Part 2: LEARNING

For starters, here are a few questions

1. Define the following:
 Instinctive Drift
 Taste Aversion
 Learning Domains
 Andragogy
 Webinar
2. Why must every educator be familiar with Bloom’s
Taxonomy?
3. Explain the relevance of Gardner's Seven Knowledge
Types to the new education system in Kenya
Learning
Learning Defined:
Generally,
 a relatively permanent change in behavior, skills,
knowledge, or attitudes
 resulting from identifiable psychological or social
experiences.
Characteristics of Learning
1. Learning exhibits itself as a change in
behaviour.
 We compare
 initial behaviour before being placed in the
“Learning Situation” and
 behaviour exhibited after
Can you give an example of a “Learning Situation” ?
NB: a “Learning Situation” doesn’t have to be a
classroom/ institution!
… Characteristics of Learning
This change
 must be relatively permanent
 is not that attributed to
 Growth/ maturation
 illness, fatigue, use of drugs.
… Characteristics of Learning
 Includes
 an increased capability in performance, altered
disposition in attitude, interest or value.
2. Learning is not directly observable but is visible
by the observable activities of the individual.
3. Learning depends on practice and experience
TYPES/ CATEGORIES/ DOMAINS OF LEARNING
Different approaches to Learning yield different
types; To highlight a few key
Learning Domains (categories of learning
outcomes)
 There are 3 major types of learning domains:
 cognitive,
 affective,
 psychomotor,
 (some add a 4th - interpersonal)
According to Robert Gagné – 8 types
1. Signal learning.
 The individual learns to make a general response to a
signal. This is the classical conditioned response of
Pavlov.
2. Stimulus-response learning.
 The learner acquires a specific response to a certain
stimulus. (Skinner’s operant/ instrumental response.)
3. Chaining.
 One acquires a chain of two or more stimulus response
connections. A response acts as a stimulus for the next
response etc
Gagné cont’d
4. Verbal association.
 It is the learning of chains that are verbal.
 Consider these scenarios:
a) Someone comes and greets you “Hello you….. (and
immediately starts hurling insults at you)
b) Someone comes and greets you “Hello (with a smile)
naturally, will you respond to both in the same way?
 Conditions resemble those for other (motor) chains.
Gagné cont’d
5. Multiple discrimination
 One learns to make a number of different identifying
responses to many different stimuli, which may
resemble each other in physical appearence to a
greater or lesser degree.
 Although the learning of each stimulus-response
connection is a simple occurrence, the connections
tend to interfere with one another.
 Now think of a practical example
Gagné cont’d
6. Concept learning.
 The learner acquires the ability to make a common
response to a class of stimuli even though the
individual members of that class may differ widely
from each other.
 The learner is able to make a response that identifies
an entire class of objects or events.
 Kenya’s matatu touts are known for their peculiar
behaviour
 If you live in Mombasa, even when you visit Kisumu,
there is what you expect of the touts there. (you have
learnt tp make a common response to this class of
stimuli)
Gagné cont’d
7. Principle learning.
 A principle here is a chain of two or more concepts (a
cluster of related concepts.) It functions to organize
behavior and experience.
 Carry further the ‘touts’ example. Suppose you meet a
suit clad polite talking tout?
8. Problem solving.
 A kind of learning that requires thinking.
 One uses previously acquired concepts and principles
to tackle a new problem
Krathwohl's Taxonomy of Affective Domain
Receiving
 being aware of / sensitive to the existence of certain
ideas, material, or phenomena and
 being willing to tolerate them.
 Examples include: to differentiate, to accept, to listen (for), to
respond to.
Responding
 committed in some small measure to the ideas,
materials, or phenomena involved by
 actively replying to them.
 Examples are: to comply with, to follow, to commend, to
volunteer, to spend leisure time in, to acclaim.
Krathwohl's Taxonomy of Affective Domain
Valuing
 willing to be perceived by others as valuing certain ideas,
materials, or phenomena.
 Examples include: to increase measured proficiency in, to
relinquish, to subsidize, to support, to debate.
Organization
 to relate the value to those already held and bring it into a
harmonious and internally consistent philosophy.
 Examples are: to discuss, to theorize, to formulate, to balance, to
examine.
Characterization
 to act consistently in accordance with the values one has
internalized.
 Examples include: to revise, to require, to be rated high in the value,
to avoid, to resist, to manage, to resolve.
Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale
 Emphasises verbal skills and abstract reasoning.
 Formula: IQ= 100 x MA/CA
 Where
 IQ - Intelligence Quotient;
 CA -Chronological Age;
 MA - Mental Age.
 In other words: IQ = (Mental age/ Actual age) x 100
 (Search on how to interpret the scores as well as how the
test has evolved over time.)
 Check out also the test by American psychologist David
Wechsler
 Binet Scale of Human Intelligence

IQ Score Original Name Modern Term

Over 140 Genius or Near-Genius
120 - 139 Very Superior
110 - 119 Superior
90 - 109 Average or Normal
80 - 89 Dull Dull Normal
70 - 79 Borderline Deficiency Mild
 Binet Scale of Human Intelligence

IQ Score Original Name Modern Term

Borderline
70 - 79 Mild
Deficiency
50 - 69 Moron Moderate

20 - 49 Imbecile Severe

Below 20 Idiot Profound

Problems with the IQ tests
 Major - cultural bias under which they were
developed.
 Most tests reflect white middle class values and
experiences.
 If you have gown up in the city and you are told to
demonstrate how to milk a camel, guess how much
you would score
 So far, there are no other reflecting values and
attitudes of various cultures.
Problems with the IQ tests
 Assumes constant increase of mental age with
chronological age which is not usually the case.
 Does an 80 year old have more capacity than a
70 year old?
 May help to understand a child at either extreme -
highly intelligent or extremely loco and has
learning difficulties.
 The tests do no help much in planning personal
educational goals for the vast majority of children
who are in the average.
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
 Deviates from the traditional way of looking
at IQ
 Howard Gardner (1983, 1999) developed a
theory of multiple intelligences breaking
knowledge down into seven types:
 For you:
 Can you find out what they are?