Content specificity of modules

of programs of foreign language

profile training of a profile
school
Learning theories
• Problem question
After the presentation of the lecture, decide
which theory is the most efficient for the senior
stage of the secondary school.
• Behaviorism, as a perspective in education, is based on
a change in knowledge through controlled
stimulus/response conditioning. The instructor must
demonstrate factual knowledge, then observe,
measure, and modify behavioral changes in specified
direction. This type of learning is a rote memorization
of facts, rules, laws, and terminology. The correct
response is achieved through stimulation of senses..
This learning goal is the lowest order learning: factual
knowledge, skill development, and training.
• Skinner’s key point is the need of immediate
reinforcement to strengthen behavior. According to
Skinner, organisms learn by making changes in their
environments.
• Skinner was influenced by experimental
Psychologist Edward Thorndike, whose Law of
Effect argued that the consequences of a
behavior will either strengthen or weaken that
behavior. Skinner’s theory of operant
conditioning emphasized the study of
observable behavior, environmental
conditions and the process by which
environmental events and circumstance
determine behavior. Operant Conditioning –
the changing of a behavior by manipulating its
consequences.
• Miller and Dollard (1941) developed a
complex and wide ranging approach to
understanding the relation between learning
and personality based on drives, behaviors
and reinforcement. They said that in order to
learn , one must “want something”, notice
something, do something and get something.
• According to Miller and Dollard, the
connection between stimulus and response is
called a habit; therefore, what we call
personality is primarily made up habits, and
the relations among various habits.
• Cognitivism. In many cases, the cognitively
oriented theories of personality were outgrowths
of prior theories that were mare directly
cognitive. Kurt Lewin took the Gestalt
approaches, which had previously been applied
chiefly to perception and problem solving, and
developed it into his field theory of personality.
People who are more field dependent are
influenced by the surrounding context in their
perception and problem solving. This sensitivity
to context leads a field- dependent person to
respond more holistically and intuitively, in
contrast to the more analytical and abstract
responses of the field- independent person.
• George Kelly developed the personal construct
whose fundamental postulate is that «a person‘s
processes are psychologically channeled by the
ways in which he anticipates events» Kelly‘s
theorizing was especially focused on the domain
of interpersonal relationships. Kelly proposed
that we each have a unique system of constructs
that we use to understand and predict behavior
(both our own and that of others). Kelly’s Role
Construct Repertory Test results in a set of
constructs that reflects the hierarchy of
dimensions that the examinee believes are
important in understanding and predicting
behavior.
• Bandura’s social – cognitive learning theory can
be seen as an application and refinement of the
classical learning theory that dominated
psychology for much of the twentieth century.
Bandura drew attention to observational
learning. In Bandura’s theory, the individual
internal process of goals planning, and self –
reinforcement result in the self-regulation of
behavior.
• The way that people interpret their environments
is seen as central to their humanness, and the
ways in which people differ from one another in
how they do this are seen as central to their
individuality.
• Cognitivism, as a perspective in education, has a
premise that humans generate knowledge and
meaning through development of an individual’s
cognitive abilities, such as the mental processes
of recognize, recall, analyze, reflect, apply, create,
understand, and evaluate.
• The learner requires assistance to develop prior
knowledge and integrate new knowledge.
• The educators' role is pedagogical in that the
instructor must develop conceptual knowledge
by managing the content of learning activities.
This theory relates to early stages of learning
where the learner solves well defined problems
through a series of stages.
• Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
sequenced learning according to infancy [age 0-2:
sensor motor], preschool [age 2-7:
preoperational], childhood [age 7-11: concrete
operational] and adolescence [age 11+: formal
operational].
• According to Piaget, the ability to learn a concept
is related to a child’s stage of intellectual
development. Through a series of stages, Piaget
explains the ways in which characteristics are
constructed that lead to specific types of
thinking.
