Transcript Learning Theories - Gadjah Mada University

Learning Theories
Jennie Barnett
Objectives
By the end of the next two sessions you will
be able to:

outline 3 learning theories
Behaviourist
Cognitive
Humanist


identify the key principles of each theory as
applied to teaching and learning
Compare and contrast the theories
Behaviourist theory
J.B.Watson
Introspection
‘tabula rasa’
Science
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Pavlov
Classical conditioning
Experiments with digestive system in dogs
Learning through association
Reflexes
Behaviourist theory
Thorndike
 Instrumental learning
 Law of effect
B.F. Skinner
 Operant conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Behaviour Shaping
Successive approximations to the goal
behaviour
Reinforcement
anything which increases desired behaviour
Reinforcement
Schedules of Reinforcement
 Continuous Reinforcement
 Fixed Ratio Reinforcement (FR)
 Fixed Interval Reinforcement (FI)
 Variable Ratio Reinforcement (VR)
 Variable Interval Reinforcement (VI):
Reinforcement
Positive
giving something good - increases desired
behaviour
Negative
taking away something bad - increases desired
behaviour
Punishment
applying something bad - reduces
undesired behaviour
Programmed Learning 1
Learning should be fun.
However, in the early stages of learning a
subject, students often make many errors.
Students do [ ] do not [ ] like to make
errors?
Click in the correct box
Programmed Learning 2
The basic idea of programmed learning is that
the most efficient, pleasant and permanent
learning takes place when the student
proceeds through a course by a large
number of small, easy-to-take steps.
If each step the student takes is small, he/she
is[ ] is not [ ] likely to make errors
Gestalt Theory
Wertheimer, Kohler and Koffler
The whole is more than the sum of the parts
Insight learning
transferability
Cognitive Theory
Jean Piaget
Interaction with the environment
Development of ‘schemata’
Active nature of learning
Discovery learning
Cognitive Theory
Jerome Bruner (1966)
Work
 from the known to the unknown
from the concrete to the abstract
Relate new knowledge to existing knowledge
Spiral curriculum
Humanist Theory
Carl Rogers
Total personality
Malcolm Knowles
Andragogy
learning contracts