LEARNING AND THE LEARNER

TEACHING & LEARNING CONCEPT, PRINCIPLES AND PROCESS

THEORIES INDIVIDUAL DIFF: TEACHING CURRENT

& MODELS COGNITIVESTYLE APPROACHES PEDAGOGY
LEARNING STYLE STRATEGIES,
INTELLIGENCE METHODS MOTIVATION:
CONCEPT
MODELS InfoProcess, Behaviour, SC, Human THEORIES

BEHAVIOURIST COGNITIVE SOCIAL HUMANISTIC

LEARNING
CONSTRUCTIVISM

GAGNE BRUNER AUSUBEL PIAGET KOHLER

Assessment:
Coursework : 50%
Examination : 50%

Types of Methods of Percentage

assessment assessment

Written Exam Examination 50%

SBE Report Writing 10%

Assignment Academic Writing 25%

Presentation 15%
TEACHING & LEARNING CONCEPTS
PRINCIPLES AND PROCESS
Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss the definitions of teaching and learning

2. Discuss the definition of learning from Piaget’s

perspective

3. Discuss Ewell’s principles of learning

4. Discuss the process of learning from the

perspective of information processing theory

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Activity 1:
Definitions of Learning

1. Pairwise, discuss what is learning?

Write down your definition of learning

2. Read the following definitions of learning.

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses
of each definition. Provide rationale for
your suggestion.

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Definitions of learning

Definition A:
Changes in an individual due to experience
(Slavin,1997)
Definition B:
Learning is a modification of behaviour through
experience (Gates)

Definition C:
Learning involves the acquisition of habits,
knowledge and attitude(Crow & Crow)

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Definitions of learning

Definition D:

Learning is a process, which brings about changes in

an individual’s way of responding as a result of
contact with aspects of environment (Ruch)

Definition E:

Learning is acquisition and retention of behaviour

through conditioning (Skinner)

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Aspects to be considered in definition of learning

What is learned?

Knowledge, Skills, Values, Attitude, Behaviour

What causes it?

Experience due to environmental aspects

What is the difference before and after learning?

Relatively permanent change in knowledge,

skills, schemata, values, attitude, behaviour

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General definition of learning

Learning occurs when experience causes a

relatively permanent change in an individual’s
knowledge, skills, values, attitude, schemata
and or behavior
(adapted from Woolfolk, 2004)

Note:
Behaviour includes habits, personality traits, emotional
responses and personal tastes (Wayne Weiten, 1994)
Most human behaviours are the result of learning

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However, learning also refers to any relatively
permanent change in potential behaviour (Kimble,
1961)

This change in potential behaviour excludes natural

changes of behaviour due to biological growth or
development, or temporary changes due to effects of
drugs or physical fatigue.

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 Activity 2: Definitions of Teaching

Read the following definitions of teaching and

state whether you agree with the definitions.
Provide rationale for your arguments.

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Definition A:

Teaching is an intimate contact between a more mature

personality and a less mature one which is designed to
further the education of the latter (Morrison)

Definition B:

Teaching is an arrangement and manipulation of a situation

in which there are gaps and obstructions, which an individual
will seek to overcome and from which he will learn in the
course of doing so (Brubacher)

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Definition C:

Teaching is defined as an interactive process primarily

involving classroom talk, which takes place between teacher
and pupil and occurs during certain definable activities
(Amidon)

Defintion D:

Teaching is a system of actions involving an agent, an end in

view, and a situation including two sets of factors.- those
over which the agent has no control (class size, size of
classroom, physical characteristics of pupils etc) and those
that he can modify (way of asking questions or ideas
gleaned (Smith)

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Definition E:

The aim of teaching is to change the behaviour and

character of the students through the acquiring of
knowledge and belief (Green).

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 General definition of teaching
• Teaching is thought of as the PURPOSEFUL direction and
management of the learning process.

• It is not about giving knowledge or skills to the students

• It is the process of providing opportunities for students to

produce or construct relatively permanent change in
schemata, knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and or
behaviour through the engagement of experiences provided
by a teacher

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Teaching process is systematic

Teaching process has to be implemented systematically,

according to the teaching procedures such as planning,
organizing, implementing and assessing, including
feedback.

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Planning & Implementation Assessment
Organising

Feedback

The Teaching Process

The summarized definitions of teaching and learning
above are general definitions

In reality each learning theory has its own definition of

teaching and learning that may differ from the general
definition given

Behaviourist theory
Information processing theory
Expository Teaching (Ausubel)
Discovery learning theory (Bruner)
Constructivist theory
Humanistic theory
Social cognitivew theory
Piaget's Cognitive Development theory
Concept of learning from Piaget's
theory
 Jean Piaget
 Swiss psychologist
 Interested in the
process of thinking
 Established the clinical
method of research
• Collect data by
question-and-answer
sessions
1896-1980
"Piaget, Jean," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 Some questions to ponder

Do humans have brains?

What is in the brain?

How are the contents filled?

According to Piaget, all information (knowledge, skills etc)
arranged in our memory (brain) in the form of schemas.

What are schemas?