• Lev Vygotsky in his book Thought and Language, asserts that
thought development in children dependents upon language
development. Vygotsky’s ZPD demonstrates the need for the
guidance and assistance of adults or more-skilled children. A child's
unsystematic, disorganized, and spontaneous concepts are met
with the more systematic, logical and rational concepts of the
instructor during play. Vygotsky uses ZPD as a tool to explain the
relationship between a child's learning and their cognitive
development. Through the assistance of an instructor, the child is
able to learn skills or aspects of a skill that go beyond the child’s
actual maturational level.
• Vygotsky holds that language is fundamental to a child's cognitive
growth. Children are able to communicate and to learn from others
through dialogue; therefore, high quality verbal scaffolding aids
children's cognitive development. This focus on scaffolded early
learning and sequential development of mental processes defines
the Cognitivists' learning theory.
Jerome Bruner believed that the goal of education
is intellectual development. His theory has four
components: 1) curiosity and uncertainty, 2)
structure of knowledge, 3) sequencing, and 4)
motivation. He recommends that instructors
create learning environments that allow students
to interact with their environment, connect to
prior knowledge, and express the experience
either verbally or mathematically. In his book,
The Relevance of Education, Bruner applies his
theory to infant development.
• Humanism, as a perspective in education, is
based on human generation of knowledge,
meaning, and expertise through interpersonal
intelligence. Acquisition, development, and
integration of knowledge occur through strategy,
personal interpretation, evaluation, reasoning,
and decision-making. The learning goal is to
become self-actualized with intrinsic motivation
toward accomplishment. This learner is able to
adapt prior knowledge to new experience.
• The educator’s role in humanistic learning is to
encourage and enable the learner by providing
access to appropriate resources without
interference.
• Carl Rogers’ exploration of student-centered teaching emphasizes
relationships, which is consistent with the definition of a Humanist.
Person-centered significant learning, as developed by Carl Rogers,
addresses the learner’s intellect, social skills, and feelings or
intuitions. Roger’s writes, “Significant learning combines the logical
and the intuitive, the intellect and the feelings, the concept and the
experience, the idea and the meaning; when we learn in that way,
we are whole.”
• Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of Human Needs (1954) sets forth the
premise that the highest levels of achievement require a learner to
have a foundation for learning where survival needs; safety/security
needs, love/happiness needs, and self-esteem needs are realized.
As with other humanists, Maslow pays close attention to the
interpersonal and the intrapersonal awareness necessary to bolster
individual learning abilities.[
• William Glasser’s ideas focus on personal choice,
personal responsibility, and personal transformation.
Glasser maintains that people need a sense of
belonging, freedom, power, and fun to enable them to
make good personal choices, take responsibility for
their own actions, and make needed personal
transformations (1996).
• Glasser sets forth four categories of quality education
required to fulfill higher order human needs: 1)
success/worth, 2) fun/enjoyment, 3) freedom/choice,
and 4) belonging/respect/love (1984). A child’s quest
to satisfy these needs forms the basis for the
development of their multiple intelligences and life-
long learning.
• Constructivism is a theory of knowledge explaining it as
being developed in the human being when information
comes into contact with existing knowledge that had been
generated from previous experiences. It has roots in
cognitive psychology and biology and an approach to
education that lays emphasis on the ways knowledge is
created while exploring the world. Knowledge is meaning
we make from experience, transforming our world from
chaos to order. Ernst von Glasersfeld describes
constructivism as “a theory of knowledge with roots in
philosophy, psychology, and cybernetics”.
• Constructivism has implications for pedagogy or the theory
of education. Discovery, hands-on, experiential,
collaborative, project-based, and task-based learning are a
number of applications that base teaching and learning on
constructivism.
 References
• Zhou, Molly and Brown, David, "Educational
Learning Theories: 2nd Edition" (2015).
Education Open Textbooks. 1.
https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/education-
textbooks/1
• Learning Theories: An Educational
Perspective (6th Edition) 6th Edition
• by Dale H. Schunk (Author)