Theories of Learning

Claire O’Malley

School of Psychology

Outline Three perspectives on learning:

Associationist skill acquisition

Constructivist representational change

Sociocultural apprenticeship to communities of practice

Implications for teaching

1. Learning as skill acquisition Re-representing

declarative (explicit) knowledge as condition-action rules (procedures / implicit)

Progressive automatisation of procedures

Associationism

Fred Skinner John Anderson

1904-1990

1947-

Skinner’s Learning Theory

Operant conditioning

Conditioning stimulus-response (S-R) associations through reinforcement

Shaping behaviour through selective reinforcement

Anderson’s ACT theory

Facts(knowing

that)

Skills(knowing

how)

Experts Remember better Use different problem solving strategies to

novices Have better & more elaborated problem

representations Superior performance is based on knowledge

not some basic capacity Become expert through extensive practice

Stages of skill acquisition Declarative representation Proceduralisation

Condition-action rulesIF same weight on each side

THEN the beam is balanced

IF any side has more weight

THEN that side of the beam goes down

Automaticity

Tutoring Identify goal structure of problem space Provide instruction in the problem

solving context Immediate response to learner errors Provide reminders of the learning goal Support successive approximations to

competent performance

Implications for design Learning by doing (active engagement) Learning taxonomies (e.g., concept classification vs

rule following) guide selection of learning objectives and instructional strategies

Conditions can be identified that lead to effective learning (I.e., to achieve x objective, arrange for y conditions)

Explicit formulation of behavioural (observable) objectives

Focus on learning outcomes Consistency between objectives, instructional

strategies & assessment

Implications for design Decomposition of tasks Parts-to-whole instructional strategy (I.e., learn sub-

tasks first) Small successes Response-sensitive feedback The closer the training to job performance, the more

effective (I.e., just-in-time learning) Direct instruction, practice & transfer Individualised instruction (I.e., adapted to individual

needs)

2. Representational change Restructuring prior

knowledge to accommodate new information

Process of explicitation of implicit knowledge

Constructivism

Jean Piaget

1896-1980

Jerome Bruner

1915-

Jean Piaget

Worked with Binet on developing intelligence tests

Clinical interviews and observational methods

Interested in the relation between biological and psychological development

Goal was to develop a scientific method for understanding how knowledge is acquired

Genetic epistemology Knowledge develops by becoming increasingly

organised and adaptive to the environment Intellectual development takes place through the

active construction of knowledge by the individual acting in the world

Knowledge construction is driven by the need to resolve conflicts between prior knowledge and new information as it is encountered

Children in different cultures pass through the same stages and sub-stages predicted by Piaget’s theory (up to & including concrete operations)

Rates of development vary across cultures (décalages)

Schooling & literacy affect rates of development

BUT formal operational thinking is not universal

Evidence for Piaget’s theory

Two major problems The progressive construction of logic passes

through a series of universal stages The same (i.e., isomorphic) problems framed in

different ways could be solved by very young children or could present problems for adults

Logic as the appropriate framework for thinking about the development of mind but logic is only one (specialised) form of

reasoning other forms (e.g., pragmatic reasoning schemas)

are just as rational

J.S. Bruner (1915- ) Emphasis on processes of coming to

know rather than structure of knowledge Domain dependent individual

differences rather than universal stages But shared Piaget’s emphasis on the

importance of action and problem solving

Modes of representation Enactive – similar to Piaget’s notion of practical

intelligence E.g., child can sort objects according to shape

Iconic – representations bearing one-to-one correspondence with represented object

E.g., picture of object Symbolic – representations that do not have one-to-

one correspondences E.g., ‘+’, ‘x’

Instruction Instruction should concern the experiences

and contexts that make students willing and able to learn (readiness)

Curriculum should be structured so that it can be easily grasped (spiral organisation)

Instruction should be designed to enable extrapolation (going beyond the information given)

NB: scaffolding (and relation to Vygotsky…)

Development and learning

Piaget Development as active construction of

knowledge; learning as passive formation of associations (therefore not of interest!)

More recent developmental theory reconciles the distinction between learning and development E.g., Constraints theory (Case; Karmiloff-

Smith; Gelman) NB: see Siegler (2000)

Implications for design Stages of information processing Cognitive task analysis can be used to

identify errors and target instruction Attentional demands Prior knowledge Working memory load Distinction between declarative and

procedural knowledge But see Rittle-Johnson et al., 2001

Implications for design Skill compilation Meaningful encoding (chunking; elaboration) Forms of representation Metacognition, self-regulation Motivation Experts versus novices Developmental constraints on learning Conceptual change (schemas, mental

models)

