Learning TheoryDominic Egan

What works?

Find out what works for you?

Find out what works for your student?

Pick up the cues from them

Be aware of your environment

Look out for variables, limits, exclusions

Consider your presentation style

Get feedback as well as self evaluation

How do you learn?

Visual

Aural

Kinaesthetic

Read write.

Fleming,N. (2011) VARK a guide to learning styles. [online] http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp (accessed 26/09/13)

Paper version

http://www.vark-learn.com/documents/The%20VARK%20Questionnaire.pdf

What can we learn from learning theory

Behaviourism

Cognitivism

Humanism

Behaviourism

Positive negative reinforcement of behaviour.

Omission of reinforcement.

Conditioning.

Variable response reinforcement is most useful.

Ignoring negative behaviour leads to extinction of the behaviour.

Behaviourism

Behavioural objectifies

Linear teaching programmes (Chaining)

Branching teaching Programmes

Mastery of learning

Task A

Task B

Task C

Vicarious learning

Learning by the observation of others

Useful with early learning stages

Promote learners to act as a role for their juniors

Cognitivism

• Put into memory

Encoding

• Maintain in memory

Storage

Memory (Two types)

Short term

Long term

• Recover from memory

Retrieval

Cognitivism

Lasts seconds – minutes

To encode we must attend to it, a selective process

How do you remember a number

Visually

Acoustically

Semantically

Try to remember this

RLBKSJ

And now this…

SPT, OARE

… and this

O AIR TEK

How did you encode these?

SPT, OARE - Visually

O AIR TEK - Acoustically?

Try remember this

25734169385

What goes wrong?

Displacement

Trying to learn too much

Can we help this?

Try chunking, or strings that are already in our long term memory

On Old Olympus

Forgetting

Proactive inhibition old info interferes with the newretroactive inhibition – new info interferes with old

Emotional, loss of STM, Decay of LTM.

Repression.

Altered recall.

Physical Damage.

Improving memory Recall

Use of mental imagery

Self Recital during study

Over learning

Organisational schemes

Factors involved in successful learning

Methods of presentation of material

Knowledge of progress and results

Distribution of practice

Study and learner methods used by the learner

Factors involved in successful learning

Implications for the teacher

Relevance of the Info

Avoid unfamiliar info

Motivation

Boredom fatigue

Over learning

Rehearsal repetition

Organisation and content

Humanism

Whole person, feelings, values, attitudes

Self direction, empowerment, autonomy, internal motivations.

Maslow - needs

Rogers - freedom to learn

Facilitation rather than teacher

Humanism cont…

Rogers principles of learning

Enable curiosity

Psychologically

Mutual respect: participation.

Expression of feeling and values

Self critique over feedback

Critical thinking development:

Absolute knowing2/3 of first years notions of fixed, correct,

Transitional knowing1/3 from certainty to uncertainty

Independent knowingAware of no certainties

Contextual knowingWithin the light of experienceBaxter Magolda M.1992 Knowing and reasoning in college students: San franciso Jossey-Bass)

Critical thinking development cont..

It implies re-processing of something learnt in order to learn more

It deals with complex ideas – not simple ones

It implies a deep approach – not superficial

It involves evaluation

There is reflexivity/ metacognition(critical consideration of own learning processes)

(Moon, 2008)

"Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusion to which it tends". (Dewey, 2010 cited in McGregor, 2007)

“Critical thinking is not one single way of thinking, but rather it is multi -dimensional cognitive process. It demands a skilful application of knowledge and experience in making discriminating judgements and evaluations” (Jones and Brown, 1991 p. 530)

Critical thinking development cont..

Mezirow's Three Domains of Learning

Instrumental: gaining of technical knowledge

Communicative: gaining of practical knowledge

Emancipatory: gaining of emancipatory knowledge which leads to ‘transformation’ in the learner

Changing rolesNaturalContextual to past perspectivesIncremental or sudden acute

Transformative learning involves:

Becoming more reflective and critical

Being more open to the perspectives of others

Being less defensive and more accepting of new ideas

Mezirow, J. 1990. Fostering critical reflection in adulthood : a guide to transformative and emancipatory learning. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.

Why?

Adult learning is inevitably related to making sense of experience through reflection

Kolb

Schon

Knowles M.

Johns C.

Mezirow

Gibbs

Gibbs Reflective Model

DescriptionWhat happened?

Evaluation

What was good and

bad about the

experience?

Action Plan

If it arose again

what would you do?

Conclusion

What else could

you have done?

FeelingsWhat were you

thinking and feeling?

AnalysisWhat sense can you make of the situation

Model for Structured Reflection - adapted from Johns (2000)

Looking in:

Find a space to focus on self

Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions

Write down these thoughts and emotions

Model for Structured Reflection - adapted from Johns (2000) cont…

Looking out:

Write a description of the situation

What issues seem significant

Aesthetics:

What was I trying to achieve?

Why did I respond as I did?

What were the consequences for myself & others?

How were others feeling?

How did I know this?

Model for Structured Reflection - adapted from Johns (2000) cont…

Looking out:

Personal

Why did I feel the way I did within this situation?

Ethics

Did I act for the best?

What factors were influencing me?

What knowledge did or could have informed me?

Model for Structured Reflection - adapted from Johns (2000) cont…

Looking out:

Reflexivity:

How does this situation relate to previous experiences?

How could I have handled this better?

What would have been the consequences of alternative actions?

How do I feel now about the experience?

How can I support myself and others better in the future?

Kolb

Stage1 - Experience (Kolb's "Concrete Experiences")Life is full of experiences we can learn from. Whether at home or at work or out and about, there are countless opportunities for us to 'kick-start' the learning cycle.

Stage 2 - Reflect (Kolb's "Reflective Observation")Reflection involves thinking about what we have done and experienced. Some people are naturally good at this. Others train themselves to be more deliberate about reviewing their experiences and recording them.

Kolb cont…

Stage 3 - Conceptualise (Kolb's "Abstract Conceptualisation")

When we pass from thinking about our experiences to interpreting them we enter into the realm of what Kolb termed 'conceptualization'. To conceptualize is to generate a hypothesis about the meaning of our experiences.

Kolb cont…

Stage 4 - Plan (Kolb's "Active Experimentation”)In the active experimentation stage of the learning cycle we effectively 'test' the hypotheses we have adopted. Our new experiences will either support or challenge these hypotheses.

To learn from our experiences it is not sufficient just to have them. This will only take us into stage 1 of the cycle. Rather, any experience has the potential to yield learning, but only if we pass through all Kolb's stages by reflecting on our experiences, interpreting them and testing our interpretations.

Summing up, learning from our experiences involves the key element of reflection. Obviously, most people don't theorize about their learning in this way, but in their learning follow Kolb's cycle without knowing it.

Borton’s framework (1970)

What Happened

So what Now what

Schon (1987)

2 types of knowledge:

Technical rationality – empirical and scientific knowledge

Tacit knowledge – intuitive knowledge in order to navigate through the “swampy lowlands” of real life practice

Reflection – give the practitioner access to tacit knowledge

Types of knowledge:

Baumard P. 1999 Tacit knowledge in organisations London: Sage

Individual knowledge

Collective knowledge

ExplicitTechnical expertise

Rules laws, regulations

Tacit Intuitiveness Wisdom of social practice

Carper (1978)

Empirical knowledge

Aesthetic knowledge

Personal knowledge

Ethical knowledge

Benner (1984)

Consider how far your portfolio demonstrates your progression form novice to expert practitioner?

Stage 1: Novice

Stage 2: Advanced Beginner

Stage 3: Competent

Stage 4: Proficient

Stage 5: The Expert