Learning Theory Importance

Within the elementary classroom, there is a copious amount of rules, guidelines and considerations a teacher must take into account. Learning theories such as social, cognitive, and behavioral learning should be implemented to provide framework and boundaries for the children. When incorporating learning theories in the classroom, it is important to have a clear understanding of how they work and how they will benefit the child and the teacher. These particular theories allows the teacher to run an efficient and effective classroom from day one.

As a student of education, I have been able to gather many ideas and opinions about practices and ideals I want to implement in my future classroom. My philosophies about education are still being formed and continually change with every class I visit and with every educator I encounter. My ideas, admittedly, come from random experiences and intangible texts, but as I gain more experience in the field through my courses, my philosophies about teaching will become more clearly defined. These few ideas I have now will undoubtedly be added upon as I enter student teaching and my professional career, nevertheless, they are concepts of which I hope to never lose sight.

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.

An educational philosophy is a personal statement of a teacher’s goals or belief. A teacher comes to the classroom with a distinctive set of principles and ideals that affect how a student learns and expand the child’s potential in his or her venture into knowledge. I believe that education should be active, and focus on the whole child, rather than just the content or the teacher. The three (3) principles I believe that work harmoniously with my educational philosophy are the teacher acting as a facilitator to foster critical thinking, allowing the child’s natural curiosity to steer his or her learning for personal development, and

Students have their own best way in effectively learning the lesson. With the diversity of students, the problem is each student has a preferred learning style. It becomes undeniably one of the reasons that make it difficult to achieve the best expected outcome out of teachers’ effort. However, teachers try to incorporate various teaching techniques to make every learning opportunity become productive, meaningful, and relevant for the learners.

Many educators operate their classrooms using a “learning theory” that they feel optimizes the best learning environment for their students. As an educator it is very important to create your own customized learning theory to use in your classroom. A customized learning theory is developed to create an optimum learning environment for students. Educators have to research and put into practice the ideas that they feel may work best in their classroom. In this paper, I will be discussing my own customized learning theory incorporating theoretical perspectives that I believe make an ideal learning environment.

Effective teachers are aware of different learning theories that influence classroom practice on a daily basis. According to Pritchard (2014), teachers must have an understanding

During this final paper, there will be a number of topics discussed. These topics will cover how I personally found a better understanding of my customized learning theory. First, I will go over the Learning Theory and its’ importance. Secondly, I will give a description of an effective teacher and learning environment. Next, I will discuss the different learning characteristics. Finally, I then will give my personal reflection on all the different things I was able to learn during this course. All of these four sections helped build a better understanding on how to be a more effective educator. Most importantly, I gained a better understanding how to build better rapport with students who have all different learning styles and ways of thinking. While managing a classroom, it is highly important to make lessons that will be appealing to the students that you are teaching interest. This will increase engagement and academic learning.

It is the duty of the educator to prepare students to live lives of quality and purpose. Intellectually, a life of quality involves being reasonable, adept, and thoughtful, and enables people to be good citizens of their community. Skills that will prepare students to live such a life include the ability to reason carefully, to think agilely, and to reflect deeply. These skills are attained best when students evaluate how others express their thinking and precisely what thinking is expressed. The students themselves attempt to express substantive ideas in clear and convincing ways. The teacher is foremost a model of that which is taught, which obligates the teacher to live that life of quality and purpose. As a model, the teacher is therefore able to act as a guide for others, serving occasionally as a source of knowledge but mostly as one who points the way for fellow explorers.

There are many theories that are relevant to classroom teaching today. Marsh (2008, p. 17) states that “each theory is nothing more than a set of reasonable suggestions”. A teacher should look at the information available to them and take what is necessary to achieve a positive learning environment in their classroom. This may mean taking a little part of one theory and combining in with another part of a different theory, there is no singular theory or theorist that encompasses everything that is required in a modern classroom. Some of the most important theories of learning are motivation, constructivism and behaviourism. Teachers choose their teaching style and strategy to complement their students, to arrive at their own personal

Understanding learning theories helped me to see how we learn, starting with early childhood then to adulthood. I think in knowing these theories, it will prepare me for when I’m a parent myself and in the process of training young children in the right way while seeing things from their perspective.

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)

Learning is not a skill that is necessarily instinctual or easy, and therefore different approaches must be used to make learning easier and more fun for students. Teaching is not a skill that can be memorized or made repetitive, and so teachers must continue to challenge not only their students, but also themselves. Teachers that become complacent in their jobs are not good teachers. Those who can find a way to make an old lesson new and exciting will have an energized classroom, and will be reenergized themselves.

Every experience and interaction has an impact on development in early childhood. Behavioral Learning Theory is one of many learning theories designed to create an effective academic centered classroom. By having an effective classroom management in place, one can ensure a cooperative learning environment. It is important as educators to have order in their classroom. God’s Word is detailed when it talks about His perfect order. “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it”. Habakkuk 2:2 KJV in my paper, I will talk about Learning Theory and its Importance, Description of an Effective Teacher, Description of an Effective Learning Environment (Include discussions of direct instruction, technology, motivation, classroom management.), Addressing Behavior and Character Development, Engaging Students in Learning, Building Self-Efficacy and Motivation, and showing how classroom management is affected by each of them.

Throughout the majority of my education, including college, I have felt like a passive member of the classroom. Teachers saw me as a clear slate that needed to be filled with information. I consumed countless facts, and memorized numerous processes, most of them not being my own. This approach to teaching has proven to be unsuccessful to the goals of education. Students are diverse, with their own learning styles and their own knowledge that they bring to the table, and these should be supported and expanded on in the classroom. The goal of education is to support learners and thinkers, and not to condition minds to all think the same ways.