Learning theories

Although I have been teaching for many years, I have little more than a handful of PD days in terms of formal teaching training. My education focused on learning accounting. Learning theories are brand new to me.

Behaviorism - Knowledge is behavioral response to stimuli and learning is the process of pouring a pre-determined body of knowledge into the learner

Although this seems very simplistic, as an approach to humans, I have extensive experience training dogs in this paradigm. There are, I’m embarrassed to admit, times when I follow this logic for students, but generally it has to do with how I want students to behave in class, not with how I want them to interact with my subject matter. For example I may become increasingly distant with a student who is over-communicating.

Cognitivism - Emphasizes that human cognition is a special ability. The theory focusses on cognition itself.

As much as I read about this, I don’t really understand the point. Perhaps too theoretical for me?

Constructivism - Knowledge is actively constructed by learners and therefor new information is assembled onto existing frameworks.

I like this idea and I think it plays out often in my classrooms through the use of cases. Teaching with business cases is a real passion of mine and I love the way it allows the learner to build meaning to support their position.

I often tell my students that learning about the basics of accounting is an important foundation even if in their lives beyond school they will likely work with software systems that do all the heavy lifting for them. Hopefully learning about learning will work the same for me.

References:

Overview of Learning Theories. (2020). Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/learning-theory-research/learning-overview/

Cognitivism (psychology). (2020, October 13). Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitivism_(psychology)