Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning
Learning Theory and Online Instruction
A basic understanding of learning theory is an important
foundation to teaching. 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 that take into
consideration these complex factors in an effort to explain how learning occurs
and prescribe instructional strategies to facilitate learning. If instructional
strategies are not grounded in understanding of how learning occurs, they are
unproductive and do little to affect learner persistence. In addition, there is
an opportunity to maximize retention and transfer by linking basic research
about the process of learning with instructional strategies (Tennyson &
Schott, 1997). This approach is important to help learners use the skills and
knowledge gained through educational experiences in the real world.
In this chapter, we look at the psychological foundations
of learning, including behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, to understand
how each of these learning theories contributes to our understanding of
learning and the instructional strategies we use in teaching.
Behaviorism
Learning in the 1950s and 1960s was based on behaviorist
learning theories. Behaviorism is grounded in the study of observable behavior
and does not take into consideration the functions of the mind. When
behaviorism was introduced, the mind was considered a black box that could not
be accessed. 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 reward and punishment. There are two types of conditioning associated
with behaviorism: Ivan Pavlov's classical conditioning and B. F. Skinner's
operant conditioning. Pavlov used animals to discover the principles of
learning based on natural reflexes that respond to stimuli. Most prominent was
Pavlov's work with dogs to teach them to salivate to the sound of a bell. In
his experiments, he demonstrated classical conditioning, in which an
association is created between two
stimuli (Pavlov, 1927). Skinner's operant conditioning experiments conditioned
rats and pigeons to press or peck a lever to obtain pellets of food in an
apparatus known as a Skinner Box. The experiments were based on the theory that
organisms emit responses, which are gradually shaped by consequences. If a
response has a reward, it is more likely to occur again and if it does not, it
is less likely to occur. Skinner's operant conditioning demonstrated that
associations are formed between a behavior and a consequence (Skinner, 1938).
Based on these types of experiments with animals,
behaviorists proposed that learning is influenced by associations between
behaviors and consequences. Behavior is 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 Moore (as cited in Tennyson & Schott,
1997), the goal from the behaviorist perspective was the development of
instruction that would enable the majority of students to achieve levels of
performance predetermined by behaviorally defined objectives. Learning that
involves recalling facts, defining concepts and explanations, or performing
procedures are best explained by behaviorist learning strategies, which focus
on attainment of specific goals or outcomes. In behaviorist theory, learners
are more passive in the learning process. The learners' role is simply to
respond to the learning content and demonstrate a level of performance on specific
goals and objectives. Pedagogy based on behaviorism focuses on the ability to
modify observable behavior to acquire knowledge or skills. The operant model of
stimulus-response-reinforcenment ensures that prescribed learning outcomes are
achieved. In this model, the instructor provides learners with information
about the appropriateness of the
behavior through frequent feedback. This feedback either reinforces learners'
behavior or determines consequences in the form of corrective actions for the
learner to achieve the desired performance behavior. This requires continuous
monitoring and feedback from the instructor.
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. Behaviorists focus on "identifying small, incremental tasks,
or sub skills that the learner needed to acquire for successful completion of
instruction, designing specific objectives that would lead to the acquisition
of those sub skills, and sequencing sub skill acquisition in the order that
would most efficiently lead to successful learner outcomes" (Tennyson
& Schott, 1997, p. 5).
Cognitivism
In the late 1960s and 1970s psychology moved from the
study of behavior to the study of the mind, and cognitivism emerged as a new
theory of how learning occurs. According to cognitivism, knowledge is still
considered to exist outside of the person; however, its focus is on
understanding how human memory works to acquire knowledge and promote learning.
The theory's foundation is information processes and understanding the memory
structures of the mind for knowledge acquisition. In addition, the theory
establishes conditions of learning and strategies to incorporate individual
differences into the design of instruction, including the use of pretests and
more formative assessment strategies. In cognitivism, task analysis shifts from
behavioral objectives to performance; the different stages of performance
extend from novice to expert (Tennyson & Schott, 1997).
The environment continues to have the greatest impact on
learning; however, there is more focus 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 how information is presented and the relevance of the
information. If information is presented poorly or too much irrelevant
information is associated with relevant information, the learner may have
difficulty sorting and organizing the information. This difficulty, in turn,
can have an impact on storage, retrieval, and transfer?functions that are
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.
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 braid higher levels
of understanding. Instructional strategies based on cognitive theory consider
the organization of content for learning and focus on information processing,
including organization, retrieval, and application.
David Ausubel (1960) developed the concept of the advance
organizer (information that is presented prior to learning) and researched how
use of advance organizers can scaffold the learning of new information. Advance
organizers stimulate schema to help learners link prior knowledge with new
information. An example of an advance organizer is a summary of the main ideas
in a reading passage and explanations of content at a "higher level of
abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness than the reading itself"
(Ausubel, 1963, p. 81).
Robert Gagne (1985) proposed nine events of learning that
correspond with specific cognitive processes. Gagne's nine events are a
systematic organizational process for learning and include the following:
- Gaining the learners' attention
- Informing them of the learning objectives
- Stimulating recall of prior learning
- Presenting stimulus in the form of content to be
learned
- Providing guidance
- Eliciting performance through instructional activities
- Providing feedback
- Assessing performance
- Enhancing retention and transfer
Gagne proposed that these nine events provide the
conditions of learning and 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 the nine events could provide the
appropriate level of scaffolding to support learning.
