Prof.Grama Irina
Cătălina,ȘcoalaGimnazialăGâdinți
In Psychology and Educational
Sciences, learning is
defined[1] as the
process that integrates cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences and
experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or making changes in one’s knowledge,
skills, and values.
Learning as a process focuses on
what happens when learning takes place. Explanations of what happens constitute
learning
theories.
A learning theory is
an attempt to describe how people learn, thus helping us understand the
inherently complex process of learning. Learning theories have
two chief values: one is to provide us with vocabulary and a conceptual
framework for interpreting the examples of learning that we observe, and the
other is to suggest where to look for solutions of practical problems. The
theories do not give us solutions, but they do direct our attention to those
variables that are crucial in finding solutions.
Learning theories can best be described as conceptual or philosophical
orientations about ways that human beings learn. These include behaviorist,
cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives.I summarized that in Tabel 1.
Behavioral learning theory views learning as a response to stimuli in the
environment; the student is a creature
of habit who can be manipulated, observed, and described[2],[3],[4]. Behaviorist influences in second language teaching
can be observed in methods such as the audio-lingual approach and situational
language teaching.
|
Learning
theory
|
Origination
|
Definitions and instructional
implications
|
|
Behaviorist
|
US c. 1914;
influenced
by European
empiricism
|
|
|
Cognitive
|
1950s to
Present
|
|
|
Sociocultural
|
1970s to
Present
|
Table 1. Overview of Learning
Theories and Teaching Implications
Behaviorism was primarily developed
by B. F. Skinner. It
includes the work of Thorndike, Guthrie, or Hull. Essentially, three basic
assumptions are held to be true: learning is manifested by a change in
behaviour, the environment shapes behaviour, and the principles of contiguity
(how close in time two events must be for a bond to be formed) and
reinforcement (any means of increasing the likelihood that an event will be
repeated) are central to explaining the learning process. For behaviorism,
learning is the acquisition of new behaviour through conditioning. There are
two types of possible conditioning: classical conditioning (where the behavior
becomes a reflex response to stimulus) and operant conditioning (where
antecedents follow a behavior which leads to a consequence such as a
punishment, or reward). The first one
works like a reflex response to stimulus, but the second works like something
that is learnt, as a lesson, and the consequences are already known-if you do
that ,you will get that-a punishment or a reward.
Cognitive learning theories attempt to explain deeper, complex
psychological phenomena such as motivation, schemas, and other processes for
learning. This orientation can be described as comprising two branches,
developmental cognitive learning, from the work of Piaget (1974)[11], and socio-constructivist, based on the work of
Vygotsky (1978)[12] and Bruner (1996)[13]. Developmental approaches propose that learning
occurs in stages and follows a sequence, whereas socio-constructivist
approaches propose that development
occurs because of learning and because it is scaffolded (Bruner, 1996) or supported through interaction of some
kind. The knowledge and the meaning in this case are generated through
sequential cognitive abilities. First he or she recognizes, then recollects,
analyses, reflects, applies, creates, understands and in the end evaluates. To
develop prior knowledge and to integrate the new knowledge, the students
need assistance, and the teacher’s role is to manage
the content of the learning activities.
Constructivism is based on psychological studies of cognitive
development of Jean Piaget and Jerome
Bruner, and it emphasizes the importance of the active involvement of students
in constructing knowledge for themselves, and building new ideas or concepts
based upon current knowledge and past experience.
Constructivism tries to justify how knowledge is constructed in the human being when information comes into contact with existing knowledge that had been developed by experiences. Constructivism has implications for the theory of instruction. Discovery, experiential, project-based, collaborative, and task-based learning are a number of applications that focus teaching and learning on constructivism.
The learning theories of John Dewey and Maria Montessori serve as the foundation
of constructivist learning theory.
Active learning, discovery
learning, and knowledge building are three varieties of it, but all
versions promote, within a given framework, student’s free exploration. The
teacher is a facilitator who encourages students to discover principles for
themselves and to form knowledge by working to solve practical problems.
Sociocultural views of learning, which build upon constructivist
approaches, are often linked together in the psychological and pedagogic
literature, and they include the premise that second language teaching and
learning take place within the social interactions of students
and more capable others and seek to understand the
cultural and historical influences on learning[14],[15],[16]. A sociocultural theory of learning begins with the assumption that action is
mediated and that it cannot be separated from the social milieu in which it is
carried out[17]. I summarized the basic tenets of sociocultural
theory in Table 2 .
|
v Learning precedes development.
|
|
v Language is the main vehicle (tool) of thought.
|
|
v Mediation is a central concept of learning.
|
|
v Social interaction is the basis of learning and development.
Internalization is a process that transforms learning from the social to the
cognitive (individual) plane.
|
|
v The Zone of Proximal Development is the primary activity space in which
learning takes place.
|
Table 2. Tenets
of Sociocultural Theory
Informal and post – modern theories
In theories
that make use of cognitive
restructuring, an informal curriculum promotes the use of prior knowledge to
help students gain a broad understanding of concepts. New knowledge cannot be
told to students, it believes, but rather the students’ current knowledge must
be challenged. By using this method students gain the broad understanding they
are taught and later are more willing to learn and keep the specifics of the
concept or theory.
Other informal learning theories look at the
sources of motivation for learning. Intrinsic
motivation may create a more
self-regulated student, yet schools undermine intrinsic motivation. Critics
argue that the average student learning in isolation performs significantly
less well than those learning with collaboration and mediation. Students learn
through talk, discussion, and argumentation.
[1]Ormrod, J. E., Educational Psychology: Principles and
Applications, Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1995.
[2]Brown, H. D., Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, 3rd
edition.Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents, 1994.
[3]Gass, M. S., Selinker, L., Second Language Acquisition, Millsdale Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
Inc., 1994.
[4]Skinner, B.F., Verbal Behaviour, Copley Publishing Group, 1957.
[5]Watson, J.B., Psychology – From the Standpoint of a Behaviorist, , J. B.
Lippincott, Philadelphia and London, 1919.
[6]Skinner, B.F., TheBehaviour of Organisms, D. Appleton
– Century Co. New York- London, 1938.
[7]Bruner, J., The
Culture of Education, HarvardUniversity Press, Cambridge, MA,
1996.
[8]Piaget, J., The
Grasp of Consciousness (trans. S. Wedgood), HarvardUniversity Press, Cambridge, MA, 1974.
[9]Vygotsky, L.S., Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes,
HarvardUniversity
Press, Cambridge, MA,1978.
[10]Wertsch, J.V., Voices of Mind – A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action,Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991.
[11]Piaget, J., The
Grasp of Consciousness (trans. S. Wedgood), HarvardUniversity Press, Cambridge, MA,
1974.
[12]Vygotsky, L.S., Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes,
HarvardUniversity
Press, Cambridge, MA, 1978.
[13]Bruner, J., The
Culture of Education, HarvardUniversity Press, Cambridge, MA,
1996.
[14]Faltis, J. C., Hudelson, S. J., Bilingual Education in Elementary and
Secondary School Communities: Toward Understanding and Caring, Boston-Allyn
and Boston,
1998.
[15]Lave, J., Wenger, E., Situated Learning. Legitimate Peripheral Participation,CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge ,1991.
[16]Wertsch, J.V., Voices of Mind – A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge,MA, 1991.
[17]Idem, p. 18.
