Learning Theorists

Learning Theories People have been trying to understand the cultivation process for over 2000 years. It was discussed and ponderd at great length by the classical philosophers such as Socrates (469 399 SC), Plato (427 347 BC) and Un slewtle (384 322 BC) (Hammond et al, 2001 This debate has carried on by means of the ages and pipe down goes on today with a multitude of view evinces on the purpose of culture and how best to encourage pedagogics to stilltuate.Plato and his disciple Aristotle were Inaugural In this debate and asked if truth and companionship were to be strand inside of us, or whether they could be take heeded from outside by using our senses. Plato believed the truth would be found from inside through understandinging, deduction and egotism-reflection and so brought or so rationalism. On the separate hand Aristotle believed the truth would be found through fix and founded the thinking of empiricism and so these antithetical views were born.Aristotle approach was farthermost to a greater extent scientific comp ard to Socrates dialectic method of discovery through conversations with fellow citizens. An approach that calls for intelligence and reflection, as tools for maturation thinking, owe such to Socrates and Plato (Hammond et al, 2001 Learning possible action Is somewhat get upment as a process and how it may buzz off place. It is about how information great deal be absorbed, processed and retained and the influence that emotions, environs and mental processes can have on acquiring, augmenting and modifying knowledge and skills.Having knowledge of scholarship scheme equips teachers to best understand the multitudinous categories of learners they will encounter and the numerous strategies they can employ to establish an effective learn environment. Although the Greek philosophers be considered to be some of the earliest thinkers on attainment, it as non until the mid(prenominal) 1 asss when psychology emerged as a separate discipline that either new erudition theories emerged.The commencement ceremony of these was behaviorism, which was brought to prominence by Ivan Pavlov (1849 1936) who won the Nobel abide by in 1904 for his experiments on digestive glands for which he experimented with dogs. Behaviorism ar of the legal opinion that learners atomic number 18 passive and respond to stimuli and do not lift out in to account internal mental introduces or consciousness. Gestalts came to prominence In Ger many an(prenominal) in 1910 when at that place was social turmoil in Europe entirely had move to the US by the sasss to avoid persecution.The lead figures In this movement were Worthwhile, Kafka and Koehler who utilities a holistic approach that sought to reject the mechanistic perspectives of the behaviorists. Considered to be the first studyal psychologist, Edward Thornier continued with the behaviorism guess believing teaching was incremental and get hold ofd through a trial and error approach with B. F. Skinner, considered by many to be the father of modern behaviorism, developing this theory merely with programmed acquirement (Seaworthy et al, 2004).Behaviorism learning theory had a substantial influence in education but here was a growing body of evidence that more complex tasks requiring a higher(prenominal) level of thinking were not substantially learned this authority with Jean Pigged (1 896 ? 1 980) being the first to state that learning was a developmental cognitive process. Russian teacher take Boycotts expanded Piglets developmental theory of cognitive abilities to were some(prenominal) leaders in the cognitive approach that sees the mind as a b deficiency rap and this box should be opened and understood.This paradigm did not really take to prominence until the early sasss when it replaced behaviorism as the dominant force (Anon ND). In the sasss we excessively saw the emergence of Humanist learning theory. Some of the superio r advocates of this field were Abraham Moscow (1908 1970) and Carl Rogers (1902 1987) who believed that learning was viewed as a psycheal map to fulfill geniuss potential and that it is also necessary to study the some sensation as a whole. Humanists were the first to promote learning as being student-centered and mortalalise and that you should not teach, but facilitate, the learner (Anon ND).The sasss saw the emergence of social learning theory with its key progenitor being Albert Bandeau (1925 Present). It posits that we learn through observation, imitation and modeling and this theory is often seen as the bridge in the midst of behaviorism and cosmogonist. Although the work that edifies it spans the twentieth century, Constructivism was only mainstreamed through praxis in the latter erupt of the century. Many of the theorists that be cadaverous upon are linked with other learning ideologies these theorists include Weights, wash away and Winger, Burner and Pigged.T his theory posits that learning is an active constructive process where the learner constitutes his or her own personal representations of objective reality. They do not come a persistent as a blank slate (Seaworthy, 2004) but quite an bring along their previous(prenominal) experiences and cultural perspective. The first theorist I am going to anticipate at is Abraham Moscow who was a prominent Humanist. Early in his charge he worked with rhesus monkeys and one of the interesting things he noticed was the route that some involve took precedence over others.For example, if you were hungry and thirsty you would go to deal with the thirst first, as you can go without victuals for weeks but thirst will kill you after Just days. Moscow matte that the conditioning theories did not, to is satisfaction, capture the complexities of serviceman behavior and was of the opinion that military personnel actions were control toward goal attainment. He stated that human motivation is ba sed on people seeking fulfillment and change through personal emersion (Anon ND). In 1943 Moscow wrote a paper entitled A possible action of Human Motivation which talked about self-actualization.Moscow described a person who was carry through and doing all they were cap discipline of as being self-actualities. Before a person can achieve this state however, there are other require that first strike to be met. These needs can be seen in Mascots power structure, this is often depicted as a pyramid as shown (Moscow,1943). This hierarchy shows that the grassroots physiological needs have to be met before the higher needs can be addressed. If the physiological needs are relatively well gratified then there emerges a new grade of needs, in this case safety.When a persons physiological and safety needs are satisfied the need for love and belongingness emerges. This process continues until all the needs are fulfilled and the person can achieve self-actualization. It is important to note that Mascots received five stage del has been adapted by other researchers to create both seven and eight stage hierarchies but I am dealing with Moscow so will not go any further in to them. His needs air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep etc. Safety needs apology from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc. belongingness and love needs work group, family, affection, relationships, etc. esteem needs self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial duty, etc. self-actualization needs realizing personal potential, self- fulfillment, seeking personal crop and peak experiences. Through knowledge of Mascots hierarchy I can better understand the needs of the various(prenominal) and the impact this has on their motivation and learning.To be truly effective in its implementation I would have to cherish the needs of every learner, which could be at contrastive stages for each individual in the class. These individuals could also be in a state of conflate from one week to another. It is unrealistic to expect to comprehend all their requirements, even with a deep understanding of this theory. I believe the best utilise of this theory is to inform me of their possible state so that I world power be more homeopathic towards them and understand the issues they may have. The best way to help them work towards self-actualization is for them to be self-aware and understand their own needs.When they bring at class they will already have had a long day at work, often without enough time to eat. They will also be tired although my class is at least theory, so is slight physically demanding than their practical lessons in the workshop. I do try to take some of these things in to account and will allow them to bring food and drink in to the class if they so desire. I am able to meet heir safety needs such as security de subtractment from the elements, security, order, limits and stability. T hese needs are part of the College safeguarding policy so should perpetually be in place.If I can manage to help them feel belongingness, which I feel they do achieve, then I am also creating a more inclusive environment for them. I feel it is important to be aware of these needs to create a better learning condition for my students. A criticism I have is that Moscow made an assurance that the needs moldiness be satisfied in order, so that the basic physiological need must be satisfied before hey can achieve safety and only once safety is achieved can they go to concern themselves with belongingness and so on through the hierarchy.This is shown to be false, for example, if you were to study hulky cultures where large numbers of the population live in poverty, like India or Brazil then you see that these people can still achieve higher order needs such as love and belongingness (McLeod, 2007). jibe to Moscow this should not occur. If we were also to look at many creative people , such as artists like Rembrandt or Van Gogh, it could be argued that they achieved self-actualization save lived their lives in poverty (McLeod, 2007). I will still cod this theory even with its flaws because it is not abjectly wrong and still believe it holds a lot of truth.Another humanist that I feel bears great relevance to my stream teaching post is Malcolm Knowles (1913 1997). He was a champion for androgyny, self-direction in learning and inlump cock-a-hoop education (Smith, 2002). I will not talk about informal adult education, as it does not apply to my situation. The concept of androgyny had been in sporadic use since the sasss but it was popularized for habitude in English language by Malcolm Knowles. He believed that adults learned differently from peasantren, which caused him to enquire further. His work on informal adult education and his charting of adult education in the United education.He used androgyny to bring these elements together, which was premised o n at least four little presuppositions about the characteristics of adult learners that differed from child learners, on which traditional pedagogy is based. Later a fifth speculation was added. These were as follows self concept As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self directed human being. Experience As a person matures they accumulate a growing reservoir of experience that produces an increasing resource for learning. Readiness to learn As a person matures their readiness to learn becomes increasingly orientated to the developmental tasks of their social roles. taste to learning As a person matures their time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly their orientation toward learning shifts from of subject centeredness to one of problem centeredness. motivation to learn As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles 1 98412).Knowles has caused considerable debate with his assertions and claims of difference amid androgyny and pedagogy with useful critiques of the notion being found in Davenport (1993), Jarvis (1987) and Tenant (1996). He has taken ideas from psychologists working in two quite a different and oppose traditions, that of the humanist and the behaviorism. From the one side he has extensively used a model of relationship derived from humanistic clinical psychology, in particular drawing on the work of Carl Rogers who argued the qualities of good facilitation.He has also drawn on other elements that owe a great deal to scientific curriculum making and behavior modification. It has been suggested that because he has used ideas from two opposing traditions that there is a lack of evidence around this model. Knowles is not bear whether he has provided us with a theory or a set of readlines for practice (Heartier, 1984). The assumptions could be read as descriptions or as normative s tatements about what the adult learner should be. Tenant (1988) made a point that there was a lack of doubtfulness within a transparent and consistent conceptual framework.It seems that Knowles did not temper his insights with enough analysis and interrogation of the literature of the arena. Malcolm Knowles also introduced us to self-directed learning, which is where the individual takes the initiative to confirm their needs, resources and goals for learning and to evaluate the outcomes. There are three immediate reasons place for self-directed learning. First those who take the initiative in learning are pro-active learners and will learn better than those who wait to be taught, reactive learners.Second is that it is far more natural that as we mature we take more responsibility for our own lives and become far more self-directed. Finally the third reason is that developments in education are putting a greater vehemence on students to take the initiative for their own learning . This can also be seen as a long- experimental condition reason as the purpose of education is evolving, it is moving away from merely transmitting what is known to now developing the skills of enquiry. Knowles then put the idea of self- direction in to packaged forms of exertion and created his five step model. This involved diagnosing learning needs. Formulating learning needs. identifying human material resources for learning. Choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies. evaluating learning outcomes. There is research that indicates that adults circumstance (Smith, 2002) and I feel that this is certainly true of many of my learners. The opportunity arose within their current life circumstances to participate in the course and if there were places available they took them. If all the places had gone they may not bother to take up a learning opportunity once again, unless of course the circumstances were again in their favor.I feel that the ideas of Malcolm Knowl es are useful to guide what I ought to term my ontological approach to my earners. They are no longer children and should not be treated as such. His approach can inform me of what characteristics my learners may give so that I may better facilitate their learning and create a more inclusive environment. It could certainly be said that my students need to be self-directed as the qualification they are taking is similar to a full time course but only has part time contact hours.It requires them to do a lot a learning around the subject, being self-directed in their approach. Overall I must be critical of Knowles for his own lack of a sharp critical edge with much of his writings being more descriptive and his lack of analysis of the literature within his field. Finally, I shall examine Jean Lave and Tontine Winger (1991) who developed the theory of fit(p) learning, sometimes referred to as fixed activity. This has a central defining characteristic known as authorized peripheral participation which is not itself an educational form, much less a pedagogical strategy or a teaching technique.It is an analytical standstill on learning that makes a fundamental distinction between learning and intentional instruction. Rather the process of legitimate peripheral participation is unremarkably unintentional. Situated learning contrasts with traditional classroom learning activities where abstract knowledge is learnt out of context with intentional instruction. This approach lends itself very well to vocational courses and especially apprenticeships where much of the learning takes place in the situation where the learning will be applied. It is not dissimilar to cognitive apprenticeship.Lave and Winger (1991) with their model of situated learning proposed that learning involved a process known as communities of practice. These communities are everywhere and we are often involved in a number of them. People with a shared domain of human endeavourer can engage in a process of learning by forming communities of practice. To put it more simplistically, learning takes place through social interaction. To this end, learning in these situations does not have a beginning and an end to the process, rather we are constantly learning through experience of everyday life.Their theory can be illustrated by observation of different apprenticeships. When people ab initio Join the company they learn at the periphery, then as they become more competent they an become more involved in the processes in that particular community. Understanding this theory is very useful in my arena as when we get the students it is their initial training and they are not always involved in the industry they are training to enter. The situated learning will probably not play a big part in this initial training, but once they have gained the qualification and go out to work then they will be Joining their community of practice.Over time, through interaction with more experience d others within the industry, they will learn and become more proficient ND play a large role in their community. In this respect it could be argued that this is an important theory for all educators as ultimately we are educating our learners strong links between this and embedded learning that also takes place on vocational qualifications. I would struggle to see how this theory could be applied to more formal qualifications where much of the knowledge will often remain abstract because that is its nature.Mathematics would be an example of this it can be conceptualizes, as engineering maths for example, but is not really a subject matter o be situated. In conclusion learning theories can inform us on our learners and guide us through our teaching practice. They can be used to develop activities to bring otherwise dull subject matter to life and to create a more inclusive learning environment by applying different teaching methods based on these theories. The trouble is that the m odern teacher is seek for time, most of the time and these theories and their practice will involve some committedness for them to be implemented effectively.