Learning Theories

 

I

Unit: Teaching

Theme: Learning Theories

 

Introduction

Learning theories describe how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in teaching and learning. Understanding, developing our world view, acquiring or changing information, acknowledging and retaining skills are all part of Western learning tradition and theories. 

 

II

Learning Objectives 

 

• Understand how learning theories have changed from ancient times to the present
  
• Explain the differences between early philosophers and contemporary theorists who wrote about education
  
• Gain an awareness of the different learning theories
• Experience the articulation of your own learning theory
  

III

Main Lesson

 ------------------

 1

Eastern Ideas about Education

 

a)

 

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha ( 623/563 - 544/483 BCE)

The Buddha taught his disciples – a group known as the sangha – that the skills and knowledge most worth learning would be those things that accomplish two goals: 1.) They would lead a person to Enlightenment; and 2.) they would end all suffering, bringing one into a state of eternal, unconditional peace or “Nirvana.” This is why he taught the Middle Way through the Dharma – neither extreme luxury nor severe deprivation lead him to spiritual freedom. The Middle Way is synonymous with the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the course that must be followed if Nirvana – perfect peace and the ultimate end of all suffering via a dimension of totally unconstructed awareness – is to be attainable. The eight precepts the Buddha taught [and] that all beings must follow for their entire lives if they want to cultivate wisdom [are]: 1.) Right View; 2.) Right Thought; 3.) Right Speech; 4.) Right Conduct; 5.) Right Livelihood; 6.) Right Effort; 7.) Right Mindfulness; and 8.) Right Concentration. Essentially, the correct way to think about all life is to view the world with compassion, wisdom, and love. Proper meditation techniques are essential skills and paramount to the Buddha’s teachings. He stated that two vital qualities of the mind arise from meditative jhāna: 1.) samatha (i.e. “serenity” or “tranquility), which steadies, composes, unifies, and concentrates the mind; and 2.) vipassana (i.e. “insight”), which enables one to see, explore, and discern the elements that lead to suffering (Bhikkhu Thanissaro, 2010D).

 

b) 

Confucius (551 - 479 BCE)

(4:07 - 8:00)

 

Confucius provided education to the elite as well as to the common people. Yet, he regarded the purpose of education differently for each class. The idea was to maintain the status quo. He paid attention to individual differences and how they could influence the kind of job they could eventually get. He expected for students to be active learners. However, he disregarded practical knowledge as he said "inspire yourself with poetry, establish yourself on the rituals, perfect yourself with music."

 

c)

 

 Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim (died 632 AD)

 

(2:39 - 3:10)

Muhammad’s learning-teaching methods [which] were extracted from his education activities, [and] with [which] [...] he tried to form a new world view on people and built a new society, are: Telling, learning-teaching by observation, demonstration, learning-teaching by comparison, question-answer, learning by doing-experiencing methods. In addition to learning-teaching methods which are used in today’s educational understanding, there are methods which reflect personality, way of communication, education understanding of the Prophet Muhammad, peculiar to himself. These are [taught] by developing empathy, one to one/face to face learning-teaching, and learning-teaching by writing methods.(1) Borrowing from Tim McGee's presentation (in the video above), there are also five pillars of principles of practice in Islam that permeate their educational system: 1) Profession of Faith (shahada), the belief that "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God;" 2) Prayer (salat), manifested through 5 daily prayers; 3) Alms giving (zakat), the donation of a fixed portion of their income to community members in need; 4) Fasting (sawm), specially during Ramadan, and 5) Pilgrimage (hajj), the pilgrimage to Mecca during the month of June and July.

d)

 

 Michael Psellos (1018 - 1078 CE)

 

(10:42 - 13:06)
 

Michael Psellos' methods, used in the educational process and general students' life in the 11th century Constantinople, focused on the environment of pupils, the mood present during lessons, as well as the teacher's approach towards his students.  Psellos presents himself as a nice, caring for the souls of his students, pedagogue. He incentivized students to broaden their knowledge, asking them to share his love for wisdom in the near future (4).

e)

 

 Vladimir Soloviev (1853 -  1900)

Soloviev was convinced that the substance of reality was far from being limited merely to what could be measured, weighed or felt. On the other hand, he could not compel his thought to stop motionless and satisfied forever at the borderland where the, experience of our senses ceases to raise its voice. His intellect, truthful, penetrating and deep, rebelled against all external vetos, all restraints on the spirit of inquiry, all arbitrarily established spheres fenced off against knowledge and investigation. And it was the same spirit that made him throughout the whole of his life such an ardent champion of freedom of thought and conscience. The general meaning of Soloviev's philosophical system may be reduced to three main points: (1) the idea of inner spirituality of all being; (2) the idea of absolute all-unity; (3) the idea of God-Mankind.

