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Learning Matrix

Learning Theories and Instruction

Definitive Questions for Learning Theories

Behaviorist Theory

Cognitive Theory

Constructivist Theory

Social Learning Theory

Connectivism Adult Learning

How does learning occur?

Behaviorist Learning

Cognitive Learning

Constructivist Learning

Social & Interactive Learning

Connectivism Learning

Adult-based Learning

What factors influence learning?

Behavioral Factors

Cognitive Factors

ConstructivistFactors

Social & Interactive Learning Factors

Connectivism Factors

Adult Learning Factors

What is the role of memory?

Behaviorist Memory

Cognitive Memory

Constructivist Memory

Social & Interactive Learning Memory

Connectivism Memory

Adult Learning Memory

How does transfer occur?

Behaviorist Transfer

Cognitive Transfer

Constructivist Transfer

Social & Interactive Learning Transfer

Connectivism Transfer

Adult Learning Transfer

What types of learning are best explained by this theory?

Behaviorist Types of Learning

Cognitive Types of Learning

Constructivist Types of Learning

Social & Interactive Types of Learning

Connectivism Types of Learning

Adult-based Types of Learning

How is technology used for learning in your industry?

Behaviorist Technology

Cognitive Technology

Constructivist Technology

Social & Interactive Learning Technology

Connectivism Technology

Adult Learning Technology

References Click each of the links in the matrix for more information.

Behaviorist Learning

“Behaviorism equates learning with changes in either the form or frequency of observable performance. Learning is accomplished when a proper response is demonstrated following the

presentation of a specific environmental stimulus” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

• Behaviorist learning occurs through conditioning—a stimulus-response method or rewards- punishment method. This learning theory is further divided into two types of conditioning – classical and operant.

• Classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a

naturally occurring stimulus; for e.g. anxiety students can face before appearing for a test.

• Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. For e.g. a student completing his homework on time and getting rewarded from a parent or teacher or employees finishing and meeting their project deadline and getting praised or promoted for their work performance.

Behaviorist Factors

“The learner and environment are both considered by behaviorists with the environment receiving greater emphasis. The most critical factor influencing learning is the arrangement of stimuli and

consequences within the environment” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

• Learning is influenced by students, stimuli and the environment.

• Consequences occur immediately after a behavior, which can be positive or negative, expected or unexpected, immediate or long-term, extrinsic or intrinsic, material or symbolic, emotional/interpersonal or even unconscious.

• Reinforcement is presentation of a stimulus that increases the probability of a response, for e.g. a teacher praising student s after a correct response. A negative reinforcement increases the probability of a response that removes or prevents an adverse condition, for e.g. obtaining a score of 80% or higher makes the final exam optional.

• Positive Punishment is the adding of stimulus to the environment that decrease the probability of a behavior in the future. Negative punishment is the removal of a stimulus from the environment that decreases the probability of a behavior in the future.

Behaviorist Memory

“Memory is typically not addressed by behaviorists. Forgetting is attributed to “nonuse” of a response over time” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

• When it comes to Behaviorism-Memory, behaviorist worry more about habits being formed and less about how the habits are stored.

• Memory is developed when a stimulus and its response occurs repeatedly.

Behaviorist Transfer

“Transfer is a result of generalization. Situations involving identical or similar features allow behaviors to transfer across common

elements” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

Transfer of knowledge in behaviorism is done through:o Specification of desired outcome such as encouraging student participation

in the class.

o Developing a positive and nurturing environment, such as encouraging student-teacher interaction related to learning material.

o Identifying and using appropriate reinforces, such as acknowledging a student’s exceptional performance within his peers.

o Reinforcing positive behavior patterns, such as encouraging students to engage in class discussions

o Evaluate and assess effective learning by comparing teacher expectations with student performance. For e.g. Compare the frequency of student responses in class discussions to the amount of support provided, and determine whether the student is independently engaging in class discussions (Brewer, Campbell, & Petty, 2000).

Behaviorist: Types of Learning

“Stimulus-response learning is the ability to learn to perform a particular behavior when a certain stimulus is present”

(Cannon, 1999).

