What is learning? What takes place in the
minds of people when they are learning? These questions have been the focus for
philosophers, researchers, teachers, and medical doctors throughout history. As a
Walden University student in my Learning Theories and Instruction course, I had
to definitely pause and ask myself the following questions “what is learning to
me and how do I best learn?” From the
offset, I had to refresh what a theory was before I could conceptual its
relationship to learning. Wikipedia
explains a theory as a postulation
about what ought to be. Additionally, it
is "an hypothesis or set of hypotheses that have been verified by
observation and experiment. At best, it is a generalization or explanatory model of
some kind, e.g. constructivism or behaviorism. "[
As
an educator for the last 17 years, I was required to take a “Foundation’s in Education”
class from the perspective of pedagogical teaching. I should have remembered learning about
various philosophers from this course, but I vaguely remember their theories
until I took this class. To say the least, it do not gain as much from taking
it then than I did from taking the course now.
Ormrod, Schunk, and Gredler (2008) spoke volumes in their introduction
when defining learning as a multi-faceted process that individuals typically
take for granted until they experience difficulty with a complex task. What
I found surprising or striking as I furthered my weekly knowledge about how
people learn how the brain works. Rathus (2010) states that the nervous system
regulates our internal functions and is involved in thinking, dreaming,
feeling, moving, reacting to the external world, as well as, learning and
memory. The three basic components of neurons are: a cell body, dendrites, and
an axon. The cell body produces energy that fuels the neuron’s activity. The
thin fibers that branch out from the cell body are called dendrites. Their
function is to receive information from other neurons and pass the message
through the cell body. The axon transmits messages away from it. This course has deepened your understanding
of your personal learning process. Ormrod,
Schunk, and Gredler (2008) determine that many
factors influence brain development, e.g. heredity and environment. More
importantly, I discovered that motivation plays a vital role in whether or not
I learn. This too holds true to getting and keeping my attention and retaining
what I have learned as well.
Chunking is one way to reduce cognitive
overload and the amount of information you have to hold in your short-term
memory. Philosophers such as, Piaget, 1926, 1936/1975; Bruner, 1960, 1966, 1971, 1986;
and Vygotsky, 1962 where sequential development of individual mental
processes such as recognize, recall, analyze, reflect, apply, create,
understand, and evaluate are scaffolded. The learning technique is adoptive
learning of procedures, organization, and structure to develop an internal
cognitive structure that strengthens synapses in the brain.
The connection between learning theories,
learning styles, educational technology, and motivation from the perspective of
the instructional designer is based upon the instructional needs for the
learner and the usefulness of the assessment to the design project or goals of
interest. Instructional designers must design strategies or opportunities for
learning using multiple learning experiences for an online community.
Motivation is a key factor for gaining content knowledge and building new
skills. Studying this course will help
me further my career in the field of instructional design to make the learning
experience meaningful for adult learners with different educational and
cultural backgrounds, genders, and attitudes about learning. Unlike that of the
behaviorist theory who uses cueing to obtain a stimulus-response for the
correct answer. According to Ertmer and
Newby (1993) cognitive theorist emphasize making learning more meaning and
helping learners organize and relate new information to existing knowledge in
memory. This can be especially useful as an instructional designer who
incorporates technology into the learning environment when training adults to
use new software applications to improve workplace performance.
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology
of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T.
J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical
features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement
Quarterly, 6(4), 50–71
Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., &
Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom
edition). New York: Pearson.
Rathus, S. A. (2010). Psychology: principles in practice. Austin, TX: Holt McDougal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_theory#Educational_philosophies.
Retrieved on March 3, 2013.
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