 

Vasili Rosenoff

 

 

Vladimir Lenin (1870 - 1924

 

He thought that logic is the reflection of the objective in the conscience of men. He believed that truth is a process that passes in development through three states: life, knowledge and technique, and the absolute idea or complete truth. Life gives rise to the brain. when it comes to teaching, Lenin believed that teaching dialects (also know as intellectual conversations) can show how opposites can happen and become identical, and that the human mind should be able to grasp opposite positions and consider them to be living and conditional transforming them into one another. While Karl Marx saw teachers as another member of the proletariat class, for Lenin, being a teacher represented the highest honor in a socialist society.

Question 1

What was the main purpose of these early philosophers in the East

====================================

 

2 

 

Western Ideas about Education

 

a)

Classical Period 

Socrates (469 - 399 BCE)

(1:00 - 4:07)

 

He believed that an unexamined life was not worth living. He was associated with the idea of finding one's own truth. He thought he knew nothing, but he was aware of his own ignorance. Anything worth knowing was for him a source of knowledge. He invited the self-aware person to pursuit the quest for knowledge. He believed in reasoning things out.

 

b)

 Plato (427 - 347 BCE)

(1:00 - 2:00)

"Dialogues of Plato" offers a philosophy that has guided man through the ages. In his magnificent writings, Plato examines our virtues and vices, our problems and questions. With remarkable literary grace, he shows us how man can understand his place in the world and live an intelligent and happy life. He thought of education as a way to form the soul.

 Dialogues of Plato

(Page 232)

 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dialogues_of_Plato/eNYX8vXxd4YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=education

Jowett, B. (1871). The Dialogues of Plato. The Clarendon Press

 

c)

Aristotle (385 - 322 BCE)

(1:00 - 3:32)

 

d)

Medieval

St. Augustine (354 - 429 CE)

 

Like most ancient philosophers, Augustine thinks that the human being is a compound of body and soul and that, within this compound, the soul—conceived as both the life-giving element and the center of consciousness, perception and thought—is, or ought to be, the ruling part.

Happiness and Wisdom 

(Pages 7 - 8)

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Happiness_and_Wisdom/EtOs1OMaEB0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%20Education 

Topping, Ryan N.S. (2012). Happiness and Wisdom: Augustine's Early Theology of Education. The Catholic University of America Press

 

 

e)

Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274 CE)

He was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, an influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist in the tradition of scholasticism from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily. Thomas was a prominent proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of thought (encompassing both theology and philosophy) known as Thomism. He argued that God is the source of the light of natural reason and the light of faith. He embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. He has been described as "the most influential thinker of the medieval period" and "the greatest of the medieval philosopher-theologians". According to the English philosopher Anthony Kenny, Thomas was "one of the greatest philosophers of the Western world".

 

f) 

 

Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677)

(1:00 - 2:00)
 

 Mostly known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, he was a leading seventeenth-century philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, resident in the Dutch Republic, and, as a young man, permanently expelled from the Jewish community. After his expulsion, Spinoza lived an outwardly simple life without religious affiliation; the center of his life was philosophy. He had a dedicated clandestine circle of supporters, a philosophical sect, who met to discuss the writings he shared with them. One of the foremost thinkers of the Age of Reason, modern biblical criticism, and 17th-century Rationalism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, Spinoza came to be considered "one of the most important philosophers—and certainly the most radical—of the early modern period". He was influenced by Stoicism, Maimonides, Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, and a variety of heterodox Christian thinkers of his day. He challenged the divine origin of the Hebrew Bible, the nature of God, and the earthly power wielded by religious authorities, Jewish and Christian alike. He was frequently called an "atheist" by contemporaries, although nowhere in his work does Spinoza argue against the existence of God. This can be explained by the fact that, unlike contemporary 21st century scholars, "When seventeenth-century readers accused Spinoza of atheism, they usually meant that he challenged doctrinal orthodoxy, particularly on moral issues, and not that he denied God’s existence." His theological studies were inseparable from his thinking on politics; he is grouped with Hobbes, Locke, Leibniz, and Kant, who "helped establish the genre of political writing called secular theology."

