Top Ten Learning Theories for Digital and Collaborative Learning

The Mind Lab by Unitec | Top 10 Learning Theories | 2015 1

Top 10 Learning Theories for Digital and

Collaborative LearningDr David Parsons, National Postgraduate Director

The Mind Lab by Unitec, Auckland, New Zealand


What is a Learning Theory?

★ A theory about changes in observable behaviour

★ Addresses:

○ How such changes become relatively

permanent

○ Whether the change is immediate, or potential

○ What role experience plays

○ What aspects of reinforcement are present

(Olsen & Hergenhahn, 2013)


10 Learning Theories

1. Conditioning

2. Connectionism and the Law of Effect

3. Progressive Education

4. Constructivism: Social Development Theory

5. Constructivism: Equilibration

6. Social Cognitive Theory

7. Situated Learning / Cognition

8. Community of Practice

9. Constructionism

10.Connectivism


Conditioning

★ Classical Conditioning - Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936)

○ Stimulus leads to response

○ Incidental rather than deliberate in the classroom

★ Instrumental conditioning - Burrhus Skinner (1904 - 1990)

○ Behaviour leads to reinforcement

○ Learners need rapid feedback and to work at their own

pace

○ Programmed learning and the teaching machine


Skinner on Behaviourism

“The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply

controls by changing the environment in such a way as to

reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone.”


Connectionism and the Law of Effect

➔ Edward Thorndike (1874 – 1949)

➔ Connectionism is the neural bond between stimulus

and response

➔ Learning is incremental rather than insightful

➔ Law of Effect: reinforcement increases the strength

of a connection, punishment does not change it


Thorndike on Lecturing

“The lecture and demonstration methods represent an

approach… in which the teacher lets the pupil find out

nothing which he could possibly be told or

shown...They try to give him an educational fortune as

one bequeaths property by will.”


Progressive Education

➢ John Dewey (1859 - 1952)

➢ Self-governing learners, teachers as guides

➢ Outdoor education

➢ Scientific study of individual development

➢ Cooperation between school and home

➢ Hands-on learning / experiential education

➢ Among other things, Dewey headed the commission

that cleared Trotsky of allegations from the Moscow

trials


Dewey on Learning

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn;

and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking;

learning naturally results.”


Constructivism: Social Development Theory

➔ Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934)

➔ Social learning precedes development

➔ Zone of Proximal Development: The area

between what the learner can do independently,

and what they can do with help from others

➔More Knowledgeable Other: someone/thing who

knows more than the learner. Could be teacher,

peer, computer...


Vygotsky on Teaching

“The teacher must adopt the role of facilitator, not

content provider.”


Constructivism: Equilibration

★ Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980)

★ Intelligence is dynamic, in interaction with its environment

★ Equilibration is the continuous drive towards balance with

the environment

★ 4 stages of development: sensorimotor (0-2 years),

preoperational (2-7 years), concrete operations (7-11

years), formal operations (11-15 years)

★ Educational environments should provide the opportunity

for discovery by the student


Piaget on Education

“The principle goal of education in the schools should be

creating men and women who are capable of doing new

things, not simply repeating what other generations have

done.”


Social Cognitive Theory

➔ Albert Bandura (born 1925)

➔ Anything that can be learned from direct

experience can be learned from observation /

modelling

➔ Reciprocal determinism: a dynamic interplay of

person, environment and behaviour

➔ Teachers act as models

➔ Media affects behaviour (e.g. violence)


Bandura on Observation

“Coping with the demands of everyday life would be

exceedingly trying if one could arrive at solutions to

problems only by actually performing possible options

and suffering the consequences.”


Situated Cognition/Learning

★ John Seely-Brown (born 1940), Allan Collins, Paul

Duguid

★ Learning is embedded in the activity, context and

culture in which it was learned

★ Learning while interacting with others through shared

activities and language

★ Learning is about performance in situations rather than

an accumulation of knowledge


John-Seely Brown on Knowledge

“Instead of pouring knowledge into people's heads, you

need to help them grind anew a set of eyeglasses so they

can see the world in a new way.”


Constructionism

➔ Seymour Papert (born 1928)

➔Worked with Piaget

➔ Based on learning by doing, constructionism utilises

physical materials to creatively develop abstract

learning

➔ Papert involved with Logo Turtles, One Laptop per

Child, Lego Mindstorms, Dynabook


Papert on Digital Teaching and Learning

“Nothing could be more absurd than an experiment

in which computers are placed in a classroom

where nothing else is changed.”


Community of Practice

❏ Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger (born 1950s)

❏ A community of practice has three components:

domain, community and practice.

❏ Learning is unintentional and situated within authentic

activity, context and culture

❏ Learning based on social relationships; co-participation


Wenger on Communities of Practice

“Communities of practice are formed by people who

engage in a process of collective learning in a shared

domain of human endeavour...who share a concern or a

passion for something they do and learn how to do it better

as they interact regularly.”


Connectivism

★ George Siemens (born 1960s)

★ ‘A learning theory for the digital age’

★ Internet technologies have created new opportunities for

people to learn and share information

★ Learning across online peer networks

★ Siemens launched the first MOOC in 2008


Siemens on Technology and Learning

“We always seem to think about how does technology

influence learning. Sometimes these roles actually have

to be reversed. We have to think about how learning

influences technology because there are greater changes

occurring in our society and not just within technology.”


References

Olsen, M. & Hergenhahn, B. (2013). An Introduction to Theories of Learning

(9th ed.) Boston, Mass: Pearson.

Papert, S. and Harel, I. 1991. Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.

Simply Psychology. (2015). Psychology Articles for Students. Retrieved from:

http://www.simplypsychology.org/

Smith, M. K. (2009). Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice.

The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from:

http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm

http://www.simplypsychology.org/

http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm