Lecture 3: Theories of Learning Part 1

1. The Future of Learning
Dr James Stanfield
Lecture 3: Learning Theories Part 1
Thursday 18th October

2. Plan of Action
Part I: Understanding Behaviourism
Part II: Understanding Cognitivism
Part III: Updating Personal Learning
Networks
Learning theories are research-based ideas about how we
learn. Theories combine what is known about genetics,
development, environment, motivation, and emotions to
explain how we acquire, store, and apply knowledge.

3. Part I: Understanding Behaviourism
A focus on the environmental
factors influencing how we
learn

4. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
McLeod, S. A. (2018, April 05). What are the most interesting ideas of Sigmund Freud?. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html

5. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) Russian physiologist
• Mathematician, empirical observation, desire for a scientific approach
• Led psychology towards external observation and away from analysis
of reported internal thoughts (Freud)
• Towards external influence
• Classical conditioning
“Don't become a mere recorder of facts, but try to
penetrate the mystery of their origin”.
Classical conditioning is "classical" in that it is the first
systematic study of basic laws of learning / conditioning.

6. John B. Watson (1879-1958), American Psychologist
• father of the psychological school of behaviourism
• struggled academically and was arrested twice during high
school
• completed a doctorate in Psychology at the University of
Chicago in 1903 under John Dewey but “never understood a
word he said”.
• Lecturer at John Hopkins University in 1908
• Psychology as the Behaviourist Views It. Columbia University,
1913.
• Behaviourism, according to Watson, was the science of
observable behaviour. Only behaviour that could be observed,
recorded and measured was of any real value for the study of
humans or animals.
• a child's environment is the factor that shapes behaviours
over their genetic makeup or natural temperament.

7. John B. Watson (1879-1958), American Psychologist
Men are built, not born.... Give me the
baby, and I'll make it climb and use its
hands in constructing buildings of stone or
wood.... I'll make it a thief, a gunman or a
dope fiend. The possibilities of shaping in
any direction are almost endless.
The first aim of a good college is not to teach books, but
the meaning and purpose of life. Hard study and the
learning of books are only a means to this end. We develop
power and courage and determination and we go out to
achieve Truth, Wisdom and Justice. If we do not come to
this, the cost of schooling is wasted.
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own
specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take
any one at random and train him to become any type of
specialist I might select - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief
and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his
ancestors.

8. Edward Thorndike (1874, 1949), American Psychologist
Colours fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure.
The function of intellect is to provide a means of modifying our
reactions to the circumstances of life, so that we may secure pleasure,
the symptom of welfare.
From Edward Thorndike's work, three laws of learning surfaced.
The Law of Effect proposes that pleasurable consequences lead
to repetition, while unpleasant outcomes extinguish behaviour.
The Law of Readiness explains that learners will be resistant to
learning until they are ready and the Law of Exercise states that
what is practiced strengthens, while what is not practiced
becomes weaker.
McLeod, S. A. (2018). Edward Thorndike. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-
thorndike.html

9. B.F Skinner (1904-1990) American Psychologist
He believed that the best way to understand behaviour is to
look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called
this approach operant conditioning.
Education is what survives when what has been learned has
been forgotten.
A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one
can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop
trying.
If you're old, don't try to
change yourself, change
your environment
The ideal of behaviourism is to eliminate coercion:
to apply controls by changing the environment in
such a way as to reinforce the kind of behaviour
that benefits everyone.
A person who has been punished is
not less inclined to behave in a given
way; at best, he learns how to avoid
punishment.
McLeod, S. A. (2018). Skinner - operant conditioning. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

10. What do behaviourist pedagogies and
approaches look like?
What role will these play in the future
of learning?

11. Part II: Understanding Cognitivism
The cognitivist paradigm essentially argues that the “black box”
of the mind should be opened and understood. The learner is
viewed as an information processor (like a computer).
This is a type of learning which mainly uses cognitive processes,
such as perception and reasoning, and in which the
contribution of the learner is emphasized.

12. Jean Piaget (1896-1980), a Swiss psychologist
• Background in history and philosophy
• Director of the International Bureau of Education, he
declared in 1934 that "only education is capable of
saving our societies from possible collapse, whether
violent, or gradual”.
• investigated the hidden side of children’s minds and
studied areas of intelligence like perception and memory
• Examined children's conversations in a social context
• Different to a ‘fixed’ behaviourist approach which
doesn’t take into account development and interaction
• Progression from intuitive to ‘scientific’ and socially
accepted response
McLeod, S. A. (2018, June 06). Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

13. Piaget's theory of cognitive development

14. “Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to
resemble the typical adult of his society ... but for me and no
one else, education means making creators... You have to make
inventors, innovators—not conformists"
If you want to be creative, stay in
part a child, with the creativity and
invention that characterizes children
before they are deformed by adult
society“Play is the answer to how
anything new comes about.”
“Children should be able to do their own experimenting
and their own research. Teachers, of course, can guide
them by providing appropriate materials, but the
essential thing is that in order for a child to understand
something, he must construct it himself, he must re-
invent it. Every time we teach a child something, we
keep him from inventing it himself. On the other hand
that which we allow him to discover by himself will
remain with him visibly for the rest of his life.”

15. Cognitive learning
models: Bloom’s
taxonomy
Cognitive learning models:
Gardner’s multiple
intelligences

16. Metacognition
• Understanding how we learn and having strategies for learning
• Metacognitive knowledge
• Metacognitive skill
Metacognition is a subdivision of cognition, or a type of
cognition. Metacogition is defined as the scientific study of an
individual's cognitions about his or her own cognitions.

17. What do cognitivist pedagogies and
approaches look like?
What role will these play in the future
of learning?

18. Overview of learning models
Theorists Pavlov, Skinner, Watson Bloom, Piaget, Gardener Vygotsky, Bruner
Key features Based on observable changes
in behaviour and repetition until
automatic
Based on the thought process
behind the behaviour.
We each construct our own
perspective of the world
Mind Black box Develops schema: internal
knowledge structures.
Sensory register, short term
memory, long term memory
We have individual experiences
and schema
Development
of theory
Knowledge Objective, externalised view of
knowledge
Objective view of knowledge.
Schema are acquired or re-
organised to accommodate
knowledge
Subjective view of knowledge as
a construct
Learning
support
Instruction, transmission,
repetition, reinforcement,
reward
Repetition, pattern,
reinforcement
Through social, cultural and
sensory interaction
Strengths Simple, controllable. The
learner can focus on a clear
goal
Enables consistency.
Establishes routine
Creative, personal, cultural,
social. Able to apply learning in
different situations. Empathy.
Weaknesses Over simplistic, not holistic, not
like real life, learner cannot
understand anomalies
Doesn’t acknowledge socio-
cultural influences or
individuality
Can we have shared
understanding? Divergent
thinking isn’t always welcome
Behaviourist Cognitivist Constructivist
7

23. The problem with learning styles

24. Any questions?

25. Part III: Updating your Personal
Learning Network

27. #edu8213