Approaches to Learning – Ways of Learning 1

1. Approaches to Learning –Ways of Learning 1 Year 1 Semester 2 Week 2

2. Week 1 Independent Study Task Your personal learning experiences: • Were they positive or negative learning experiences? What made them so? • Were there any “significant breakthrough” moments? What triggered these? • Who played a significant part in your learning- how? • Compare e.g. learning to cycle with learning to read. Similarities? Differences? • Is all successful learning fundamentally the same?

3. What did the Victorians believe about learning?

4. What do we believe now?

5. EARLY LIFE Stable family life in a small railroad town in Pennsylvania His inventive interests came early Unremarkable early education Burrhus Skinner 1904-1990

6. Skinner’s Theory: • He was one of a group of theorists known as the BEHAVIOURISTS • Behaviourism is sometimes known as learning theory • Behaviourists believe all behaviour is learned and can be shaped: NURTURE v NATURE • Humans act to avoid punishment & gain reward • Skinner emphasised reward, saying punishment was counter-productive. • Tasks were broken down into small steps & reinforced, rewarded as they were learned.

7. Rewards • What rewards have you seen used to reinforce desired behaviour / learning in the classroom and beyond? • Are there any disadvantages to offering rewards?

8. Skinner’s influence in the classroom • Programmed instruction – certain computer programmes / workbooks – material offered in small steps, self-correcting • Repetition, drill & practice ( e.g. spellings|, times tables) • Behaviour management

9. Limitations of the approach • Work was carried out on rodents & pigeons but applied to humans – its critics say it provides a simplistic view of human learning & motivation • Rewards can be counter-productive – EXTRINSIC v INTRINSIC motivation • Child is seen as passive receiver of knowledge • Led in the past to teaching by direct instruction – didactic, chalk & talk

10. Ignores emotion & complexities of human behaviour – no ‘mind’ or ‘soul’ only a brain! • Focuses on behaviour rather than thinking or feeling – so can be authoritarian by nature • Ignores judgement / reflection / ways patterns of learning can be adapted to new information • Little reference to developmental stages of the child which might affect what s/he can understand

11. VIDEO CLIP • Davidson Films, Inc : Giants Series

12. Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, was the first person to propose an overall theory of cognitive development, based on the way children of different ages behave. His theory is called CONSTRUCTIVISM Jean Piaget 1896 - 1980

13. His theory: • Based on the idea that the minds of young babies work in very different ways from the minds of adults – they are not mini-adults • Thinking passes through a series of distinct and consecutive stages en route to its adult form.

14. Key ideas • Schema: the mental representations that develop as children have new experiences & put new ideas together (Ref: Child Development Semester 1) • Assimilation: the process of taking in and recognising when experiencing something new • Accommodation: the process of learning by altering existing states of knowledge • Disequilibrium: new ideas cause discomfort. They need to be assimilated to restore equilibrium – feeling comfortable with our thinking.

15. PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:

16. Implications for Learning & Teaching • Ideas & knowledge should be presented at a level consistent with that the child is at • Teaching should be matched to the needs of the individual: children need to be presented with experiences that trigger assimilation & accommodation – e.g. when teaching a new concept in science, we must ask how closely this is related to the child’s previous learning (accommodation) or is it completely new (assimilation). • Learning should be supported by action – first-hand experience • Periods of play & exploration are needed for development

17. Limitations • Piaget used a limited range of subjects in a clinical situation – including his own three children! • The stages are not a continuous development but are ‘shifts’ in thinking; implying a ceiling on children’s development rather than emphasising what they can do. • There is too little emphasis on the social and emotional aspects of learning. [Susan Isaacs] • There is not enough emphasis on the social components of the learning experience. [Lev Vygotsky]

18. Difficulties of language & context • Piaget’s clinical questions did not always make ‘human sense’ to the child [such as the mountain task which is disembedded from the child’s thinking] • As an experimenter Piaget loses sight of what language is to the child. He often does not work in a meaningful context that the child can relate to • Changing the task, the situation or the language to a more familiar child context has been shown to result in more children giving a correct answer, showing that children are not as limited in their ability to decentre as Piaget described [Margaret Donaldson]

19. VIDEO CLIP • Davidson Films, Inc : Giants Series

20. INDEPENDENT STUDY TASK Identifying your own learning style. • Complete the long learning styles questionnaire you have been given and work out your score. We will collect these next week. (work quickly and intuitively – don’t think about it too much!) • Use the following web-links to try two alternative tests- do you come out with similar results: • http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html • http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/choose_lang.cfm • READ: Franklin, S. ( 2006) ‘VAKing out learning styles-why the notion of ‘learning styles’ is unhelpful to teachers’ Education 3-13 34 (1) pp.81-87 – SEE READING PACK We will discuss this article and your results next week.