Understanding and Using Educational Theories

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Spaced practice involves returning to previously learned concepts at later times, but information professionals often teach one-shot sessions. Can you think of ways to integrate spaced practice into a one-shot session? Perry, W. G., Jr. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years; A scheme. Holt. Keeping this idea of learning across theories in mind, we can sum up the key takeaways from this chapter: This textbook gives you a clear overview of the most influential twentieth and twenty-first century thinkers on education, including established names (including Vygotsky, Bruner, Dewey), more recent writers (such as Freire, Kolb, Claxton) and many other important theorists whose writings have helped shaped our views on teaching and learning.

Karl Aubrey is a Visiting Tutor on the Professional Studies in Education programmes at Bishop Grosseteste University. Prior to this Karl was the Programme Leader for a range of initial teacher education and professional development programmes at a large city further education college. Between 2003 and 2005 he was seconded to the DfES Standards Unit as a learning and teaching practitioner in the East Midlands. Karl has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of Education. His doctoral thesis explored the reforms in further education teacher education from 2000 to 2010, from the viewpoint of teacher educators. Karl's research interests include inclusion, education policy, pedagogy and work-based learning. This book takes a student-centered approach to describing learning theory. Chapter 7 provides an excellent overview of motivation and self-efficacy, including implications for practice. References Social constructivism builds on the traditions of constructivism and cognitivism; whereas those theories focus on how individuals process information and construct meaning, social constructivists also consider how people’s interactions with others impact their understanding of the world. Social constructivists recognize that different people can have different reactions and develop different understandings from the same events and circumstances, and are interested in how factors such as identity, family, community, and culture help shape those understandings (Mercadal, 2018).While cognitivists and constructivists view other people as mostly incidental to an individual’s learning, social constructivists see community as central. Social constructivism can be defined as “the belief that the meanings attached to experience are socially assembled, depending on the culture in which the child is reared and on the child’s caretakers” (Schaffer, 2006). Like constructivism, social constructivism centers on the learners’ experiences and engagement, and sees the role of the instructor as a facilitator or guide. Two of the major theorists associated with social constructivism are Pierre Bourdieu and Lev Vygotsky. Knowles proposed andragogy as “the art and science of helping adults learn” (1988, p. 43). Andragogy is based on a set of assumptions about the ways in which adult learners’ experience, motivations, and needs differ from those of younger students, and suggests that traditional classroom approaches developed with younger students in mind will not necessarily be successful with adult learners. Perhaps one of the biggest differences between child and adult learners, according to Knowles (1988), is that adults are interested in the immediate applicability of what they are learning and are often motivated by their social roles as employees, parents, and so on. As Knowles notes, in traditional classrooms, children are usually taught discrete subjects like math, reading, and history, and their learning is focused on building up knowledge for the future. Young students might not use geometry in their everyday lives, but it forms a foundation for more complex math and for future job or life tasks like measuring materials for home repairs.While learning theories can be interesting on their own, our goal as instructors is to apply them to classroom practice. Imagine that you are a high school librarian working with a class that has just been assigned a research paper. Your goal for this session is for students to brainstorm keywords and synonyms for their topics, and to learn how to string those words together using the Boolean operators and, or, and not. You want to be sure the students understand the function of the Boolean operators and can remember how to use them for future searches. Roy, L., & Novotny, E. (2000). How do we learn? Contributions of learning theory to reference services and library instruction. Reference Librarian, 33(69/70), 129-139. https://doi.org/10.1300/J120v33n69_13 Assess performance. Employ measures such as assignments, activities, and projects to gauge whether learning has occurred.

Sharp, A. (2012). Humanistic approaches to learning. In N.M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer. Learning theories describe the conditions and processes through which learning occurs, providing teachers with models to develop instruction sessions that lead to better learning. These theories explain the processes that people engage in as they make sense of information, and how they integrate that information into their mental models so that it becomes new knowledge. Learning theories also examine what motivates people to learn, and what circumstances enable or hinder learning. Learning theories are meant to help instructors understand the processes and circumstances that enable learning and, by extension, offer guidance in developing activities and environments that best support learning. But what to make of the fact that there are so many different theories and that some contradict each other? The truth is that the human brain and its cognitive processes are incredibly complex and not yet fully understood. Learning theorists do their best to describe how people learn based on careful observation and experimentation, but no learning theory is perfect. Indeed, each theory has its critics, and the various theories go in and out of favor over time. Even so, the theories provide us with an empirically based understanding of how learning occurs. Because humanists see people as autonomous beings, they believe that learning should be self-directed, meaning students should have some choice in what and how they learn. Humanistic education is often connected with student-centered pedagogical approaches such as differentiated curricula, self-paced learning, and discovery learning (Lucas, 1996). Self-directed learning can take many forms, but it generally means that the instructor acts as a guide, and learners are given the freedom to take responsibility for their own learning. Teachers will provide the materials and opportunities for learning, but students will engage with the learning on their own terms. In a library classroom, we can give students choices about the topics they will research or offer learners different types of activities to practice skills and demonstrate what they have learned.

