What are learning theories good for?

What are learning theories good for?James Atherton

(FSLTHE14: Oxford Brookes University)10 February 2014

Plan of session Introduction—getting to know a bit about your

teaching Short presentation on some underlying issues,

with discussion opportunity Brief introduction to broad types/families of

theory Opportunity for discussion Relating types of theory to your practice, and

issues they pose. Summary and close

This was a live webinar to support week 3 of a

MOOC. Some of the material which only makes sense in that

context has been removed

Anchor pointIn your particular Discipline Setting Students…which of the theories are likely to be

of most use to you?

In what discipline do you mainly teach?

A. STEMB. Social sciencesC. Arts and HumanitiesD. LanguagesE. Fine/performing artsF. Professional studiesG. Other

The reason for this question was to flag the significance of different academic/

professional disciplines for deciding which

approach to teaching is most

applicable.

applicable.So STEM disciplines

are “hard”, convergent, and

privilege precision.

Fine/performing arts on the other hand value freedom and

creativity.

applicable.So STEM disciplines

are “hard”, convergent, and

privilege precision.

Fine/performing arts on the other hand value freedom and

creativity.

Most of the participants self-

identified as B, C or F

How would you describe your familiarity with the different varieties of learning theory?

A. Close, quite knowledgeableB. Recognise them when mentionedC. Vague—remind meD. Non-existent

Numbers were fairly equally divided

between A and C with a few Bs

Aspiration

To help you locate learning theories in relation to each other, so you can evaluate their relevance to your interests and practices.

Argument The problem of how to construe

“learning” Status of “learning theories” Evaluating their range of

convenience Applying that to your interests and

practice.

No promises, but any particular points you would like to see covered? Or at least

pointed at?

These were some of the suggestions

which appeared on the whiteboard

This is “learning”

The software converted this into a neat circle—which

spoiled the point!

It’s the haziness and amorphousness of the

concept which make it so difficult to conceptualise

How big is the pie?

Are we confining the idea to what

happens in formal “learning and

teaching” situations?

Or is it this big?Or does it embrace all kinds of informal learning—some of which we may not

realise is happening?

Let’s say it is this big…

This is just a stipulative definition.

Do we slice it this way?

Formal learning

Informal learning

But what important features does a theory need to

capture?

Or this way?

Cognitive

Psycho-motor

Affective

Bloom’s domains,of course

So theories of learning are not like scientific theories, which

explain and predict phenomena—they are more perspectives or models, which draw attention to (“privilege” in the jargon) certain selected

aspects of the topic.

What implications do such limitations have for your use of theory to inform

practice?

Behavioural

Cognitive

Humanistic

Social

LearningTheories07/02/2014 - v4

"Scientific"Bare bones e.g. Animal modelsSkills

OrganismDifferencesCapacityMaturation

MotivationValuesTransformation

ContextCommunities of Practice

Behavioural

Cognitive

Humanistic

Social

These are the major families of theories as you

will find them in most textbooks. We’ll just go

through the kinds of theories they are, rather than their substantive

content

Behavioural

Cognitive

Humanistic

Social

Behavioural

Cognitive

Humanistic

Social

Individual

Social

This axis is one fairly obvious

set of differences…

Individual

Social

Teacher-focused Content Proactive Prescriptive Convergent Planned Etc…

Student-focused Process

Reactive Facilitative Divergent

Opportunistic Etc.

But there are many different ways in which other axes can be described

Content

Individual

Social

Process

I’m arbitrarily going to collapse

all those alternatives, into

Individual

Social

Content Process

So where would you locate

the theories we have so briefly

discussed?

Behavioural

Cognitive

Humanistic

Social

Make the letters

bigbigif you can

Individual

Social

Content Process

This is where the participants located the theories (identified by

initial) on the model. As you can see, the

conversation was quite animated… It largely came down to underlying values

10 April 2023

Teacher focus

Student focus

ConceptualChange

InformationTransmission

10 April 2023

Teacher focus

Student focus

ConceptualChange

We briefly related the model to one

developed by Prosser and Trigwell

(1999)

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-32 -28 -24 -20 -16 -12 -8 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32

Teacher focus

Student focus

-32 -28 -24 -20 -16 -12 -8 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32

ConceptualChange

Promotessurfacelearning

Opportunitiesfor deeplearning Whose

research suggested

this…

So? Horses for courses Each theory will direct attention to a

different aspect of the process Find whichever is most useful for

your particular area Don’t expect them all to point in the

same direction

www.learningandteaching.info

What are learning theories good for?

Education

A good grasp of learning theories is

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