Emphasis should be given on producing observable and measurable outcomes in students, such as behavioral objectives, task analysis, criterion-reference assessment. Pre-assessing/learner analysis should be done to determine where instruction is required. use of reinforcement to impact student performance, such as giving tangible rewards and informative feedback. Use of cues, shaping and practice to ensure a strong stimulus-response association. Cues can be presented to

facilitate the learning needed to create the correct response – examples of the correct answer or way to do something

Behaviorist Technology

Instructional Technology is defined as "the theory and practice of design, development, utilization,

management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning“ - Association for Educational Communications

and Technology (AECT) Definitions and Terminology Committee.

In corporate training, instructional designers work on program development, assessment strategies, instructional strategies, and student engagement techniques for face-to-face courses as well as online and blended courses.

In organization work environment, the Instructional Designer storyboard and design content outline as well as objectives for classroom-based/online learning material, from suggesting all images to using interactive activities as practice work and assessments.

Some commonly used instruction tools include: Camtasia, Captivate, Inspiration, Flash, Photoshop, live training platforms such as Centra, Windows Live Meeting and Go To Meeting/Training.

Cognitive Learning

“Learning is equated with changes between states of knowledge. Knowledge acquisition is described as a mental activity that

entails internal coding and structuring by the learner. The learner is viewed as a very active participant in the learning

process” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

Connecting prior knowledge to new knowledge – use of analogy to make new concepts seem familiar more quickly.

Focuses more processes such as thinking, problem solving, language, concept formation and information processing.

Identifying patterns which are useful problem solving by showing the learner what information they need to access to deal with a new situation that may resemble something they already know.

Cognitive Factors

“Learners’ thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and values are considered to be influential in the learning process. The real focus of the cognitive

approach is on changing the learner by encouraging him/her to use appropriate learning strategies” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

Attention, a cognitive process that selectively concentrates on one aspect of the environment while ignoring things, for instance listen carefully to what someone is saying while ignoring other conversations in a room.

Perception is the idea that learning is fundamental and essential to individual and professional development, which encompasses the need for individuals to actively accept responsibility for their own learning and actively strive to develop themselves throughout their life.

Mental Processes , Cognition includes every mental process that may be described as an experience of knowing (including perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, and reasoning), as distinguished from an experience of feeling or of willing.

Cognitive Memory

“Learning results when information is stored in memory in an organized, meaningful manner” (Ertmer, & Newby,

1993).

• Cognitivism-Memory plays a large role in the learning process. They store information in an organized and meaningful fashion.

• Rehearsal is the key in Cognitivism to remember starting with encoding, storage, and then retrieval.

• Metacognition refers to a level of thinking that involves active control over the process of thinking that is used in learning situations.

Cognitive Transfer

Transfer in Cognitivism works in the same way as in Behaviorism – “when a learner understands how to apply knowledge in

different contexts, then transfer has occurred.”

• Transfer refers to knowledge applied in new ways, situations, or in different situations with different content.

• Transfer explains how prior learning effects subsequent learning, that is why it is involved in new learning because students apply their prior knowledge and experience with their present learning.

• Types of Transfer include: Positive transfer occurs when prior learning facilitates subsequent learning, e.g. learning to drive a standard transmission car. Negative transfer means prior learning interferes with subsequent learning or makes it more difficult, e.g. from learning to drive a standard transmission car to driving a automatic transmission car. Zero transfer means that one type of learning has no noticeable influence on subsequent learning, e.g. learning to drive a car will not hinder with the learning of operating a computer.

Cognitive Types of Learning

“Cognitive theories are usually considered more appropriate for explaining complex forms of learning (reasoning, problem-solving,

information-processing)” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

Self regulation is similar to metacognitive awareness, which includes task and personal knowledge.

Self regulated learning requires learners to understand task demands, their personal qualities and strategies for complete the task.

Metacognitive awareness includes procedural knowledge, which helps learners to regulate their learning material, monitor their learning level, indicate when to take a different task approach and assess test readiness.

Students need to view learning as an activity that they do for themselves in a proactive manner, rather than viewing learning as a covert event that happens to them as a result of instruction (Zimmerman, 2001).

Cognitive Technology

• A blended e-learning course with technology to provide a virtual environment for employees to explore and become familiar with the various applications used in the company. For e.g. a simulation-based game that provides a “walkthrough” to new hires of the Human Resource (HR) department about the support services and everyday work life of HR in an organization.

Constructivist Learning

Constructivist learning is based on prior experiences and knowledge, and learners construct their knowledge based on their own meaning, rather than memorize answers and rehearse what they’ve been taught.