 

 g)

John Locke (1632 - 170)

 

(1:00 - 1:44)

Locke rejected that human knowledge and capacity were innate. He saw humans as tabula rasa on which life experience leave an imprint. He was concern with the extent to which out understanding is delivered to us through our own senses and experiences of the world.

h)

(1:00 - 1:39)

 

 Enlightenment

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought.

Emile: Or, Concerning Education

https://www.google.com/books/edition/%C3%89mile/E8ZEAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Education

(Page 87 - last paragraph to 88 2nd paragraph)

Rousseau, J.J. (1888). Emile: Or, Concerning Education. D.C. Heath & Co., Publishers

i)

Elightenment

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804)

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one of the most influential figures in modern Western philosophy.

 

The Educational Theory of Immanuel Kant 

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Educational_theory_of_Immanuel_Kant/FBUSAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Kant+on+Education&printsec=frontcover

(Page 108 3rd line to 109 end of item 7) 

Kant, I. (1904). The Educational Theory of Immanuel Kant. J.B. Lippincott Company

 

  j)

 

Horace Mann (1796 - 1859)

 

Horace Mann (May 4, 1796 – August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education, he is thus also known as The Father of American Education. In 1848, after public service as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, Mann was elected to the United States House of Representatives (1848–1853). From September 1852 to his death in 1859, he served as President of Antioch College. Arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn unruly American children into disciplined, judicious republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval from modernizers, especially in the Whig Party, for building public schools. Most U.S. states adopted a version of the system Mann established in Massachusetts, especially the program for normal schools to train professional teachers. Educational historians credit Horace Mann, along with Henry Barnard and Catharine Beecher, as one of the major advocates of the Common School Movement.

 

k)

Jose de la Luz y Caballero (1800 - 1862) 

José de la Luz y Caballero was one of the pillars of an essentially national pedagogy and thought [in Cuba]. He performed an immense work as a teacher, researcher, philosopher and with the well-earned prestige among his contemporaries of being a trainer of youth and consciences. His best known and most valued work is pedagogical. From a very young age he was dazzled by the imprint of Father Félix Varela, from whom he took forever his eagerness to reform and change the outdated educational method of colonial education, based on rigid scholasticism, within which memorization at all costs offended the intelligence of students. Like Varela, he advocated experimentation and the scientific method. He gave great value to the teaching of physics and chemistry, booming after the spread of the lighthouse that represented for them the French Enlightenment and the Cartesian method for the knowledge of subjects and the world, absorbing the most advanced of universal knowledge. Luz y Caballero said that the duty of the teacher was to instill in the students to think for themselves. He considered as a pedagogical conception that the starting point of knowledge was experience and observation. For him the experimental method was the only productive and only truly analytical [methodology]. Thus he began a criticism against the current [Cuban] secondary [colonial] education system and in several articles he carefully analyzed the problems of this level of education, raising with total clarity the convenience of adjusting the teaching of the different subjects to the needs of the country (6).

 

l)

  Friedrich Nietzsche (1921 - 1997)

(1:00 - 1:33)

 

m)

 Paulo Freire (1921 - 1997)

 (1:00 - 4:19)

n)

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927 - 1987)

(1:00 - 2:11)

o)

(1:00 -1:19)

p)

(1:00 - 1:47)

q)

(1:00 - 1:04)

Question 2

What was the main purpose of education for these early philosophers in the West? 

 

---------------------- 

 3

 

African ideas on Education

 

 a)

 (2:00 - 3:29)

Anton Wilhelm Amo (1703 - 1759)

This African philosopher, originally from Ghana, is well-known for his study of the human mind, in which he contends that the human mind is a fully active, immaterial entity that constantly acts autonomously and cannot be acted upon. He was the first African to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy from a European university. Amo's viewpoint on the mind is notably philosophically significant since his account of perception restricts what he can say about the mind-body interaction, notably the possibility of sense-based cognition. He is pretty notable for his dissertation "State of Controversy," in which he frames his ideas as an antithesis to those of Descartes and others. Despite his fame at the time, Amo became little more than a figure of passing interest after his death. In the German Democratic Republic, the University of Halle erected a monument of Amo by Gerhard Geyer in 1965.

