Learning Technology for Teacher

HOW PEOPLE LEARN

Dr. Muhammad Anwer

 Learning Theories
Q: How do people learn?

A: Nobody really knows

But there are 2 main categories of thoughts

1. PHILOSOPHY-BASED LEARNING THEORIES

2. PSYCHOLOGY-BASED LEARNING THEORIES

1 PHILOSOPHY-BASED LEARNING THEORY

•People have been trying to understand

learning for over 2000 years.

•Learning theorists have carried out a debate

on how people learn that began at least as far
back as the Greek philosophers,

Socrates (469 –399 B.C.)

Plato (427 – 347 B.C.)
Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C).
PHILOSOPHY-BASED LEARNING THEORY
Greek philosophers
Plato and Aristotle, were early entrants into the debate about how
people learn

Plato (rationalist) developed the belief that knowledge and truth can be
discovered by self-reflection, reality has an intrinsically logical structure

Aristotle
.
(empiricist) used his senses to look for truth and knowledge in
the world outside of him. He developed a scientific method of gathering
data to study the world around him

Socrates developed the dialectic method of discovering truth through

conversations with fellow citizens
 PHILOSOPHY-BASED LEARNING THEORY
Roman Era (500 to 1500 A.D)
The Romans emphasized education as vocational training, rather than as
training of the mind for the discovery of truth.

Roman Catholic Church became a strong force (500 to 1500 A.D)

learning took place through the church, monasteries and
school system, which included the universities (12th century)
the Church built throughout Europe

Learning was the memorization and recitation.

Knowledge was transmitted from the priest to the people.
The primary conception of the purpose of education was
transmission-based
 PHILOSOPHY-BASED LEARNING THEORY
(15th to the 17th centuries)
The Renaissance (15th to the 17th centuries) revived the
Greek concept of liberal education, which stressed
education as an exploration of the arts and humanities.

The notions of individual inquiry and discovery as bases for

learning were reinforced in the Renaissance

Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) revived the Platonic concept of

innate knowledge. Descartes believed that ideas existed within
human beings prior to experience. He was one of the first to define
precisely the ability of the environment and the mind to influence
and initiate behavior
 PHILOSOPHY-BASED LEARNING THEORY

• John Locke (1632 - 1704) revived Aristotle’s empiricism

with the concept that the mind is a blank tablet (tabula rasa)
that gets shaped and formed by his/her own experiences.

mind gathers data through the senses and creates

simple ideas from experience

• Kant (1724 – 1804) refined and modernized Plato’s

rationalist theory with his suggestion that “a priori”
knowledge was knowledge that was present before
experience.
2. PSYCHOLOGY-BASED LEARNING THEORY
Learning Theories

 Behaviorism

 Cognitive learning theory

 Social learning theory

 Constructivism
 Behaviorism?

Environment has a direct influence on behavior.

By manipulating the environment, learning can be

enhanced through behavior modification.

This means that behavior is measured, seen to be

appropriate or inappropriate and accordingly
changed or reinforced.
 Behaviorism
Focuses solely on observable behaviors
Learning is context-independent
 Classical Conditioning

A stimulus is presented
in order to get a response:

S R
Behaviorism
 Operant Conditioning - Skinner

The response is made first,

then reinforcement, reward
or punishment follows.
For Learners
 Rewards and
punishments

 Responsibility for
student learning
rests squarely with
the teacher

 Lecture-based,
highly structured
 Cognitivism
 Cognitive Domain

 Information Processing Model

 Knowledge is stored cognitively as symbols

 Learning is the process of connecting symbols in

a meaningful & memorable way

 Studies focused on the mental processes that

facilitate symbol connection
 Cognitive Learning Theory

 Discovery Learning

1. Bruner said anybody can learn anything at

any age, provided it is stated in terms
they can understand.
2. Confront the learner with problems and help
them find solutions. Do not present
sequenced materials
Cognitive Learning Theory
 Meaningful Verbal Learning

New material is
presented in a
systematic way, and
is connected to
existing cognitive
structures in a
meaningful way.
For Learners

 Inquiry-oriented projects

 Opportunities for the

testing of hypotheses

 Curiosity encouraged

 Staged scaffolding
Social Learning Theory

People learn from one another, via observation,

imitation, and modeling. The theory has often
been called a bridge between behaviorist and
cognitive learning theories because it
encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.
 Social Learning Theory
Attention — various factors increase or decrease the amount of
attention paid. One’s characteristics (e.g. sensory capacities,
arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement) affect
attention.

Retention — remembering what you paid attention to. Includes

symbolic coding, mental images, cognitive organization,
symbolic rehearsal, motor rehearsal

Reproduction — reproducing the image. Including physical

capabilities, and self-observation of reproduction.

Motivation — having a good reason to imitate. Includes motives

such as past (i.e. traditional behaviorism), promised (imagined
incentives) and vicarious (seeing and recalling the reinforced
model)
For Learners

• Collaborative learning
and group work

• Modeling responses
and expectations

• Opportunities to
observe experts in
action
 Constructivism
 Is an approach to learning based on the premise that
cognition is the result of "mental construction". In other
words, students learn by fitting new information together
with what they already know.

 Constructivists believe that learning is affected by the

context in which an idea is taught as well as by students'
beliefs and attitudes.

 The learner actively imposes organization and meaning

on the surrounding environment and constructs
knowledge in the process.
Constructivism
• Grew out of and in response to Cognitivism, framed
around metacognition
• Knowledge is actively constructed

• Piaget
• Genetic Epistemology

• Lev Vygotsky
– Social Learning
• Tools, Language
• Zone of Proximal Development
• Scaffolding
For Learners

 Journaling

 Experiential activities

 Personal focus

 Collaborative &
cooperative learning