Learning Theories Used in the Classroom

Learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour and/or knowledge that occurs as

Teachers have an important task of translating learning theories into practice. Knowledge about learning theories allows teachers to consider different approaches and apply various techniques and valuable strategies in specific contexts and with specific learners to promote learning. This essay will provide an insight into three well-known theories of how children learn. It will examine Behaviourism, Social Constructivism and Humanism and how these learning theories underpin a range of pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning and promote inclusive practice.

This essay discusses two of the theories surrounding children's learning and development. It further goes on to discuss how they could be used to inform practice in the classroom. The two theories to be discussed are Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory.

Learning is the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught. Learning is relatively a permanent change in behaviour as a result of experience. We learn every day as changes in our behaviour, we have the ability and skills to learn to walk, run, write, read, and have many more experience in learning.

The technique also holds that associating learning activities with a certain reward such as monetary rewards and promises for better grades, adversely affects the learning process and negatively motivates the students to learn

According to Eggen and Kauchak (2012) behaviorism is a theory that explains learning in terms of observable behaviors and how they’re influenced by stimuli from the environment. It defines learning as a relatively enduring change in observable behavior that occurs as a result of experience (Schunk,

What is learning? Learning can be defined as the process whereby behaviour is changed as a result of experience, (Matalon 2000). Learning occurs when experience cause a relatively permanent change in an individual’s behaviour or knowledge. The change maybe deliberate or unintentional, for better or for worse. The result of learning must be changed into observable behaviour. After learning takes place students are

The Early Years Learning Centre, located in the Greater Dandenong community, provides play-based, vibrant and supportive education for children and gives them senses of belonging and identity. The focused class has 22 children in total aged from 4 to 5 years old, with one lead educator and one teaching assistant. The children are from various cultural backgrounds and have a variety of interests and personalities. With a philosophy inspired by the multiple intelligences, the major curriculum of the Centre is to explore and follow children’s interests, to support literacy and numeracy learning on daily basis, to promote awareness of environment and to introduce a series of specialist classes focusing on sports, music singing, drama performance, library and story time as well as information technology. Staff designs learning activities underpinning the curriculum. Some related activities include alphabet H/h learning, a nature walk to collect leaves and branches, followed by an activity of being safe around water (see appendix).

When I began this semester i started out with a bunch of theories about how students should learn, I believe that the theories I had were based on what I had witnessed in previous observations and what I had learned about in previous classes. Throughout this semester in the STR program I have discovered much of what I believed is just that a theory and won’t work in all situations. For example, in one of my earlier field observations I witnessed a teacher who would push her students to their extreme limits. I thought this was great except looking back she never checked in with her students to make sure they were learning anything she was trying to teach them. Her students were always very well behaved however, I do not believe they were

Learning is an essential part of life. How we learn has been studied by scientists and psychologists for many years. Through these studies, three major learning theories have been developed: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. The theory most prevalent when discussing physical education and activity in relation to overall student success is behaviorism. The behaviorist theory defines learning as acquiring new behavior. Behaviorists believe that positive or negative reinforcement shapes behavior. This positive or negative determines whether the behavior will happen again. Research suggest that physical education and activity is a positive way to change behavior.

The ways in which children learn is variable, learning practices and singular theories cannot explain by themselves the very process of learning but gives some idea when these theories are viewed simultaneously; working through the limitations and expressing the benefits held across the theoretical principles. This assignment will analyse and critically evaluate behaviourist and cognitivist theories in terms of learning and education; reflecting back on application to a classroom environment. This assignment delves into areas of behaviourism developed by Skinner, Bandura, and Pavlov to name a few; which mainly works on the principle expedited by Pavlov, taking the name ‘Classical Conditioning’ of learning; which can be linked back into classroom practice; for children need to feel that they are in a positive, inductive centre of learning where they associate the positive environment with the educational situation they are placed within (Alan Pritchard, (2009)). The other side of the coin however delves into the constructivist or cognitivist theories developed by such theorists as Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. Cognitivist theory mainly focuses on learning as a social principle, in which the learning is the responsibility of the students, who receive and organise their information, with the teacher acting as a facilitator who scaffolds the learning process. This can be linked to classroom practice in terms of ‘Active learning’ and ‘Social transmission’, in which the children

Learning can be defined as the permanent change in one’s behaviour or potential from a direct or indirect experience. My approach to learning is almost like the Traditional sensory stimulation theory (Larid, 1985) which explains that the learning comes to the maximum level when the senses are stimulated. Larid’s theory mainly focus on the five basic sensory motion of a human being, which tells us that in majority of the adults which is about 75% learning is through seeing. Hearing comes next with only

In the 1950’s, psychologists thought that, “Learning is a change in behavior” (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007, p. 276). This definition of learning over the years has change due to the complexity of the nature of the subject; Merriam, Caffarella and

Education has always played a vital role in our society, in order to provide the best education to the children educators have to know which teaching models will work better in the school system. Each children have different way of learning, schools are not different they have to way to teach children. There are many models and theories of teaching, some of them are different than others and many others have similarities. A great educator will spent uncounted hours researching the best way to pass the knowledge to others and the High Scope educators have been being just that. The High Scope curriculum is the reason why it is so recognized and used by many institutions around the globe it emphasizes active learning, students are involved in the process, and they have hands-on experiences with their classmates, teachers, objects, events and anything that have to do with the task. Many different reasons have contributed to the success of the program, their teachers are well trained and very professionals, the classrooms are very appealing and well organized. Active learning; positive adult/child interaction; learning environment; daily routine and lastly the assessment of the children, these are the key factors to the High Scope Approach success (Durak, 2009). The High Scope has intensive teaching requirements in order for a teacher to be fully certified to teach in the program, the teacher’s s has to go to vigorous trainings. The certification process which is being conducted

Learning is a change in behavior from the interaction between a person and a stimulus. This can be