 

b)

Kwasi Wiredu (Born 1931)

 

Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu (an African now living in Florida) claims – that one would not necessarily compromise one’s African identity if one draws on other ‘truths’ outside of one’s own African tradition of thought (Wiredu, 2004). He adds that "any African effort to construct a philosophy for contemporary living by combining the insights of traditional philosophy with those originating from elsewhere is an effort in the Africanisation of philosophical studies (Wiredu, 2004: 17)(2). He worked on conceptual decolonization in modern African thinking systems for many decades. This, according to Wiredu, implies re-examining present African epistemic underpinnings to attain sustainability, rationality, and deconstruction of Western epistemologies.(5)

 

 

==============================

 4

 Philosophies of Education

 

 

==========================

5

 LEARNING THEORIES

Today we will introduce the different learning theories used in most educational systems around the world. Please, watch the video below and move the discussion forward by answering to  the following questions:

a)

Question 3

What are learning theories?

--------------------------- 

 

b)

 
The 5 Educational Learning Theories

1. Behaviorism: Behaviorism is using reinforcement and punishment techniques to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. The environment around us shapes us because we are blank slates and so the behaviors of others can influence our behaviors as well. We can be conditioned to follow certain behavior patterns by the people around us. An example can be rats who push the lever every time they get food and then keep continuing that behavior of pushing the lever to get more food. Their behavior of pushing the lever has been conditioned by behaviorism. 

2. Cognitivism: Cognitivism focuses more on the mind and the thinking process through reading texts and lecture instructions. People who learn this way are often thought as information processors. People are rational human beings whose actions are consequences of thinking. It focuses on the processes of mental activities like thinking, memory, knowing, and problem solving. Schema theory is using your own knowledge to further your learning, sort of like a Black Box on an airplane.

3. Constructivism:  Constructivism is a theory in education that recognizes the learners' understanding and knowledge based on their own experiences prior to entering school. It is associated with various philosophical positions, particularly in epistemology as well as ontology, politics, and ethics. It is based on the idea that people are responsible in creating their own understanding of the world by using what they know based on previous experiences in the process of linking new information to these experiences. People use these experiences and new information to construct their own meaning. 

4. Humanism:Humanism is when someone is trying to be a complete person. To do that, one must achieve the tiers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which is separated into three categories: basic needs, psychological needs, and self-fulfillment. The goal is to cultivate a person as a whole and create the most optimal self. A person must gradually ascend the humanistic needs based on a hierarchy to reach their peek potential. Humanism emphasizes the individual’s values, motivations, and goals. Humanistic theory has the basic assumption that people exist with free will and the ability to influence their lives through acts of intentionality. 

5. Connectivism: Connectivism is a theoretical framework for understanding learning in a digital age. It emphasizes how internet technologies such as web browsers, search engines, wikis, online discussion forums, and social networks contributed to new avenues of learning.  Today we live in the social media world with a lot of technology at our disposal. It is very easy to connect all around the world and find new resources and information about any subject. Everyone of all ages can easily connect with the technology at our hands. 

 

 Question 4

Which learning theory do you identify with the most. Explain

 

c)

 

 Other theories:

 
15 Learning Theories in Education (A Complete Summary)

 

d)

 

Developmental Theories

• Hierarchy of Needs - Maslow
• 
  
• Multiple Intelligences - Gardner
• 
  
• Theory of Cognitive Development - Piaget
• 
  
• Zone of Proximal Development _ Vygotsky
• 
  
• Progressive Education (Learning By Doing) - Dewey
• 
  
• Montessori Theory of Teaching (Child chooses what to learn) - Montessori
• 
  
• Theory of Psychological Development - Erickson
  

  Erik Erikson was an ego psychologist who developed one of the most popular and influential theories of development. While his theory was impacted by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's work, Erikson's theory centered on psychosocial development rather than psychosexual development.