Another way to describe constructivist philosophy is through the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS). The model approach was 5 E’s: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The 5E’s were later expanded and Examine and Exchange were added.

Constructivists nurture critical thinking skills. In this learning, students are encouraged to connect ideas by summarizing concepts; analyzing, interpreting, and predicting information; as well as justifying and defending their ideas.

Constructivist philosophy also claims that learning is an active social process. Collaboration among students and teachers is a mainstay in a constructivist classroom and is interactive with teachers promoting extensive dialogue among students.

Constructivist Factors

“Both learner and environmental factors are critical to the constructivist, as it is the specific interaction between

these two variables that creates knowledge” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

Knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment and learners continuously test these hypotheses by social interaction.

Every learner has a different interpretation and construction of knowledge process. The learner brings past experiences and cultural factors to a situation in his learning and then combines prior knowledge with new information.

Constructivist Memory

“…”memory” is always under construction as a cumulative history of interactions…The emphasis is not on retrieving intact knowledge structures, but on providing learners with the means to create novel and situation-specific understandings by “assembling” prior knowledge form diverse sources appropriate to the problem at hand”

(Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

Constructivism-Memory is always under construction. By retrieving old information it assists learners in comprehending new information.

The basic principles of constructivism suggest that learners are more apt to remember information if their constructions are personally meaningful to them (Ormrod, Schunk & Gredler, 2009).

Constructivist Transfer

“The constructivist position assumes that transfer can be facilitated by involvement in authentic tasks anchored in meaningful contexts” (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

The learner strives to acquire knowledge and through asking questions of their own knowledge, increases knowledge

Assisted with group and individual projects that are not necessarily instructor led. Instructor’s role is to provide a supportive environment, not to lecture and give students answers.

Constructivist Types of Learning

Active Learning: is a type of instruction that involves learners working in pairs/group work, discuss study material while role-playing , debate, engage in case study or take part in cooperative learning.

Discovery Learning: is a type of inquiry-based instruction. This type of learning involves problem-solving situations where the learner draws on his own experience and prior knowledge. Through this method of instruction students interact with their environment by exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and controversies, or performing experiments.

Knowledge Building (KB): is a type of learning that focuses on creating or modifying public knowledge. It involves making a collective inquiry into a specific topic, and coming to a deeper understanding through interactive questioning, dialogue, and continuing improvement of ideas.

Constructivist Technology

In employee training courses, interactive learning is included such as peer collaboration, reciprocal teaching and problem-solving instruction.

Classroom-based trainings and remote trainings include discussions and group activities/hands-on, which are useful when the objective is to acquire greater conceptual understanding or multiple sides of a topic.

Soft –skill trainings include presentation activities in which students require to prepare their own presentation topic in accordance with the training and then present it in front of the rest of the class.

Corporate E-learning/web-based training courses include standards and assessments that assess the learner and the learning progress and include diagnostic, process-based and outcome based assessment feedback.

Social & Interactive Learning

“People learn through observing others’ behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors” (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2011).

Social constructivism emphasizes the importance of culture and context in understanding what occurs in society and constructing knowledge based on this understanding (Derry, 1999; McMahon, 1997).

Community learning influences an individual’s learning and it could be a traditional classroom setting, virtual classroom or work place training.

Vygotsky’s theory is a constructivist theory that emphasizes the social environment as a facilitator of development and learning.

Social & Interactive Learning Factors

Vygotsky stresses the interaction of interpersonal (Social), cultural-historical, and individual factors as the key to human development (Tudge & Scrimsher, 2003).

Interactions between learners in the environments, e.g. apprenticeship or collaborations stimulate developmental process and foster cognitive growth.

Cultural historical aspects of Vygostky’s theory mentions that learning and development cannot be dissociated from their context. The way learners interact with the people, objects and institutions in it transforms their thinking.

Vygotsky believed that individual/inherited characteristics produce different learning trajectories.

Social & Interactive Learning Memory

“…”memory” is always under construction as a cumulative history of interactions…The emphasis is not on retrieving intact knowledge structures, but on providing learners with the means to create novel and situation-specific understandings by “assembling” prior knowledge form diverse sources appropriate to the problem at hand”

(Ertmer, & Newby, 1993).

