Learning Theory And Its Impact On Education

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

The Learning Theory influences everyone’s culture, ethnicity, gender, and social status, by being from different geographical location and religious background everyone has a unique characteristic, when it comes to learning or problem solving. One of the most important events in a human’s life is the “Learning Theory”.

Three main theories of education exist: behavioral, constructivist, and cognitive. I find myself ideologically aligned most closely with the constructivist approach, yet for reasons to be explored later in this document, find the theory one that can only offer guidance for my actions as a teacher a portion of the time I am working with students. Constructivism means students don’t just absorb information and understand

Overview: Schema Theory is part of the cognitive theories of learning module and deals with how the brain processes new knowledge (Chalmers, 2003). Schemata are packets of prior knowledge that have been stored in a learner’s memory. Each learner has developed schemata that are based on prior experience and knowledge. Learners seek to connect new information with prior knowledge and use generalizations to assist in organization of information. Schema Theory is focused on conceptual learning and states that knowledge seeks organization in order to develop meaning (Anderson, 1984).

Learning is an active process that involves communication with others. Although each student has their own individual tendencies, habits, strengths,

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)

The Constructivist learning theory focuses on learning through experiences and hands on activities. Constructivists believe that students learn better by students learning the material themselves rather than learning the material from a teacher (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993). Through personal experiences, when the teacher provides hands on activity the students have a better understanding of the material being learned. An example of this is if a teacher was teaching students about how much salt is left in the water from the sand run off the teacher would have the students put sand and salt on a cookie sheet. Then the students would pour water on the sheet as the cookie sheet is on a 45-degree angle. The teacher would then place the runoff on a bunsen burner. The teacher will give the students resources help them while they are setting their goals (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993). The students in a constructivist classroom work in cooperative or collaborative learning groups (Ertmer, & Newby, 1993). The students are assessed through authentic

There exist several theories that support learning. These are the conceptual guidelines and frameworks that explain how information from a tutor is absorbed by students, processed and then retained.

Educational philosophies differ from person to person. From behaviorist to constructivist and everything in between, the one thing they have in common is that they attempt to explain how people learn. This paper will explain why I tend to lean toward the constructivist theory of education and defend this theory using a variety of current literature. It is important to note that the theories that are talked about as educational theories are often looked at as both theories of teaching and learning; however most of these theories are not theories of teaching but rather learning (Baviskar, Hartle, Whitney, 2009). This may be especially true for constructivism where there can be a common misunderstanding of what constructivism actually is

Constructivism is a coherent theory of learning that emerged as a prevailing paradigm in the last part of the twentieth century. Constructivism is a theory which brings cogitation to pedagogy (Bruner, 1966). Constructivism capitalizes on the ways in which human beings create their own personal construct of reality by understanding and experiencing the world. The main underlying assumption of constructivism is that individuals are actively involved right from the birth in constructing personal meaning.

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

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