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This presentation was developed by Martha Schwer and Jennifer Lewis. The of this presentation
is to define the role of cognition and learning to help you determine the most appropriate
instructional strategies for your online learners. The information in this presentation draws
on presentations from the 2012 Conference on Distance Education held in Madison, WI.
This presentation will: Describe these learning theories: behaviorism,
cognitivism, constructivism, and connectivism. The goal of this presentation is to help you
select the best learning theory for designing the structure and the learning activities
in your online course.
Learning is a complex process involving mental processes that are influenced by emotional
and environment factors that can support or hinder learning. Learning theories have evolved
over time to take into consideration these complex factors in an effort to explain how
learning occurs and prescribe instructional strategies to facilitate learning. Behaviorism
was dominant from the early 20th century through the 1950s and 1960s. Cognitivism grew in popularity
in the 1960s and 70s. Here at Madison College, Dave Apple came to campus in the 80s to spread
information about Constructivist methods. And most recently constructivism emerged as
a prominent theory of learning, influencing the active learning classrooms we're installing
today.
Connectivism is the new kid on the block; it is most closely associated with online
learning. It's also the least widely known here at the college.
As you go through this presentation and listen to information of various formats, keep in
mind that there is no "best" theory; some learning theories can be more or less useful
to your content area. Let's take a look at each of these individually.
Behaviorism is grounded in the study of observable behavior, physical skills, and does not take
into consideration the functions of the mind.
According to behaviorism, knowledge exists outside of a person and is gained through
behavior modification. The theory views learning as a change in behavior that can be conditioned
using positive and negative reinforcements such as rewards and punishment.
Behaviorism considers learners more passive in the learning process. The learners' role
is simply to respond to the learning content provided by the instructor and demonstrate
a level of performance on specific goals and objectives.
The classroom is instructor-centered; that doesn't mean it can't be fun, though! Behavior
is modified and conditioned by the instructor through rewards or punishment to attain the
desired learning outcomes.
According to behaviorists, the types of reinforcement are a critical component to learning because
individual learners respond to different reinforcement based on their personal motivations. For instance,
if the learner is motivated by good grades, a great reinforcement is the use of grades.
Poor grades are a negative reinforcement, which provides motivation for the learner
to put in more effort in order to receive a better grade.
According to the behaviorist view of learning, objectives should be developed that focus
on the level of learning desired as well as the type of task. The role of the instructor
is to provide learners with information about the appropriateness of the behavior through
frequent feedback. This feedback either reinforces their behavior or determines consequences
in the form of corrective actions required for the learner to achieve the desired outcome.
Learning that involves recalling facts, defining concepts and explanations, or performing procedures
are often most readily taught by behaviorist learning strategies that focus on attainment
of specific goals or performance of physical skills.
Behaviorists often focus on drill and practice activities, and by identifying small, incremental
tasks, or sub-skills that the learner needed to acquire, designed specific objectives that
would lead to the achievement of these goals.
According to cognitivism, knowledge is still considered to exist outside of the person;
however, this learning theory's focus is on understanding how human memory works to acquire
knowledge and promote learning.
The focus is on how learners acquire specific types of strategies for learning, including:
planning, monitoring, and evaluating and the influence of prior knowledge, beliefs, attitudes,
and values on learning (Tennyson & Schott, 1997). This theory developed a clearer understanding
of how information is processed and stored, as well as how prior knowledge is stored in
memory structures called schema for retrieval in an appropriate context.
According to cognitivism, the transfer of knowledge to new situations is influenced
by the way information is presented and the relevance of information presented. If information
is presented poorly or too much irrelevant information is associated with relevant information,
it may be difficult for the learner to sort and organize the information. This, in turn,
can have an impact on storage, retrieval, and transfer.
This can be critical for adult learners who have specific professional needs that require
them to be able to transfer knowledge to real-world applications in their professional environments.
Robert Gagne (1985) proposed nine events of learning that corresponded with specific cognitive
processes. Madison College uses various versions of this series of learning events to structure
and scaffold learning in a variety of learning formats, such as accelerated and active learning.
Gagne proposed these nine events provide the conditions of learning, which define the intellectual
skills to be learned as well as the sequence of instruction. He believed lessons should
be organized according to these events so learners could associate new knowledge with
existing structures. He also thought it could provide the appropriate level of scaffolding
to support learning.
Learners play an active role in learning by actively organizing information for successful
processing into long-term memory for later recall. The instructor continues to determine
learning outcomes and direct the learning with the additional application of specific
information processing strategies to assist the learner in acquiring knowledge. To facilitate
learning, the learning environment should be arranged to maximize learners' ability
to retrieve prior knowledge relevant to the learning outcomes and organize the content
to maximize information processing.
If information is presented poorly or too much irrelevant information is associated
with relevant information, it may be difficult for the learner to sort and organize the information.