According to cognitivism, learners play a more active
role in learning by actively organizing the learning process. The emphasis of
cognitivism is on helping learners organize information for successful
processing into long-term memory and recall. Cognitive strategies focus on
internal learning and thinking processes, including "problem solving,
organizing information, reducing anxiety, developing self-monitoring skills,
and enhancing positive attitudes" (Tennyson & Schott, 1997, p. 8). 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,
cognitivism postulates that 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.
Instructors should provide the appropriate context for learners
to draw on prior knowledge and fit new information into existing schema. For
learners with little prior knowledge, instructors need to provide opportunities
to create new schema by relating the new information to something that is
familiar to them.
Constructivism
Constructivism became popular in the 1980s. It describes
learning as a process in which learners construct knowledge and meaning by
integrating prior knowledge, beliefs, and experiences. 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). Control of the environment is not a focus of the
constructivist theory of learning. Instead, it emphasizes the synthesis and
integration of knowledge and skills into an individual's experiences. This
theory addresses some of the limitations of other learning theories that
emphasize components instead of integrated wholes.
There are two types of constructivism: cognitive
constructivism and social constructivism. Cognitive constructivism focuses on
the individual characteristics or attributes of the learner and their impact on
learning. Social constructivism focuses on how meaning and understanding are
created through social interaction. Together, they view knowledge acquisition
as a means of interpreting incoming information through an individual's unique
lens, which includes his or her personality, beliefs, culture, and experiences.
Based on interpretations, knowledge has meaning and learners build schema to
represent what they know.
Jean Piaget's (1985) theory of cognitive constructivism
proposed that knowledge cannot be simply transmitted to a person but must be
constructed through experience. Experiences allow individuals to construct
mental models or schemas, and knowledge construction is based on a change in
schema through assimilation and accommodation. If the incoming information can
be associated with existing information, assimilation of the incoming
information into the already formed schemas occurs and equilibrium is
maintained. If the incoming information conflicts with current thinking,
cognitive dissonance occurs; this is an uncomfortable feeling that stems from
holding conflicting ideas at the same time. Cognitive dissonance requires a
change in existing schemas to accommodate incoming information. In addition,
Piaget believed that learning is based on interaction with the environment
around us, so real-world practice is important.
Social constructivism emphasizes the social nature of
learning. Lev Vygotsky (1978) proposed that learning could not be separated
from the social context in which it occurs, nor could accommodation and
assimilation occur without the active integration of the learner in a community
of practice. He saw learning as a collaborative process, and he developed a
theory called the zone of proximal development (ZPD) to explain the collaborative
nature of learning (Vygotsky, 1978). This theory distinguishes between two
levels of development. One is the level of development that a learner can reach
independently. The second is the potential level of development a learner can
achieve with the support of an instructor or peers. This theory argues that
with help from an instructor or peers, learners can understand concepts and
ideas that they cannot understand on their own. It supports an instructional
strategy of providing learners just enough scaffolding or support to help them
reach the next level of
understanding. This scaffolding in turn allows learners to work independently
until they no longer can learn without support. Instruction again is supported
through the instructor or peers, and the learner continues to reach higher
levels of understanding through their guidance.
According to constructivism, memory is continuously under
construction as a person interacts with incoming information in unique contexts
that require them to draw upon prior knowledge from different sources. Either
accommodation or assimilation of new information into existing schemas occurs,
which builds deeper levels of understanding and meaning. Transfer involves the
use of meaningful contexts that allow the learning to be transferred to a novel
situation and applied. Real-world examples, as well as opportunities to solve
real-world problems, allow for the greatest opportunity for transfer.
Constructivist theories do not categorize learning into
types but hold that all learning is context dependent. One of the problems with
constructivist learning theories is the assumption that all learners come to
the learning situation with prior knowledge and that the goal of learning is to
activate prior knowledge and build additional understanding and meaning.
Learners who are new to a field of study may not have prior knowledge, so
building instructional strategies that require them to draw on prior knowledge
and deal with ill-structured problems can be frustrating and overwhelming. For
learners who do not have prior knowledge and experience, there are cognitive
strategies such as the use of advance organizers and conceptual scaffolds that
can be used to replace the lack of prior knowledge and experience. These
strategies are addressed in more detail in Chapter 9.
From the constructivist perspective, learners are not
merely passive receivers of knowledge, they are active participants in the
learning process and knowledge construction. 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. Instructors who base their pedagogy on constructivism take on a
new role of facilitator rather than lecturer by actively observing and
assessing the current state of individual learners and providing learning
strategies to help them interpret and understand the content. The facilitation
role includes providing relevant context for learners who may not have prior
knowledge and experience with the subject to help them organize the content
into relevant schemas for acquiring knowledge. The instructor must develop
skill in assessing the current state of learners and adapt the learning
experience to support their attainment of
goals. The
instructor must also have an understanding of individual learning styles to
provide effective strategies to help learners plan, monitor, and evaluate their
thinking during learning.
References
Ausubel. D. P. (1960). The use of advance organizers in
the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 51, 267-272.
Ausubel, D. P. (1963). The psychology of meaningful
verbal learning. New York: Grune & Stratton.
Gagne, R. (1985). The conditions of learning (4th ed.).
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes: An
investigation of the physiological activity of the cerebral cortex (G.V. Anrep,
trans.). London: Oxford University Press.
Piaget, J. (1985). The equilibration of cognitive
structures. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. New
York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Tennyson, R. D. & Schott, F. (1997). Instructional
design theory research and models. In R. D. Tennyson, F. Schott, N. Seel, &
S. Dijkstra. Instructional design: International perspective. Vol. 1, Theory,
research, and models. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Tomorrow's Professor: Learning Theory and Online Instruction
