Transcript Learning Theorgies and Teaching Methodologies for O&M

Learning Theorgies and Teaching
Methodologies for O&M
VOL. 1
CHAPTER 7
Behavioral Learning Theory
 Classical conditioning
 Involves reflexive actions
Innate: Humans are born with reflexes
 Most environmental stimuli are neutral therefore do not
automatically elicit a reflexive response
 BUT Humans may LEARN to respond reflexively in circumstances
other than those biologically designed.
 Conditioning can be used to change behavior

Classical
Conditioniong
What does it mean for
the Orientation and
Mobility Specialist
 Desensitization
 Fears and phobias can result from
classical conditions. (pairing can result
in maladjusted behvaiors.)
 Example: bumping and jostling in the
hall resulting in stomach tightening
may result in anxiety, even when
traveling with no one present
 Deconditioning
 Involves: demonstrating that the
situation contains no negative
consequences and
 Producing in the student contradictory
biological impulses
Operant Conditioning
 The use of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to
change behavior

Reinforcement and Punishment
Reinforcer is any consequnce that strengthens or increases
frequency of a behavior.
 Punisher reduces a specific behavior.
 SO what is a punisher for one student may be a reinforcer for
another
 For Example: removing a student from a classroom for
misbehaving

Reinforcers
Can be both positive
and negative
 Primary reinforcers:
 Innate pleasurable stimuli; satisfy built
in biological needs
Food
 Water

 Secondary reinforcers:
 Conditioned Stimulus
Praise
 Grades
 Rewards

Secondary
Reinforces and
the O&M
Tricks of the Trade!
 The use of secondary reinforces as
a means of helping students learn
patterns of behavior.
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Commodities
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Fun or Interesting Activities
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Praise, approval
Feedback
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Music, park, games
Social Reinforcers
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Toys, clothes, recreational materials
Useful informtion aobut performance
Token Reinforcers
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Grades, certificates, actual token to
exchange
Cognitive Learning Theory
Cognitive Theory
Gestalt Learning Theory
●
Humans have an inherant capacity for
making sense out of one’s
environment
 Describes world in meaningful
wholes rather than isolated stimuli
 Motor learning: Individual goes
from learning small parts of a task
to performing entire task
• Swimming: Person can learn
the breathing, proper strikes
and kicking but still sink until
the gestalt (new awareness) is
reached and components are
integrated
• Touch Technique: similarly
when all the components come
together it results in smooth
movement

Humans build schemes of connected facts
and concepts
 The learning is an active pariticpant in
the process of learning
 Instructors need to connect new
understandings and new facts to the
learner’s current network of facts and
concepts.
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Advance organizer: initial statement or
visual abou thte subject to be learned
Analogies
Insertion of questions to help student assess
their own understanding
Asking students to point to a landmark
Social Cognitive Theory
 Learners are active in the learning process AND they
are conscious processors of information about
themselves the their context
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Learning is an internal process that may or may not lead to
particular behavioral change
Behavior is directed toward specific goals
Learning gradually become sef-regulated
Social
Cognituve
Theory
Continued
 Self-Efficacy
 Humans are more likely to engage in
particular behaviors if they believE they
will be able to exectue those behaviors
successfully
 Self-Regulated Learning
 To become self dircted, self-regulared
learners, students need to reach a point
where they establish their own learning
goals; monitor and evaluate their own
behaviors toward that goal
What does this
mean for your
students?
Ideally we would like
our students to get the
level of indepdendence
that they are able be
actively involved in
instruction through
self-regulated learning.
Ideally students will:
Goal setting and planning:
 Articulate what the goals are and how
they plan to make those happen
 Attention control, self-motivation, selfmonitoring:
 Stay in the moment
 Concentrate on details
 Stay relaxed and use kinesthetic and
emotional feedback
 Self-instruction
 Remind themselves of the appropriate
actions
 Self-evaluation
 During and after the learning activity

Memory and Information Processing
 The Memory System
 Memory and cognitive processing are necessary components of
O&M
 3 Components of the Memory System include:
Sensory register
 Short-term memory
 Long-term memory

SENSORY REGISTER:
External stimuli enters the sensory register where it is Forgotten
(Sometimes that is what we want with extraneous sensory input)
OR IMMEDIATELY processed……
And goes to
SHORT TERM MEMORY:
Storage system with limited amount of information for a
LIMITED amount of time (up to 30 seconds!) and is crowded
out by new information. The information is
OR it must be CODED to move it to:
LONG TERM MEMORY:
Coding is easier with a visual….see a problem here?
Long term memory is believed to be QUITE LARGE
….YIPEE! Memory is stored in three ways!
Types of Long Term Memory
 Episodic Memory

Individuals memory of personal experiences
 Impression of things seen or heard
 Stored like a script for a movie: beginning, middle and end
 Details of a frequent experience (i.e. being in your home) can be easily recalled
 A “snippet” of information can cause a total recall (i.e. chorus to a familiar song)
 Procedural Memory

Recall how to do something; especially a physical task
 Stored as a kind of stimulous response pairing (cane + walking = smooth
unconcious action of cane movement)
 A sequence of actions that also have a beginning, middle and end
 Semantic Memory

Information learned in school
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NO natural beginning, middle or end
Organized into schemes (networks of connected ideas)
Successful Long-term Memory Storage
 High Salience
 Common Experience
 Vivid Sensory Imagery
 Multiple potential paths for making connections
Guided Learning vs. Discovery Learning
Discovery Learning
Guided Learning
Especially important for novice
learners
 Actively engages learner
 Variation in extent to which instructor
provides demonstrations and structure
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Set up the task so the learner is motivated
Engage the learner to find out how well he or she has
followed the lesson
Efficient when student needs to show the
same behavior repeatedly, Material is
presented largely in “final form” (i.e. cane
skills)
Good in predictable environments
Careful structure to the learning task along
with coaching and feedback
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Self-directed discovery of key concepts
Increasing value once basic O&M skills
have een consolidated
Allows students to engage in the
learning task at their preferred style of
learning
Requires instructors to provide
sufficent information regarding goals of
the problem solving task and directions
The instructor must continue to
provide an appropriate level of
guidance for a productive discoery
exercise.
GOOD COACHING
 GUIDED Practice
DISCOVERY Learning
• GOOD COACHING
• GOOD O&M INSTRUCTION