2. Contents
Leading questions:
• What proverbs and metaphors have been used
for describing learning?
• Which learning theories are behind these
proverbs and metaphors?
• How are learning theories related with
instructional designs?
3. Estonian proverbs about learning
• Kes õpib, see ka teab. – Who will study that
will know.
• Tarkust ei saa kulbiga päha tõsta. _You cannot
put wisdom into the head with the ladle.
• Harjutamine teeb meistriks. – Practicing makes
you a master.
• Töö õpetab tegijat. – Work teaches the doer.
• Töö õpetab iseennast. – Labour teaches itself.
4. Estonian proverbs about learning
• Ela õppimise tarvis ja õpi elamise tarvis. –
Live for learning and learn for living.
• Inimene õpib hällist kunni hauani. – Man
learns from cradle to the tomb.
• Mida Juku ei õpi, seda Juhan ei tea. – What
Juku does not learn, Juhan will not know.
5. Some metaphors about learning
• Planting flowers - A seed is planted in my mind
which I nurture with water and sun in the faith that it
will sprout and grow.
• Being a detective - It's all about uncovering the
facts, looking for clues and asking the right questions
until the whole mystery makes sense.
• A quest - I'm searching for that illusive something
and every step I take brings me closer to what I need
to know, but I never get there ... it's a continuous
journey.
6. Discussing proverbs and
metaphors of learning
• Think of one proverb from your country, that
describes Learning.
• What is your leading metaphor for learning?
• Write each of them on the paper clips.
• We will organize them according to the
learning theories later on.
7. Learning theories – why and
how we learn?
• Learning theory is the set of principles about
learning:
– consisting of the descriptions what initiates learning
– how learning process proceeds,
– and what is the result of learning (Driscoll, 1994).
• Learning theories describe the essence of learning and
predict the results of learning.
But…
• Learning theories are general and give few concrete
guidelines how to implement these in certain
situations.
8. Behavioural learning
Harjutamine teeb meistriks. – Practicing makes you a master.
Töö õpetab tegijat. – Work teaches the doer.
Töö õpetab iseennast. – Labour teaches itself.
9. “Black box” metaphor
Skinner (1950) introduced behavioural learning theory:
“A science of behavior must eventually deal with
behavior in its relation to certain manipulable
variables.
10. Principles of behaviourism
‘conditioning reflex’
Pavlov provided the basis of
behaviourism highlighting the
importance of stimulus for
learning.
Neutral Stimulus (NS) => No
Response (NR)
NS + Unconditioned Stimulus
(UCS) => Unconditioned
Response (UCR)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) =>
Conditioned Response (CR)
Pavlov dog
11. Principles of behavioural
Skinner, 1950:
learning
1. Behaviour that is positively
reinforced will reoccur;
intermittent reinforcement is
particularly effective
2. Information should be
presented in small amounts so that
responses can be reinforced
("shaping")
3. Reinforcements will generalize
across similar stimuli ("stimulus
generalization") producing
secondary conditioning Skinner box
12. “Response
strenghtening”metaphor
1900-1950 Learning as response strenghtening
Teacher gives
punishment and
rewards, student
reacts with teacher
defined behaviour
Drill, tutorial, assessment test centered learning
13. General educational implications
of behaviorism
Emphasis on behavior: students should be active
respondents…
…people are most likely to learn when they actually
have a chance to behave.
Student learning must be evaluated…
…only measurable behavior changes can confirm
that learning has taken place.
14. Drill and practice
• Repetition of stimulus-response habits strengthens those
habits.
• …Promotes the acquisition of knowledge or skill through
repetitive practice.
• …Refers to small tasks such as the memorization of spelling or
vocabulary words, or the practicing of arithmetic facts and may
also be found in more complex learning tasks or physical
education games and sports.
• …Involves repetition of specific skills.
• To be meaningful to learners, the skills built through drill-and-
practice should become the building blocks for more meaningful
learning.
• Drills are usually repetitive and are used as a reinforcement tool.
