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Theories and styles of learning
Neil Denby
Objectives …• To identify the teaching role as exemplified
by the Standards• To explain the relationship between
teaching and learning• To represent learning theory• To consider and discuss theory and
application• To illustrate features of lessons
Key questions …
• What is the job of the teacher? • How do children learn? • How are both exemplified in the classroom?• What should we look for in observations?• How should we plan theories into lessons?
Piaget: Cognitive Development Theory
• Physical maturation leads to sequential development that includes cognitive development
• Learners thought to learn new concepts by assimilation, taking in and adapting new information to fit existing concepts, and by accommodation, modifying concepts in light of new information
Lev VygotskySocial constructivism: Talk and social interaction are the key learning tools:
‘What a child can do today in co-operation, tomorrow he will be able to do on his own’
Scaffolding: Extending what learners can do by breaking the learning process down into easy steps
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): Ensuring that a child works within the ZPD
Bruner
The spiral curriculum
The curriculum re-visits topics, allowing learners to address increasingly complex components of a topic
Learning …Aspect Behaviourism Cognitivist
constructionismHumanism Participatory/
Situation
Theorists Pavlov, Watson, Tolman, Skinner
Piaget, Bruner Maslow, Rogers Lave, Wertsch, Engestrom
View of the learning process
Leads to change in behaviour
Internal mental process, including insight, information processing, memory, perception …
A personal act to fulfil potential
Interaction/observation in social contexts Movement from the periphery to the centre of a community of practice
Locus of learning
Stimuli in external environment
Internal cognitive structure
Affective and cognitive needs
Learning is about the relationship between people and environment
View of transfer
Common elements across different contexts
Over-arching general principles
Changes in self-identity as a learner
Transfer problematic
Purpose in education
Produce behavioural change in desired direction
Develop capacity and skills to learn more effectively
Become self-actualised … autonomous
Full participation in communities of practice and engagement with resources
Educator’s role
Arrange environment to bring about desired response
Structuring of content of learning activity
Facilitates development of the whole person
Works to establish communities of practice in which conversation and participation occur
(Adapted from Wegerif, 2002: 9)
Behaviourism• Focus on observable changes to behaviour • One’s environment shapes behaviour • Continuity and reinforcement • Stimulus–Response (S–R)• ‘Activity’ is important – not passive learning• Frequent practise takes place in differing contexts
… essential • Reinforcement as a motivator (+ve)• Clear objectives for pupils
Cognitive constructionism• Consider patterns of behaviour … the whole,
rather than the sum, of the component parts• The act or process of knowing • Instruction should be well organised • Instruction should be clearly structured• The way a task is displayed should make the
problem clear to the learner • Prior knowledge is important• Feedback gives information to learners about
their success or failure
Humanism
• Reject the notion of reductionism, preferring to treat people as a ‘whole’
• High-quality personal involvement • Self-initiation• Pervasive – difference in behaviour, attitude …• Learner evaluation …• Essence is ‘meaning’ – meaning is involved with
whole experience
Participatory situationist• Learn from observing other people in a social
setting • People join communities of practitioners, observe
and assimilate the required knowledge • When people get together, particular pieces of
information take on a relevance and are passed on
• Teachers work so that people can become participants
• Relation between knowledge and activity
Group task …
• Discuss the different learning styles: Which ones were you aware/unaware of?
• How, as teachers, can you accommodate differing learning theories in your lessons?
• Undertake an observation that focuses on styles of teaching and learning
• Report back to group
References …
Franklin, S. (2006) ‘VAKing out learning styles: Why the notion of “learning styles” is unhelpful to teachers’, Education 3–13, 34(1): 81–7
Wegerif, R. (2002) Report 2: Literature Review in Thinking Skills, Technology and Learning, A Report for NESTA Futurelab (Milton Keynes: Open University)