3. Apprenticeship Learning as legitimate

peripheral participation in communities of practice

Learning as situated in practical action

Learning as meaning-making

Sociocultural theory

Lev Vygotsky

Michael Cole

Vygotsky (1896-1934)Genetic (developmental) method

Higher mental processes in the individual have their origins in social processes

Higher mental processes can be understood by studying how they are mediated by tools, artefacts and signs

Zone of proximal development

‘Genetic law of cultural development’“development appears on two planes, first on

the inter-psychological then on the intra-psychological”

(Vygotksy)

The Social Origins of Mind

"the distance between a child's actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the higher level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers"

(Vygotsky)

The Zone of Proximal Development

INTRA-INDIVIDUAL DOMAIN

INTERPERSONAL DOMAIN

SOCIOCULTURAL DOMAIN

The child experiences concepts in practice & through negotiation of meaning

The child learns, through media, parents, teachers & peers, the frameworks for making sense

Co-ordinated interaction with peers and teachers filters the cultural framework. This interaction is itself defined by culture.

The Individual, Social & Cultural

Smith, Cowie & Blades (2003), p. 494

Scaffolding & contingent tutoring

David Wood (based on Bruner’s theory) Goals

The learner should not succeed too easily Nor fail too often

Principles When learners are in trouble, give more

help than before (scaffolding) When they succeed, give less help than

before (fading)

Example: ‘Tower of Nottingham’

Levels of instruction

Level 1 General encouragment“Carry on!”, “You’ve made a pair”

Level 2 Specific verbal information“Get a bigger one”, “Turn them round”

Level 3 SelectionPointing at or handing over material, as well as

verbal cuesLevel 4 Orientation

Lining up blocksLevel 5 Demonstration

Successful construction by tutor

Contingent InstructionContingent Non-contingent

Tutor Learner Tutor Learner4c -- 4c ---- success -- success3c -- 5n ---- success -- in trouble1c -- 1n ---- in trouble -- wrong blocks2c -- 1n ---- wrong construct -- success3c -- 3n --

Situated Learning

Jean Lave

Barbara Rogoff

Problems for cognitive psychology

Practical action is not always driven by plans People aren’t very good at formal reasoning Transfer of knowledge from context to context

is hard to achieve Ecological validity is problematic because we

treat context as a ‘nuisance variable’

Paradigms of person-environment interaction

Behaviourism individual as passive recipient of

information from the environment Constructivism

focus on individual activity; environment seen as a ‘trigger’

Contextual/Sociocultural environment mediates individual activity

Characteristics of a situated or contextual approach

Recognition of the relationship between psychological processes and their social, cultural and historical settings

Explanation of how different contexts create and reflect different forms of mental functioning

Explanation of how human action is mediated via context

School vs Everyday Life Different types of social ‘niche’ Differences in who determines what is

of interest and when Tasks in everyday life are socially

negotiated and reflexive People don’t just act in task

environments — they help to create and maintain those task environments

The culture of learningjust plain folkscausal stories

situations

negotiable meanings

socially constructed understanding

studentslaws

symbols

fixed meanings

immutable concepts

practitionerscausal models

conceptual situations

negotiable meanings

socially constructed understanding

"take three-quarters of two-thirds of a cup of cottage cheese"

3/4 x 2/3

OR

Situated Problem Solving

Situated Learning

Learning as apprenticeship, or

‘legitimate peripheral participation’ in

‘communities of practice’

(Lave & Wenger, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, 1991)

Implications for design Learning in context Communities of practice construct and

define appropriate discourse, practices Learning as active participation Knowledge in action Mediation of artifacts Tools and artifacts as cultural

repositories

Implications for design Cognitive tools embody cultural rules, norms and

beliefs Situations make sense within a historical context Cognition as dynamic interplay between

individual and social levels of activity Interactionism: just as situations shape individual

cognition, individual cognition shapes situations Roles, identities and constructions of self (e.g.,

as worker, learner, etc.)

Readings & resources Alessi, S. & Trollip, S.R. (2000) Multimedia for Learning.

Pearson Higher Education. Chapter 2. Bransford, J. et al. (2000) How People Learn. National

Academy Press. Chapters 2-4, 6-7. Jonassen, D.H. & Land, S.M. (2000) (Eds.) Theoretical

Foundations of Learning Environments. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Chapter 3.

Laurillard, D. (2001) Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Educational Technology. Routledge. Chapters 1-4.

Rittle-Johnson, B., Siegler, R.S. & Alibali, M.W. (2001) Developing conceptual understanding and procedural skill in mathematics: An iterative process. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(2), 346-362.

Readings & resources Siegler, R.S. (2000) The rebirth of children’s learning.

Child Development, 71(1), 26-35. Smith, P., Cowie, H. & Blades, M. (2003) Understanding

Children’s Development. Blackwell (4th Ed.) Chapter 15.

Wood, D.J. & Wood, H. (1996) Vygotsky, tutoring and learning. Oxford Review of Education, 22, 5-15.

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