15. Proverbs about behavioral
learning
• Harjutamine teeb meistriks. – Practicing makes
you a master.
• Töö õpetab tegijat. – Work teaches the doer.
• Töö õpetab iseennast. – Labour teaches itself.
• Which of your proverbs and metaphors are
associated with behavourism?
16. Advantages of drill programs
• personalized
• help learners master DRILL program ABC
materials at their own pace • recognition of the type of
skill being developed
• mainly for the beginning
learner • use of appropriate
strategies to develop
• for students who are competencies
experiencing learning • use of games to increase
problems motivation
• interactive nature • provide feedback to
students
17. Cognitive learning
Kes õpib, see ka teab. – Who will
study that will know.
Tarkust ei saa kulbiga päha tõsta. -
You cannot put wisdom into the head
with the ladle.
18. “Information processing”
metaphor
1960-1970 learning as information processing
(Mayer,1996).
Teacher is transmissing
knowledge, students are
receivers of knowledge
Textbooks and other content management systems.
19. “Knowledge acquisition”
metaphorAnna Sfard 1998
• According to the “knowledge-acquisition” metaphor
learning is the construction of well-organised knowledge
structures that provide students with the means of
interacting with the important aspects of the problem
situations.
• Acquiring scientific knowledge takes place through
conceptual change where intuitive knowledge is
replaced/modified with scientifically correct knowledge.
• “Knowledge acquisition” metaphor
is based on the idea that our brain
is a container
and the learning process is filling
this container (Bereiter, 2002).
20. “Brain as the computer” metaphor
Computer has information inputs and action outputs
similarly as we receive signals from the environment
with our sensory organs and react with behavours that
emerge in response to the outside signals
Information is recorded, decoded and processed both
inside the computer and the brain, this processing
provides the output behaviours. information
reaction
23. “Cognitive load” theory
• Provides guidelines to assist in the presentation of
information in such a way that helps learners to
optimize their intellectual performance.
• Is based on the assumptions of:
– an effectively unlimited longterm memory and
– a limited working memory
(e.g., Baddeley, 1986),
• Aims at designing
instructions that do
not overburden the
learners’ cognitive
capabilities.
24. Proverbs about cognitivel learning
• Kes õpib, see ka teab. – Who will study that
will know.
• Tarkust ei saa kulbiga päha tõsta. - You cannot
put wisdom into the head with the ladle.
• Which of your proverbs and metaphors are
associated with behavourism?
25. Constructivist and social-
constructivist learning
Ela õppimise tarvis ja õpi elamise tarvis. – Live for
learning and learn for living.
Mida Juku ei õpi, seda Juhan ei tea. – What Juku does not
learn, Juhan will not know.
26. “Knowledge construction” metaphor
1980-1990 learning as knowledge construction (Mayer,
1996).
guided inquiry
discussions
Student is constructing knowledge on the
basis of earlier knowledge in real situations,
teacher is guiding the learning process
27. “Discovery” metaphor
• Discovery learning
is based on the "Aha!“
method.
• Dewey wrote: "There is an intimate and necessary
relation between the processes of actual experience
and education".
• Bruner believed that students learn best by discovery
and that the learner is a problem solver who interacts
with the environment testing hypotheses and
developing generalizations.
28. “Experiental learning”
metaphor
• The foundation of learning is experience.
• Learning is the transformation of our experiences
into knowledge, skills, attitudes, values
• Reflection
helps to transform
the experiences.
(Kolb)
30. “Anchoring” metaphor
• Anchored instruction is a major paradigm for
technology-based learning that has been
developed by the Cognition & Technology Group
at Vanderbilt (CTGV) under the leadership of
John Bransford.
KNOWLEDGE
• Learning and teaching activities should be
designed around an 'anchor' which
should be some sort of case-study
or problem situation.