This, in turn, can have an impact on storage, retrieval, and transfer. Scaffolding is critical
to adult learners who have specific professional needs that require them to be able to transfer
knowledge to real-world applications in their professional environments. Instructors play
a role in scaffolding the learning environment by monitoring learning and providing instructional
support.
Learning outcomes that are focused on complex higher levels of learning such as problem
solving are best explained by cognitivism because the focus is on breaking down complex
problems into component parts and relating the content to be learned with prior knowledge
to build higher levels of understanding. Instructional strategies consider the organization
of content for learning, including the use of advance organizers, like blank outline
notes for lectures or reading, and Gagne's nine events of instruction.
Constructivism describes learning as a process where learners socially construct knowledge
and meaning. According to this theory, knowledge does not exist outside of the person, but
is constructed based on how a person interacts with the environment and experiences the world
(Tennyson & Schott, 1997).
There are two types of constructivism: cognitive constructivism and social constructivism.
Cognitive constructivism focuses on individual characteristics or attributes of the learner
and their impact on learning. Social constructivism focuses on how meaning and understanding are
created through social interactions. Together, they view learning as the construction of
knowledge and meaning as the interpretation of incoming information through an individual's
unique lens that includes their personality, beliefs, cultures, and experiences.
From the constructivist perspective, learners are not merely passive receivers of knowledge,
but active participants in the learning process and construct knowledge socially with peers.
Instructors who base their pedagogy on constructivism take on a new role of facilitator rather than
sage on the stage by actively observing and assessing the current state of individual
learners and providing learning strategies to help individuals interpret and understand
the content. Instructors provide relevant real-world context to help learners understand
the relevance of the learning goals for them personally.
The instructor supports learning by providing scaffolding to support learners in their zone
of proximal development. This requires the instructor to develop skills at assessing
the current state of learners and adapt the learning experience to support their attainment
of goals.
Learning is context specific and emphasizes the whole rather than components or individual
skills. Rather than focusing on small skills and building up to a larger job, constructivists
present a complex situation, and let learners figure out where to start based on their current
knowledge, preferences, and motivations.
Instruction should situate the learning in authentic tasks that allow learners to understand
why it is important to learn as well as its relevance to them personally or professionally.
Meaningful contexts allow learning to be transferred to a novel situation when students move into
the real world.
The use of active learning strategies support learning using real-world examples or opportunities
to solve real-world problems allow for the greatest opportunity for transfer. Critical
thinking strategies help learners develop their skills at thinking through problems
and issues. Self-Reflection and Self-Assessments help learners continuously improve their learning
by actively reflecting on the processes they use as they engage in learning activities.
The latest major learning theory comes from the rise of online learning itself, and is
quite recent. Connectivism is a form of experiential learning which prioritizes the set of connections
formed by actions and experience over the idea that knowledge is propositional. It questions
that there is any such thing as knowledge at all; instead, knowledge is just the connections
we have access to.
Crowd-sourcing is closely related to connectivism; the idea that we are all together smarter
than any one person is the basis of almost all networked learning.
In 2004, the first Massive Open Online Course was launched, which quickly led to courses
with thousands of students enrolled from major Ivy League institutions. In connectivism,
the more people are connected, the smarter we all are. However, because traditional assessment
methods are largely absent from these courses, the only assessment method that can be used
is self-assessment.
This type of learning is obviously not suitable for most degree-seeking students at Madison
College, who need credentials to enter professional fields. However, our continuing education
division is currently developing a relationship with this theory, and are awarding Mozilla
"Badges" for completing professional development activities. Students, who are already working
in their fields, take self-paced, open enrollment learning modules to develop a portfolio of
documentation. They then pay a small fee, equivalent to continuing ed tuition, to earn
a "badge." The documentation is then stored online, for employers and others to review
themselves.
From the connectivist perspective, learners should choose courses and information tailored
to their own goals and abilities.
Instructors of connectivist classrooms do not have direct relationships with individuals
(of any depth). Instead, they create information ahead of time and students engage with it
or not, as students wish to do.
The instructor still supports learning by providing scaffolding to support learners
to make connections with other students and with resources in the virtual world.
Like Constructivism, Self-Reflection and Self-Assessments help learners continuously improve their learning
by actively reflecting on the processes they use as they engage in learning activities.
The difference is that there are no instructor-controlled assessments at all. The only assessments available
during the course are peer-review and computer feedback. During the course, the instructor
does not provide individual guidance, but is merely another participant. Instructors
are mainly responsible for technical issues and wrangling behavior. The success or failure
of the course largely depends upon the mix of students who show up and participate.
Thinking about your content area, which of these major approaches do you think will be
most helpful in teaching your course's content?
I hope you have enjoyed this presentation. If you are interested in learning theories,
you can check books out of the CETL library, which will help you learn more about these
topics.