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)