Adventures of Jasper Woodbury
http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/projects/funded/jasper/preview/AdvJW.html
31. “Knowledge building” metaphor
Scardamalia and Bereiter (1994)
• Knowledge building refers to collective work for
the advancement and elaboration of conceptual
artifacts (product plans, business strategies,
marketing plans, theories, ideas, and models) (the
world of cultural knowledge).
• An important aspect of Bereiter’s theory is to
make a conceptual distinction between learning,
which operates in the realm of mental states
(Popper’s World 2), and knowledge building,
which operates in the realm of theories and
ideas (Popper’s World 3).
Knowledge Forum (KF, see www.learn.motion.com)
32. “Negotiations” metaphor
Since 1990…
The social-constructive learning has been illustrated with
the “negotiations” metaphor (Mayer,1996).
According to this metaphor
knowledge is always built
in the dialogue where the actors
create shared knowledge of each
others’knowledge, that enables
shared activity and supports
individual knowledge creation.
33. Community role in learning
• The development of content alone does not lead to
more effective learning and there is the need to
structure and foster learning environments to enable
communities to develop.
• Learning happens through mediating artefacts
within a framework of activity within a wider
socio-cultural context of the rules of the
community.
34. “Participation” metaphor
• Social-constructivist learning has been illustrated
with the participation metaphor (Sfard, 1998) that
suggests that all learners are part of communities
of practice that have certain common knowledge
and skills (Lave ja Wenger).
• Learning in the communities of practice is directed
from the older members of the
community towards the new
members who as a result of
learning move from the
peripherial areas of the system
towards the core of the
community and become themselves
the experts who can transfer the
community practice.
35. “Communities of Practice”
Raub, S. (2002). Communities of Practice: A New Challenge for Human
Resources Management, Research and Practice in Human Resource
Management, 10(2), 16-35.
36. Knowledge is “embedded in
Engeström, 1999
practices”
• Human beings do not live in a vacuum but are embedded
in their sociocultural context, and that their behavior
cannot be understood independently of that context.
• Human activity is mediated through the conceptual
and material cultural artifacts people use.
• The participants focus on reconceptualizing their own
activity system in relation to their shared objects of
activity, both the objects and the existing scripts are
reconceptualized; the activity system is transformed; and
new motives and objects for the activity system are
created.
• Knowledge is always embedded in practices, in
contrast to the mentalistic tradition of “knowledge in the
head”.
37. “Innovative learning”
• Innovative learning and knowledge advancement are
characterized as cyclical and iterative processes, which
have several implications.
• Knowledge creation often requires sustained periods of
time and is not correctly described by traditional narratives
of heroic individuals making ingenious discoveries through
sudden moments of insight.
• Moreover, knowledge creation is not linear (Engeström,
1987) but a process of ambiguity and “creative
chaos” (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995), involving the sense of
progress.
• Knowledge creation does not start from scratch but is a
process of transforming and developing— sometimes
in a radical way— existing ideas and practices.
Hakkarainen et al., 2004
39. Principles of social-constructivist
learning environment
• Learners build their own mental structures by
interacting with the real environment.
• Learners have access to resources and expertise and
they can sequence the learning activity according to
their own needs.
• This enables to develop more engaging and student-
centered, active and authentic learning environments.
• Toolkits and other support systems guide and inform
users through a process of activities.
(Duffy and Jonassen)
40. Principles of social-constructivist
learning environments
• Learning takes place in communication acts where
the information is transmissed, processed,
recombinated, contrasted in problem-solving
situations.
• The cognition is always distributed, this leads to
the construction of shared knowledge between
individuals and the surrounded information-rich
environment of resources and relationships.
41. Complexity of thinking operations
Social-constructivist learning
intergrated knowledge Cases and problems
Complex skills and
shared knoweledge
construction and expertise
inquiry and decision-making
Cognitive learning
e-content,
drill program or tutorial
assesment test
Basic skills
knowledge
Behavioural learning
conditioning transmissing constructing
Teaching paradigm
42. Self-directed and lifelong and
networked learning in digital
open ecosystems
• Inimene õpib hällist kunni hauani. – Man
learns from cradle to the tomb.
