Components Of Generative Learning

Learning, as defined by Slavin (2012), is “a change in an individual caused by experience” (p. 116). Learning can occur intentionally or unintentionally. All learning, however, is stimulated by something that is the learner (student) has encountered. As an instructor, your goal every day is to use the right stimuli to capture the student’s attention so they can absorb the knowledge you are trying to share.

Constructivist Learning Theory exists under the focus of cognitive learning and has substructures of the concepts of self- efficacy, self- regulation, and metacognition as it defines how adults learn (Billings & Halstead, 2012, p. 211). Billings & Halstead (2012) explains that learning is considered a transformation in a person from personal experience. It is a continued process that encompasses understanding, clarifying, and applying meanings of knowledge that is developed. The learning theory, constructivism embraces that learning is a development. A learner constructs new knowledge by building on existing information through a process

Learning is described as a process by which behavior changes as a result of experience. According to Merriam and Cafarella (1991), there are five theories/orientations to learning, two of which will be compared in this paper; social learning theory and constructivism theory.

1. Being able to know the difference between two things and tear them apart from each other is?(Pg 156)

The benefits of constructivism for teachers and learners, in an ideal setting include focusing on students allowing students the time and opportunity to investigate big ideas, and along the way helping them to understand concepts and skills, rather than just memorizing and regurgitating facts or ideas. Constructivism engages students’ natural curiosities to help them find answers to the questions inherent in their minds (Constructivism). Intrinsic motivation would be expected to be high when students are provided the freedom to choose their course of learning and given the time to investigate until questions are answered.

Learning is a multifaceted perception unique to each individual. In looking to address the intricacies of learning, there have been a multitude of learning theories established over the centuries. To this day new theories are developed and traditional theories continue to be developed and expanded upon. (Swinburne Online, 2016)

A Developmental Perspective. Effective teaching must be planned and conducted “from the learner’s point of view”.The constructivist orientation to learning is the foundation for this perspective on teaching. From the developmental perspective, the primary goal of education or training is to develop increasingly complex and sophisticated ways of reasoning and problem solving within a content area or field of practice. (Pratt, D. D. 2002)

Learning is the relatively permanent change in behavior (Burns, 1995), and can come in the form of observable activities and internal processes. Explanations of what happens when these actions occur are known as learning theories. These theories include behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, social learning and constructivist. In this essay behaviorist and cognitivists will be described, compared and contrasted in order to truly understand their approache.

This essay will compare and contrast three key theories of learning; Behaviourism, Cognitive Learning Theory and Constructivism.

Constructivism in the classroom usually means students are engaged in activities like experiments, or real-world problem solving to increase knowledge, followed by a reflection of how their understanding of the concept has changed (Brooks, Ed.D, n.d.). Cognitivism methods of instruction are commonly integrated with the levels found in Bloom’s Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation (Bloom, 1956). The instructor must understand the prerequisite knowledge possessed by the student, and the student is encouraged to use appropriate strategies to help make the learning meaningful.

The generative learning model has developed by integrating the cognitive development of human learning, human capability, information processing, and the interaction of intelligence treatment (Tan et al., 2008). The generative learning model has four process components, namely motivational, the learning, the knowledge creation and the generation (Lee, et.al, 2008). The essence of the generative learning model is thinking is not a passive consumer of information (Mason, 2006). Students participate in generative learning actively in the learning process and generate knowledge by forming mental relationships between concepts (Grabowski, B.L. 2007, Osborne and Wittrock, 1983, and Johar, 2015 ). Furthermore, generative learning is a theory that involves actively integrating new ideas. There are five steps in the generative learning model such as: the orientation, the disclosure of ideas, the challenges and reconstruction, implementation and the evaluation.

The constructivist theory admits the existence of multiple knowledge, perspectives and relativism. All knowledge is contextualised construction and therefore on and with varying degrees of certainty. Learning involves mental processes reconstructive own previous performances in dialogue with the new content. The trainee is aware of the conditions in which learning, which involves self-regulation of the activity itself and an adjustment of the metacognitive processes that regulate their learning, occurs (Toshboeva,

‘Constructivism’ is a form of learning which is driven by the theory that humans are able to generate knowledge from the interaction between their experiences and their ideas(1). This makes the student actively involved in the process of synthesising meaning and knowledge. It is argued that the constructivist approach inculcates critical thinking from the extrapolation of the student’s prior knowledge and actively engaging the student in this way is much more effective than passive learning through acquiring knowledge in a lecture(2) Also, this form of learning can be done in a collaboration of students(3) Below are discussed some of the main types of constructivist theories. One of the principle theoretical constructs used in medical education is known as Problem Based learning (PBL). This form of learning starts with an educator forms and presents a number of carefully constructed problems to a small group of students(4). The problems presented here are typically based on events of which the students have some prior knowledge of. This prior knowledge is discussed within the class and from this, questions are asked related to the problems presented. Following this, time is granted in which the students go away to conduct individual research on the new information which they have acquired. The students then return to their class, in which they spend one to

The very first thing one must know about the constructivist theory of learning is the premise that learners arrive at learning situations with prior knowledge and proceed to take and active part in building new knowledge upon that prior knowledge as they experience new things and reflect on those collected experiences (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2012). This theory directly contradicts the behaviorist learning theory in which learners are believed to arrive at learning situations with “clean slates” of understanding. From a behaviorist’s perspective, people learn because as they respond to negative and positive stimuli in their environment (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2012). While that may change observable behavior

There are different forms of learning such as. memorization , storing, how they retrieve it, how they transfer it, and using codes. When Considering the definition on learning found in our text book , Pearson Education 2017, learning is defined as, “ an enduring change in behavior, or in the capacity to behave in a given fashion, which results from practice or other forms of experience” (p.3). It is important for learning to be the main focus