. Believes that all
organisms share essentially the same learning
traits
Edward Tolman
Jerome Bruner
Jean Piaget
Lev Vigotsky


Information processing, Sensory register, short
term memory, working memory, long term
memory, schema, assimilation,
accommodation
B.f Skinner
Ivan Pavlov
John Watson
Lee Thorndike

Stimuli, response, reinforcement, chaining,
shaping

Strength of reinforcement, consistency of
reinforcement, cleaning of environment to
isolate desired stimuli, practice

Attention, pattern recognition, selection,
connection of ideas and knowledge,
elaboration, prior knowledge, long-term
memory storage processes, and retrieval
methods
Works Cited
 Brown, Green, Abbie, Timothy (2006). The Essentials of Instructional
Design. New Jersy, New Jersy: Pearson Education, Inc.
 Gonzalez, John Cognitivism Knowledge Based Introduction.
Retrieved October 12, 2008, from Cognitivism Knowledge
Based Web site:
http://web.syr.edu/~jagonz01/621/cognitivism.html
 Newby, T.J (1993). Learning Environments. Retrieved October 12,
2008, from Learning Environments Web site:
http://www.geocities.com/learningenvironments/learningenvir
onments.html