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In this foundational work, Freire presents the concept of the banking model of education. This book provides a social justice foundation for a humanistic approach to education. Cognitivism, or cognitive psychology, was pioneered in the mid-twentieth century by scientists including George Miller, Ulric Neisser, and Noam Chomsky. Whereas behaviorists focus on the external environment and observable behavior, cognitive psychologists are interested in mental processes (Codington-Lacerte, 2018). They assert that behavior and learning entail more than just response to environmental stimuli and require rational thought and active participation in the learning process (Clark, 2018). To cognitivists, learning can be described as “acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory so you can make sense of future problems and opportunities” (Brown et al., 2014, p. 2). Adult learners also have a larger store of knowledge and experience than their younger counterparts. From a cognitivist or constructivist point of view, adults have a larger schema against which to compare new information and make new connections. As instructors, we should recognize this store of knowledge and find ways to integrate it into the classroom, by providing ample opportunity for reflection and using guiding questions to encourage learners to draw on that knowledge. We can approach adult learners as peers or co-learners, acting more as coaches or facilitators in the learning process than as the more directive teacher associated with a traditional school classroom. This focus on learner-centered approaches and a democratic environment overlaps with humanistic and constructivist approaches to teaching. Stimulate recall of prior learning. Encourage students to remember previously learned relevant skills and knowledge before introducing new information.

The learning theories outlined above discuss various cognitive processes involved in learning, as well as some of the motivators and conditions that facilitate learning. While these theories attempt to describe how people learn, it is important to note that individuals are not born ready to engage in all of these processes at once, nor do they necessarily all engage in the same processes at the same time. Rather, more complex processes develop over time as people experience the world and as their brain matures. In addition to studying how people learn, some theorists have also proposed theories or frameworks to describe developmental stages, or the various points in human development when different cognitive processes are enabled, and different kinds of learning can occur. Zucca-Scott, L. (2010). Know thyself: The importance of humanism in education. International Education, 40(1), 32-38. Mellon, C. A. (1986). Library anxiety: A grounded theory and its development. College & Research Libraries, 47(2), 160-165. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.3.276Humanism centers the individual person as the subject and recognizes learners as whole beings with emotional and affective states that accompany their cognitive development. Recognizing the role of students’ emotions means understanding how those emotions impact learning. Student anxiety, say around a test or a research paper, can interfere with the cognitive processes necessary to be successful. Empathetic teachers recognize and try to understand students’ emotional states, taking steps to alleviate negative emotions that might detract from learning by creating a supportive learning environment.

While testing has fallen out of favor with many educators and education theorists, cognitivists find tests can be beneficial as both a retrieval practice and a diagnostic tool. They view tests not only as a way to measure what has been learned but as a way to practice retrieval of important concepts, and as a way to identify gaps or weaknesses in knowledge so that learners know where to concentrate their efforts (Brown et al., 2014). Cognitivists encourage “spaced practice,” or recalling previously learned information at regular intervals, and “interleaving,” or learning related concepts together to establish connections among them. Their research has found that retrieval is more effective when the brain is forced to recall information after some time has passed, and when the recall involves two or more related subjects or concepts. Finally, cognitivists also promote problem-based learning, maintaining that “trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt” (Brown et al., 2014, p.4). Elicit performance. Allow time for students to practice skills and demonstrate their abilities. Ideally, students would be given low-stakes opportunities for practice, so they feel comfortable if they do not succeed immediately. Understanding the stages laid out by Piaget and Perry, we can develop lessons that are appropriate to learners at each stage. For example, in presenting a lesson on climate change to preoperational students using Piaget’s framework, an instructor could gather pictures of different animal habitats, or take children on a nature walk to observe the surrounding environment. Instructors could ask these children to describe what they see and reflect on their personal experiences with weather, while older children could be asked to imagine how the changes are impacting other people and organisms, anticipate consequences of the impact of climate change, and perhaps use problem solving to propose steps to improve their environment. Considering Perry’s Scheme, instructors might guide students from multiplicity to relativism by explaining scientific methods for measuring climate, and challenging learners to evaluate and compare different sources of information to determine which presents the strongest evidence. Enhance retention and transfer. Give students opportunities to practice skills in new contexts, which improves retention and helps students see how the skills are applied to different areas.Piaget and Perry offer developmental models that outline stages broadly aligned with a person’s age. Both models assume a relatively linear chronological development, with children and young adults passing through different stages at roughly the same time. Vygotsky, on the other hand, describes a model that focuses more on the content being mastered rather than the age of the student. According to Vygotsky’s theory, known as Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), as learners acquire new knowledge or develop new skills, they pass through three stages, often illustrated as concentric circles, as in Figure 3.2. The center circle, or first zone, represents tasks that the learner can do on their own. The second zone, or the Zone of Proximal Development, represents an area of knowledge or set of tasks that the learner can accomplish with assistance. The tasks and knowledge in this zone require students to stretch their abilities somewhat beyond their current skill level but are not so challenging as to be completely frustrating. The outermost circle, or third zone, represents tasks that the learner cannot yet do. Vygotsky posits that by working within the ZPD, learners can continue to grow their skills and abilities and increase their knowledge (Flair, 2019). Make the material appropriately challenging. Reminiscent of the Zone of Proximal Development, material that is too easy will be boring for learners, while material that is too challenging will be overwhelming and frustrating. This article offers a thorough overview of andragogy and the characteristics and motivators of adult learners and offers library-specific advice for teaching adult students.