• A concept or framework that exists in an individual’s

mind to organize and interpret information.
• A schema enables you to recognise a tree even
though there are so many different types
• A A a a A a A a A a Can you recognise them?
• In mathematics, a schema enables us to categorize
all the problems that belong to the same category of
solutions
 An example of a person's schema of a cat and a dog
and how they link

© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 Piaget’s theory
 Piaget says humans have a natural tendency to organize
and adapt to information

 Humans actively construct their world employing

various cognitive organizational skills. These are:
(a) schemas,
(b) adaptation (assimilation and accommodation),
(c) equilibration (equilibrium, disequilibrium)
What is equilibration?

Search for mental balance between cognitive schemas

and information from the environment

Disequilibrium

The out-of-balance state that occurs when a person realizes

that his or her current ways of thinking are not working to
solve a problem or understand a situation

E.g. A child is confused when his concept of a house is

disturbed by the information that an igloo and a teepee are
also forms of houses
What is assimilation?

 The process of incorporating new information into

existing knowledge. At times new information is
distorted so as to make it fit with our current schemas
 Children demonstrate accommodation when they
change their concept of a house (with windows, a door
etc) to that of a place where people can stay and avoid
danger
 Assimilation is when we are synthesizing what we don’t
know into what we already know. We try to understand
something new by fitting it into what we already know.
What is accommodation?

 Occurs when individuals change existing schemas to

respond to a new situation
 It is a reorganization of knowledge or formation of a
new schema.
 Many children when they see a giraffe will call it a
horse
They try to match the new information with their
existing schema of a horse but disequilibrium occurs;
so a new schema is formed;
So what is learning from Piaget's theory?

Learning involves the formation of schemas.

Formation of schemas occurs through the processes
of accommodation, assimilation and equilibration

Once schemas are well-formed, learning can then be

exhibited by the learner through his or her
knowledge, thoughts, skills, values, attitude,
behaviour etc. on a relatively permanent basis

Is it in line with our general definition of learning?

General definition of learning

Learning occurs when experience causes a relatively
permanent change in an individual’s knowledge,
skills, values, attitude, schemata and or behavior
 LEARNING FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF
INFORMATION PROCESSING
THEORY
Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

1. State that the information processing model likens the human brain to a
computer

2. Explain how learning occurs through the Modal Model of Memory

(Cognitive views)

3. Provide evidence of the limitations of STM

4. Explain cognitive load and mental resources and their relation to learning

5. Discuss some of the implications of the Modal Model of Memory

especially the limitations of STM
INFORMATION PROCESSING MODEL

=
 Recognised Elaborative
STRUCTUREAttended
OF MEMORY Rehearsal

Short
Sensory Term Long Term
Buffer
Memory Memory
(Working LTM
Memory) (schemas)
De
ca
y

Outcome Activation
De
ca
y

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968)

STM
- thinking gets done
- very limited processing capacity

5X6=

58 x 6=

586 X 367 =
Cognitive load is defined as:

The total amount of mental activity

imposed on working memory
at an instance in time.
(Cooper, 1998)
Total Cognitive Load

Total Mental Resources

 LEARNING IS FACILITATED

Total Cognitive Load

Mental Resources

LEARNING FAILS

Total Cognitive Load

Mental Resources
Activity 1:

Discuss in groups of 4-5, three ways by which teachers

can help circumvent the limited processing capacity of
short term memory during teaching and learning. Give
Specific examples.
 Some Implications of the Information
Processing Model
• Plan what you say or ask so that you do not say anything that can
confuse students - can increase cognitive load

• Do not mention anything which is unnecessary or irrelevant– leads

to unnecessary processing

• Always think of ways to reduce cognitive load and to save mental

resources e.g. use of calculator, Audio-visual aids

• Provide both visual and aural stimuli (STM has different

processors for aural and visual stimuli, so use different modalities)

• Use techniques to reduce use of mental resources e.g. chunking,

mnemonics
Activity 2:

State the differences between short term and long term

memory with regard to:

(a)Speed of information input

(b)Processing capacity
(c)Duration information can be kept
(d)Form by which information is kept in memory
(e)Speed of retrieval of information stored
 Differences between short- and long-term memory

Characteristic STM LTM

Input Very fast Relatively slow

Capacity Limited Unlimited

Duration 5-20 secs Unlimited

Content Words, ideas, Schemata, episodes,

sentences images
Retrieval Immediate Depends on
representation,org
 Reinforcing Quiz Anything more
than a day-
1. Edlora is given a mathematics problem to solve. Which definitely LTM
memory is involved in searching for the formula?
Two types of rehearsal-
2. What activity can help Hafisah retain information maintenance (STM) &
in both short-term and long-term memory? elaborative (LTM)

3. As Aqilah walks by a coffee bar, she smells freshly

brewed coffee. A brief smell of the coffee persists Sensory
after she has walked by due to her _____ memory.

4. Abberlita is in her dance class. Her teacher gives her

four verbal instructions. She immediately tries to STM
perform the dance following the instructions. Which
memory does she rely on?

5. You are lost. You ask directions from a passerby. You then move along to
your destination based on the passerby’s information. Which memory do
you rely on?
STM