According to Albert Bandura Social Learning Theory suggests that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.

Social & Interactive Learning Transfer

Transfer is evident in the ability of a learner to continuously apply concepts throughout a process. The role of the learner is to participate in a system of practices that are themselves evolving (Cobb & Bowers, 1999). For example, an outstanding student whose performance is noticed by the teacher and the teacher compliments and praises the student (observer) for modeling such behavior thus reinforcing that behavior.

Many behaviors learnt from others also produce satisfying or reinforcing results. For example, a student in a multimedia class could observe how an extra task done by a classmate turned out be an engaging and fun task. This student in turn would do the same extra work and also receive enjoyment.

Social & Interactive Learning: Types of Learning

“Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action”

(Bandura, A. 1977).

Attention — various reasons increase or decrease the amount of attention paid during a learning process, including distinctiveness, affective valence, prevalence, complexity, functional value. An individual’s characteristics e.g. sensory capacities, arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement affect attention.

Retention — means remembering/recalling what you paid attention to or learnt during a lesson. Some of the ways to increase attention is though symbolic coding, mental images, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, and motor rehearsal.

Motor Reproduction — or ability to replicate a behavior, which means that the observer has to be able to replicate the action, which could be a problem with a learner who is not ready developmentally to replicate the action. For instance, small children have difficulty in doing complex physical motion.

Motivation — means having a good reason to imitate or learners must demonstrate what they have learned. It Includes motives such as past (i.e. traditional behaviorism), promised (imagined incentives) and vicarious (seeing and recalling the reinforced model).

Social & Interactive Learning Technology

Remote-based training and web mentoring sessions are conducted by corporate organizations to train the trainers (TTT) or employees.

Learning becomes a social process, especially when employees are engaged in social activities, though training using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and blogs.

Online streaming videos and sharing training and useful reference learning information through YouTube.

Connectivism Learning

“Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely

under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on

connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more

important than our current state of knowing” (Siemens, 2005).

Connectivism - Is a process of connecting specialized nodes or

information sources. Capacity to know more is much more critical than what is

already or currently known. Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to

facilitate continual learning. Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and

concepts is a core skill.

Connectivism Factors

“The factor that influences learning in connectivism is the diversity of network, strength of ties and context of

occurrence” (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008).

Self direction- Self-directed learners could rely on networks to learn, however, they must also need to make their own decisions on learning, based on critical thinking and reflection.

Network-directed learning - refers to increasing the intellectual relevance of the connections as a route to improving knowledge interactions. A diverse and knowledgeable network allows learner to gain better wisdom on issues improving his intelligence.

Connectivism Memory

“Memory plays a role through adaptive patterns, representative of current state, and exists in networks” (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008).

Memory is defined by connection of nodes- networking. The nodes, if they exist, are endlessly dissolving and resolving, the connections are endlessly forming, and what is important is not the connection, the bridge or the node, but the ways, contexts, conditions in which they form, coalesce, emerge or disappear or are constructed. That is where the learning is.

Connectivism Transfer

“Transfer occurs through connecting to information (by adding nodes) and growing the network via

social/conceptual/biological connections” (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008)

Brain does not hold chunks of information/knowledge, its networked. For instance, an image of a face does not exists in our brain, instead different regions of the brain contribute in producing recognition.

Conceptual connections generate meanings. In formal learning, we are more conscious of the process because we are trying bringing together our life experiences and current understanding of a topic with new information provided by a course or training program.

Internet, web, and social media has raised the profile of networks because we now experience them in our daily life. When directed toward learning, networks (web, citations, social) are inescapable.

Connectivism: Types of Learning

“Complex learning, learning which has a rapid changing core and learning occurring from diverse knowledge sources” (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008).

Advancements in technology has impacted and evolved the education system and how instruction should be delivered. Today, our networks are explicit in tools like Facebook, Twitter, email, and LinkedIn. Most of these services provide users the ability to analyze how they are connected to others.

Connectivism emphasized always on distribution and connectedness of knowledge and learning. Social networks are one way of “being distributed”, while Technological and informational networks are another.

Connectivism Technology

Learning Management System (LMS) enable administrators and instructors in the corporate training world to: track employee/staff learning progress, manage content, and roster students.