  The stages that make up his theory are as follows:
• Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust (Infancy from birth to 18 months)
• Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Toddler years from 18 months to three years)
• Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool years from three to five)
• Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority (Middle school years from six to 11)
• Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion (Teen years from 12 to 18)
• Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young adult years from 18 to 40)
• Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle age from 40 to 65)
• Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair (Older adulthood from 65 to death)
• LINK: https://www.verywellmind.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-2795740
  

" I think it is important to understand that there is not one correct, or "right" theory of learning. All of them are good." Patricia Victor

Question 5

Given the nature of the theories listed above; how would you make them work in a dance/movement learning environment?

--------------------------

 

 

 IV

 

A Note to Remember 

 

 There are three main categories of learning theories, behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Behaviourism is concerned with observable behaviour; it classified learning as acquiring new behaviour based on environment. Cognitivism basically is concern with person thinking process. Constructivism is a theory in education which posits that individuals or learners acquire knowledge and understanding by actively perceiving it within a direct process of knowledge transmission.

 

V

 

Case Studies

Watch the following videos to complement the concepts explained above. Just watch enough to understand the main point. 

 

1

BEHAVIORISM

 B.F. Skinner

 -----------------------

 

2

COGNITIVISM & Constructivism

 Jean Piaget

Cognitivist theory developed as a reaction to Behaviorism and gained credence in the 1950s. Cognitivists objected to behaviorists because they felt that behaviorists thought learning was simply a reaction to a stimulus and ignored the idea that thinking plays an important role. Although many researchers contributed to the development of the learning theory (e.g. Bruner, Vygotsky, Bloom, Ausubel), Piaget’s views had a tremendous impact. Spurred by the work of Piaget (Constructivism), knowledge is viewed as symbolic mental constructs, or schemata. When a learners' schemata are changed, learning takes place. As neuroscientists continue to discover more about how the brain works, cognitive psychologists and educators are concerned with how to use that knowledge in the classroom.

Source: https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/page/view.php?id=147079

-------------------

 

3

CONSTRUCTIVISM

Jim Applegate, Jesse Delia, Brant Burleson

-------------------------

4

HUMANISM

Abraham Maslow

 

 https://youtu.be/LUAie--dGh0

-------------------------

 

5

 

CONECTIVISM

George Siemens

 

Question 6

 

After watching the explanations of the different theories, do you still identify with the same theory? Explain why.

-------------

 VI

 

 

Discussion Questions

Answer the following questions; please be succinct:

Which of these theories do you identify with? Explain

Which theory do you dislike most? Why?

Which of these theories has been used by our American educational system at large? 

 

Which theory was used in your school district during your elementary and secondary education? Explain.

If you were to articulate and propose your own educational theory how would you call it? Explain the main ideas related to your own theory.  

How would you implement your theory in your own classroom?

Which theory is the most compatible with the idea of using the arts as a means to teach academics? Why?

VII

 Activity 2

 

Gather in groups; each group will choose a learning theory to discuss. Using the summaries, prompt questions and videos provided agree on creating your own group theory. Your group will articulate the theory and post it on Discussion Board.

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VIII

Journaling

IX

Glossary

X

Sources

 

1. ÂŞIK EV, Hacer (2017). LEARNING-TEACHING METHODS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD (P.B.U.H.). https://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/articles/learningteaching-methods-of-the-prophet-muhammad-pbuh.pdf

2. A Way of Thinking and Doing (2016).  https://meapsite.wordpress.com/week-1-giving-thought-to-african-philosophy-of-education/

3. Clarici, Lee A. (2011). The Educational Theory of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. https://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Buddha.html

4. Jaworska-Wołoszyn, Magdalena(2016). Michael Psellos' 'When Students Did Not Come to School because It Was Raining.' https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304670854_Michael_Psellos%27_%27When_Students_Did_Not_Come_to_School_because_It_Was_Raining%27

5. Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/666/

5. Subramania, Anand (2021). 5 African Philosophers Everyone Should Know About. https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2021/08/13/365200/5-african-philosophers-everyone-should-know-about

 6. Works by José de la Luz y Caballero II (n.d.). https://linkgua-ediciones.com/en/producto/works-by-jose-de-la-luz-y-caballero-ii/

 

XI

 Students' Work