43. “Self-directing” metaphor
• ’Self-directed learning’ describes a process
by which individuals take the initiative,
with our without the assistance of others, in
diagnosing their learning needs, formulating
learning goals, identify human and material
resources for learning, choosing and
implement appropriate learning strategies,
and evaluating learning outcomes.
(Knowles, 1972)“
44. “Connectivist knowledge”
metaphor
• A property of one entity must lead to or become a
property of another entity in order for them to be
considered connected; the knowledge that results
from such connections is connective knowledge. The
act of learning is one of creating an external
network of nodes – where we connect and form
information and knowledge sources.
• The pipe is more important than the content in the
pipe. ‘Know where’ and ‘know who’ are more
important today that ‘knowing what’ and
‘how’ (Siemens, 2006).
45. “Free-floating” metaphor
by Steven Weinberg
Constructivism has been illustrated by using the “free floating”
metaphor that emphasises that the rules to construct individual
knowledge as well as the paths of learning are unpredictable in
advance.
The “free-floating” idea
has recently been used in elearning
to describe the knowledge-
management: “this is the
beast that is combining
the e-learning practices with the free-floating knowledge created and
shared by learning organisations during their activities (Barron, 2000)”
46. “Rhizomic” metaphor
• Rhizomic metaphor describes the endless connections in the
structure of knowledge, culture, language, and thinking that
is common to social-constructivist learning.
• Differently from the roots of the
tree that serve as the controlling
spot for the whole tree, the
rhizome has many
connection-points, it has no
starting- or endingpoint, it is an
intermediate being, always in
between two spots, describing
the alliance, the connection with
the idea: ..more..and more..and more…
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari: "Rhizome" (1976), “A Thousand Plateaus” (1980)
47. Ecosystem metaphor and adaptive
learning
• Learning in open learning ecosystems is the
process in which learner and the system
(community, culture) detects and corrects
errors in order to fit and be responsive.
accumulation
Knowledge, Learning niche
ideas, PLE- for a
configurations community/
and learning culture
approaches NETWORK OF LEARNERS
LEARNER
adaptation
48. “Ubiquitous learning”
metaphor
Mobile learning has
ubiquitous ("anytime,
anywhere“) nature.
Ubiquity is the ability to be present everywhere or at
several places at once. The term is derived from Latin ubique
which means everywhere. Wikipedia
50. Individual in digital ecosystem
ADAPTING TO THE COMMUNITY NICHE
DIRECT PATHS TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS
COMMUNITY
AND KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE NETWORK SOCIAL NETWORK
SEMANTIC NAVIGATION COMMUNITY BROWSING
NAVIGATING IN NICHE SWARMING
MASHING
REMIXING
CO-CREATING
PARTICIPATORY SURVEILLANCE
SOCIAL NAVIGATION
INTEROPERABLE TOOLS SOFTWARE 2
SOFTWARE 1
PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Pata, 2010
51. Principles of learning technologies
in open digital ecosystems
• facilitating learning as a process of navigating, growing and
pruning connections and interactions within distributed
networks, and generating coherence, resonance and
synchronization in knowledge (Siemens, 2012).
• engaging self-directed and self-organized learners and
leading practitioners in the field
• fostering open enrollment, open curriculum, open and
partially learner-defined learning goals and -outcomes, the
usage of open resources and open learning environment, and
the enabled open monitoring of learning activities (Kop,
2011)
52. Changes in the focus of learning
technologies
1975 1985 1990 2005
Being embodied into self-
Acquiring knowledge Reconstructing knowledge organizing knowledge
De-contextualized knowledge Learning in authentic context ecosystem
Other-directed learning Self-directed learning
Memorizing alone Constructing socially Adapting to the community
Drill programs and tutorials Forums, Personal learning environments
learning management systems Personal networks
Communities
Authentic simulations Virtual worlds
Predetermined closed learning environment Self-organizing open learning environment
Institutionally owned Public