Social software and Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are gaining substantial attention these days as an alternative learning tool to LMS. PLEs are defined as: “systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning” (Van Harmelen, 2006,)

Some examples of socially-based tools comprise of : blogs, wikis, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites, content aggregation through RSS and Atom, podcast and video cast tools, search engines, emails, and voice over IP.

Adult Learning

Andragogy is the art and science of helping adults learn. MalcolmKnowles is the father of andragogy as he proposed five factors involvedin adult learning.

The five assumptions underlying andragogy describe the adult learneras someone who: Has an independent self-concept and who can direct his or her own

learning Has accumulated a reservoir of life experiences that is a rich

resource for learning Has learning needs closely related to changing social roles Is problem-centered and interested in immediate application of

knowledge Is motivated to learn by internal rather than external factors

(Merriam, 2001, p.5).

Adult Learning Factors

The factors that influence adult learning are those that thelearner brings with them: Life experience, including life altering events that affect

cognitive abilities Work experience, including development of thinking patterns

based on this experience Positive/negative previous adult learning experiences Performance affecters, including cognitive abilities Time between learning interactions Aging factors (Conlan, Graboswski, & Smith, 2003).

Adult Learning Memory

“Memory plays a role through adaptive patterns, representative of current state, and exists in networks” (Davis, Edmunds, & Kelly-Bateman, 2008).

Older adults can not effectively use the processes of attention, organization,

mediation, for instance the use of devices with visual/verbal images and verbal expressions to link meaningful bits of information into integrated memorable whole, and elaboration. This form is called processing deficit.

Structural deficit form in adults means speed and capacity limitations associated with age-related changes in the central nervous system.

While older adults may fail to integrate seemingly trivial facts, they integrate meaningful new knowledge with existing related knowledge, ensuring high levels of recall. Activation of existing knowledge may help to moderate recall deficits in older adults.

Adult Learning Transfer

“Adult learners are most interested in immediate application of their learning” (Conlan, Graboswski, & Smith, 2003).

Adults can observe and grasp information from their educational setting and apply it as a solution to every-day life situations, such as on the job, at home, or in a different educational setting from where the information was obtained.

Transfer of learning for adults is not automatic and must be facilitated. Coaching and other kinds of follow-up support are needed to help adult learners transfer learning into daily practice so that it is sustained.

Adult Learning: Types of Learning

Action Learning: In this type of learning participants work in small groups on a real project/problem and learn how to learn from that activity. For e.g. Leadership team undergoes a training about retention policy of their organization. In groups, the students brainstorm and come up with new strategies that can help in resolving company’s attrition rate.

Experiential Learning: This is a holistic learning approach in which the learner utilizes his/her experiences and learning strengths in the process of constructing knowledge. It is more commonly referred to as “learning by doing”. For e.g. Hands-on activities given in a training session.

Project Based learning: In this type of learning participants work in small groups to solve a challenging, interdisciplinary problem using group chosen strategies and activities. For e.g. In groups, students search out possible plans for the park through surveys, studies, etc.

Self-directed learning: This is an informal learning process in which an individual takes on the responsibility for his/her learning process by identifying their learning needs, setting goals, finding resources, implementing strategies, and evaluating their results. For e.g. Creating a plan and budget to buy a new car.

Adult Learning Technology

“The most significant trend that continues to make an impact on facilitators is the demand for the incorporation of technology into the content and delivery of professional development”

( King, 2003).

Through the Learning Management System (LMS), training coordinators and managers are allowed to create individual learning plans and learning assessments, linked to career development of an employee. LMS is a way that technology is used for learning in the corporate training industry.

Online courses/eLearning/web-based trainings are a means of professional development for employees. Most of the courses can accessed via a training portal or LMS and extra information and outside resources can be downloaded as well.

Social media learning is also becoming quiet common in the corporate sector and refers to the acquisition of information and skills through social technologies that allow people to collaborate, converse, provide input, create content and share it. Examples of social media learning can occur through online social networking platforms like Facebook, blogs and microblogs like Twitter, online talk radio and wikis.

References

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 50–71.

Standridge, M.. (2002). Behaviorism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Orey, M. (2001). Information Processing. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Kim, B. (2001). Social Constructivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Conlan, J., Grabowski, S., & Smith, K.. (2003). Adult Learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson.

Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2011, February). Social Learning Theory (Bandura) at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved from http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html

Siemens, G. (2005, January). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning, Retrieved from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm