Unit II Learning Theories PDF

MIDW 485/NURS 413: PRINCIPLES, THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF NURSE/ MIDWIFERY EDUCATION  UNIT 2: LEARNING THEORIES 10/11/2024 2  UNIT TWO: Theories of Learning Section 1: Behaviourism Theory Section 2: Cognitivism Theory Section 3: Constructivism Theory...

MIDW 485/NURS 413: PRINCIPLES, THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF NURSE/ MIDWIFERY EDUCATION  UNIT 2: LEARNING THEORIES 10/11/2024 2  UNIT TWO: Theories of Learning Section 1: Behaviourism Theory Section 2: Cognitivism Theory Section 3: Constructivism Theory Section 4: Humanistic Theory Section 5: Social learning theory Section 6: Individual Psychological Differences 10/11/2024 3  Introduction Different people have different ideas regarding what learning is and how people learn. Educational psychologists have viewed learning from different points and their findings in explaining the learning process have led to different theories. 10/11/2024 4  Introduction These theories are used as a guide in the teaching- learning process Theories of learning are the framework of the structure and principles that pay attention to the description and explanation of the people's learning. 10/11/2024 5  Introduction Learning theories deals with principles that explains how people acquire, organize and recall knowledge and skills Understanding learning theories, we can better understand how learning occurs. 10/11/2024 6  Introduction Principles of the theories can be used as a guide in selecting: Instructional tools Techniques and strategies that promote learning 10/11/2024 7  TOWARDS A DEFINITION Learning can be defined as: “A persisting change in human performance or performance potential... (brought) about as a result of the learner’s interaction with the environment” (Driscoll, 1994). “The relatively permanent change in a person’s knowledge or behavior due to experience” (Mayer, 1982). 10/11/2024 8  TOWARDS A DEFINITION Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. 10/11/2024 9  Learning theories Five main theories of learning will be discussed. They are: Behaviourism Cognitivism Constructivism Humanistic Social learning theory 10/11/2024 11  Behaviourism THEORY Proponents: Watson, Pavlov, Skinner - Learning is the acquisition of new behaviour through conditioning - This learnt behaviour must be observable Two types of conditioning: 1. Classical conditioning (By Ivan Pavlov) 2. Operant conditioning (B.F Skinner) 10/11/2024 12  Assumptions 1. The environment influences behaviour. Behaviourists believe that people's behaviours are a result of their interaction with the environment People become conditioned or molded to respond in certain ways based on responses like feedback, praise and rewards. 2. Learning is described through stimuli and responses. Behaviourists focus on observable events rather than events that occur inside a person's head, such as thoughts, feelings and beliefs. 10/11/2024 13  Assumptions 3. Learning must involve a behavioural change Theorists believe that learning has not occurred unless there is an observable change in behaviour. 4. Learning must result when stimulus and response occur close together in time. Learners must associate their response with a stimulus. In order for that to occur, the two must happen in conjunction with each other, or simultaneously. 10/11/2024 14  Classical conditioning Proponent: Ivan Pavlov Principle: Association/pairing ✓ Was involved in the stimulus-response theory of learning ✓ Pavlov carried out a study about digestion of dog’s ✓ He realised dogs could be trained to salivate by pairing or associating another stimulus with food ✓ Salivation is a natural response to food ✓ This natural response to food was conditioned to occur when a bell rang 10/11/2024 16  Classical conditioning ✓After a number of times with the food and bell presented together, the bell alone could cause/elicit salivation by the dog ✓A neutral stimulus is paired with a naturally occurring unconditioned or unlearned stimulus and an unconditioned response ✓ After a few of such pairings, the neutral stimulus alone elicits the same response as the unconditioned stimulus 10/11/2024 17 10/11/2024 18  Operant conditioning (OC) Proponents: Thorndike & B.F Skinner Principles: ✓ Reinforcement ✓ Punishment - Thus, OC focuses on the behaviour of a person and the reinforcement that occurs after the behaviour - Believe that people learn behaviour through rewards and punishment 10/11/2024 19  Reinforcement A reinforcer is a stimulus applied after a response is exhibited and strengthens the probability of repeating that response. Reinforcement refers to actions that make a target behaviour more likely to occur in the future It is meant to increase a good behaviour Reinforcement could either be positive or negative Positive here means adding a stimulus while negative means removing a stimulus 10/11/2024 20  Positive reinforcement Positive reinforcement is the act of rewarding a positive behavior to encourage it to happen again in the future. Involves giving a person what he/she wants after a good behaviour is exhibited to reinforce that good behaviour This makes the desired behaviour likely to be repeated in the future 10/11/2024 21  EXAMPLE OF Positive reinforcement Treating a child to an ice cream cone when he stays quiet and obedient during a shopping trip is positive reinforcement. Rewarding a quite student who is doing the right in class amiss chaotic students. 10/11/2024 22  Negative reinforcement Negative reinforcement is the idea of taking away an unwanted stimulus in order to encourage good behaviour Involves taking away what the student does not want after a good behavior is exhibited in order to reinforce that good behavior. Mostly, a bad behavior may be ongoing 10/11/2024 23  Negative reinforcement The teacher takes something unpleasant or undesired (aversive) away to make a target behavior more likely to occur. Because the negative stimulus is removed, he or she wants to keep doing the action that removed it. The student may also act to avoid the negative consequence of a bad behavior 10/11/2024 24  Example of Negative reinforcement A teacher taking away homework because the class was so well behaved. The students avoid the unwanted stimulus (homework) by exhibiting a wanted behavior. 10/11/2024 25  Punishment It is a response Punishment that is meant to could be positive decrease a bad or negative behaviour 10/11/2024 26  Punishment Positive Involves giving Punishment a person something that he or she This makes does not want the undesired after an less likely to undesired happen in the behaviour is future exhibited 10/11/2024 27  EXAMPLE OF POSITIVE PUNISHMENT Having a student stay Giving extra back after the school homework or cleaning day ends. the classroom. 10/11/2024 28  Punishment Negative Punishment Involves taking away something that a person wants Thus, a certain desired stimulus is removed after a particular undesired behaviour is exhibited 10/11/2024 29 Example of NEGATIVE punishment Removal of a student's favorite item. Teacher taking away a student’s Phone because they are not studying. 10/11/2024 30  Behaviorism-conclusion Learning is through these means or principles: Association/Pairing Reinforcement Punishment 10/11/2024 31  Behaviorism-conclusion Many people confuse negative reinforcement with punishment. The key area where these two methods differ is in the end result. With reinforcement, adding or taking away something is meant to increase the behavior. With punishment, adding or taking away something is meant to decrease or weaken the behavior. 10/11/2024 32  COGNITIVISM/COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY 10/11/2024 33  INTRODUCTION In contrast to the behaviourist, cognitive theorists focuses on what goes on inside the mind of the learner during the teaching- learning process Cognitivism therefore focuses on the inner mental processes such as: thinking, memory , knowing and retrieval for problem-solving 10/11/2024 34  Definition Learning is a change in knowledge which is stored in memory, and not just a change in behaviour. The observable changes in behaviour is only an indicator as to what is happening inside the learner’s mind Thus, it is the process by which individuals gain new knowledge or skills and change their thoughts 10/11/2024 35  ASSUMPTIONS Proponents: Jean Piaget, Ausubel, Brunnel 1) Cognitive psychologists contend that learning cannot be described in terms of a change in behaviour. - Thus, learning occurs whether or not there is an observable change in the learner - The observable change in behavior only indicates what happens in the mind. 10/11/2024 36  ASSUMPTIONS 2) The key to learning and changing is the individual’s cognition (perception, thought, memory, and ways of processing and structuring information). 3) Unlike behaviorists, cognitivists maintain that reward is not necessary for learning. - The learners’ goals and expectations, which create disequilibrium, imbalance, and tension that motivate them to act are more important 10/11/2024 37  ASSUMPTIONS 4. Cognitive theorists also believe that a teacher can produce learning by: - transferring information to the learner and - helping them to organize it in such a way that they are able to recall it later 10/11/2024 38  Sub-theories/branches Gestalt Perspective Information processing Cognitive theory include several sub- theories namely: Although they differ to some extent, all of them emphasise on what goes Social cognitive theory on inside the learners’ mind during the learning process 10/11/2024 39  Gestalt Perspective It focused on the importance of perception in learning. Principles under this include: a) Learning is directed toward simplicity, equilibrium, and regularity. - Students are, therefore, likely to be driven by simple, clear explanation that help their understanding and relates directly to them and their familiar experiences. 10/11/2024 40  Gestalt Perspective b) Perception is selective. - Thus, what individuals pay attention to and what they ignore are influenced by a host of factors: past experiences, needs, personal motives and attitudes, and the particular structure of the stimulus or situation. 10/11/2024 41  Information processing theory Emphasizes thinking, reasoning and the way information is encountered and stored, and memory functioning It focuses on: how people think about (i. e. process) the information they receive from the environment how they perceive the stimuli around them how they put what they’ve perceived into their memories how they “find” what they’ve learnt when they need to use it 10/11/2024 42  Information processing theory Stages involved in information- processing: Attention Processing Memory storage Action 10/11/2024 43  Attention The first step in the cognitive learning process is attention. In order to begin learning, a student must be paying attention to what they are experiencing The average person can hold approximately two or three learned tasks in their attention at the same time However, the average person can only attend to one complex task at a time e.g. Trying to drive and do long division? 10/11/2024 44  Processing/Storage Next, the information that you are paying attention to has to be put into memory in a process called storage. There are three levels of memory through which information must travel to be truly learned. They are: Sensory Register, Short-term memory and long-term memory 1) Sensory Register Information initially enters the information processing system through a sensory register after it is attended to Information is processed using one or more of the senses i.e. learning styles 10/11/2024 45  Processing/Storage Short-Term Memory (STM Sensory input (information) that is important or interesting is transferred from the sensory register to the STM or working memory In the STM, the student can either transfer the information gathered to the long-term memory or loose/forget the information, hence the need for strategies Memory can be retained here for up to 20 seconds or more if rehearsed repeatedly However, it has limited capacity 10/11/2024 46  Processing/Storage Long-term memory Stores information from STM for long term use. Long-term memory has unlimited capacity Some materials are "forced" into LTM by rote memorization and rehearsal 10/11/2024 47  Action After paying attention and moved the information into memory The brain organize this information so it can be retrieved later for action or use. 10/11/2024 48  Action 10/11/2024 49  Humanistic/ Humanism learning theory 10/11/2024 50  INTRODUCTION Proponents of Humanistic Theory Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers James F. T. Bugental 10/11/2024 51  INTRODUCTION Maslow and the humanists believed that behaviorism and other psychology theories had a negative perception of learners. Example operant conditioning in behaviorism psychology suggested that students only acted in a good or bad manner because of the reward or punishment and could be trained based on that desire for a reward. 10/11/2024 52  CONCEPT Proponents believed that human beings were born with the desire to grow, create Self-actualization and to love, and had the concerns psychological power to direct their growth, fulfillment, and own lives. satisfaction in life. 10/11/2024 53  CONCEPT Maslow and humanistic psychology suggests that students are inherently good and will make good decisions when all their needs are met. Humanistic psychology focuses on the idea that learners bring out the best in themselves, and that humans are driven by their feelings more than rewards and punishments. Maslow believed this and wrote many articles to try and demonstrate it. 10/11/2024 54  CONCEPT Humanistic learning theory emphasizes the freedom and autonomy of learners. It connects the ability to learn with the fulfillment of other needs. Perceived utility of the knowledge by the learner. 10/11/2024 55  Humanistic/ Humanism learning theory 10/11/2024 56  PRINCIPLES Student choice. Choice is central to the humanistic learning theory and humanistic psychology. Student-centered. Students are encouraged to take control over their education. Choices can range from daily activities to future goals. Students are encouraged to focus on a specific subject area of interest for a reasonable amount of time. 10/11/2024 57  PRINCIPLES Fostering engagement to inspire students to become self-motivated to learn. The effectiveness of this approach is based on learners feeling engaged and self-motivated, so they want to learn. Humanistic learning relies on educators working to engage students, encouraging them to find things they are passionate about, so they are excited about learning. 10/11/2024 58  PRINCIPLES The importance of self-evaluation. Self-evaluation is the most meaningful way to evaluate how learning is going. Grading students encourages students to work for the grade, instead of doing things based on their own satisfaction and excitement of learning. Humanistic educators help students perform self-evaluations so they can see how students feel about their progress. 10/11/2024 59  PRINCIPLES Feelings and knowledge Humanistic teachers believe that knowledge and feelings go together in the learning process. Cognitive and affective learning are both important to humanistic learning. Lessons and activities should focus on the whole student and their intellect and feelings, not one or the other. 10/11/2024 60  PRINCIPLES A safe learning environment. Humanistic learning focuses on the entire student, Humanistic educators understand that they need to create a safe environment so students can have as many as their needs met as possible. They need to feel safe physically, mentally, and emotionally in order to be able to focus on learning. 10/11/2024 61  The role of teacher and student in humanistic learning theory Teach learning skills. Focus on helping students develop learning skills. Students are responsible for learning choices, so helping them understand the best ways to learn is key to their success. Provide motivation for classroom tasks. Humanistic learning focuses on engagement, so teachers need to provide motivation and exciting activities to help students feel engaged about learning. 10/11/2024 62  The role of teacher and student in humanistic learning theory Provide choices to students in task/subject selection. Teachers have a role in helping work with students to make choices about what to learn. They may offer options, help students evaluate what they’re excited about, and more. Create opportunities for group work with peers. Teachers create group opportunities to help students explore, observe, and self evaluate. They can do this better as they interact with other students who are learning at the same time. 10/11/2024 63  SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY 10/11/2024 64  Introduction Proponent: Albert Bandura Much of learning occurs by observation: watching other people and determining what happens to them. Factors such as - Personal characteristics of the learner - Behaviour patterns - The environment determines learning 10/11/2024 65  CONCEPT This theory is based on both the behaviourist and cognitive theories Two key concepts underlines this theory. - Role modelling - Vicarious reinforcement 10/11/2024 66  Role modelling Considerable learning occurs by taking note of other people's behaviour and what happens to them. Learning to be effective, the model must possess certain characteristics. The model is competent - The model has prestige and power - The model's behaviour is relevant to the observer's situation 10/11/2024 67  Role modelling Bandura identifies three different types of models: Live model – an actual person demonstrating a particular behaviour Symbolic model – a person or character portrayed in a film, television show, book, or other medium Verbal instructions – descriptions of how to behave - without another human being, either live or symbolic, being present at all 10/11/2024 68  Vicarious reinforcement Involves determining whether role models are perceived as rewarded or punished for their behaviour A person learns by observing the consequences of another person’s (i.e. models) behaviour. One takes into accounts what happens to the model before imitating the behaviour 10/11/2024 69  Stages in the learning process Bandura believes that humans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behaviour and its consequences Mediational processes. This occurs between observing the behaviour (stimulus) and imitating it or not (response) 10/11/2024 70  Stages in the learning process Attentional phase: a necessary condition for any learning to occur. is influenced by: - Characteristics of the role models (high status, competence, novelty) - The learner’s own characteristics (cognitive abilities, past experience, needs, self-esteem) 10/11/2024 71  Stages in the learning process Retention phase: involves the storage and retrieval of what was observed. Influenced by: - observer characteristics (cognitive capabilities, cognitive rehearsal) - event characteristics (complexity) 10/11/2024 72  Stages in the learning process Reproduction phase - the learner copies the observed behaviour. - Mental rehearsal, immediate enactment, and corrective feedback strengthen the reproduction of behaviour. 10/11/2024 73  Stages in the learning process Motivational phase - focuses on whether the learner is motivated to perform a certain type of behaviour - Reinforcement or punishment for a role model’s behaviour, the learning situation, and the appropriateness of subsequent situations where the behaviour is to be displayed all affect a learner’s performance 10/11/2024 74