THEORIES RATIONALE AND EVIDENCE SUPPORTING

THE MTB-MLE DEVELOPMENTAL LEARNING THEORIES :

PIAGET’S THEORY
SCHEMA THEORY
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
 JEAN • Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist
PIAGET and genetic epistemologist. He is most
famously known for his theory of
cognitive development that looked at
how children develop intellectually
throughout the course of childhood.
 DEVELOPMENTAL LEARNING THEORY

• Children learn by passing a consistent series of

stages in cognitive development. ( sensory motor
stage, pre operational stage, concrete operational
stage and formal operational stage )
 EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS
• Discovery learning
• Supports the developing interests of the child
• Encourages parents/teachers to challenge their children. But NOT to present materials
or information that is too far beyond the child’s level of ability.
• Encourages use of wide variety of experiences to help children learn.
• Uses concrete objects ( manipulatives )
• Encourages work groups in order to improve ability to see things from another’s
perspective.
 SCHEMA THEORY OF LEARNING

• Concept of schema theory, one of the cognitivist learning theories, was

firstly introduced in 1932 through the work of British psychologist 
Sir Frederic Bartlett1) (some suggest it was first introduced in 1926 by 
Jean Piaget2)) and was further developed mostly in 1970s by American
educational psychologist Richard Anderson3).
• Schema theory describes how knowledge is acquired, processed and organized. The
starting assumption of this theory is that “very act of comprehension involves one’s
knowledge of the world”4). According to this theory, knowledge is a network of
mental frames or cognitive constructs called schema (pl. schemata). Schemata
organize knowledge stored in the long-term memory.
• Schema is a mental structure to help us understand how things work. It has to do
with how we organize knowledge. As we take in new information, we connect it to
other things we know, believe, or have experienced. And those connections form a sort
of structure in the brain.
 GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

• It is important to teach general knowledge and generic concepts.

• Generic concept can explain many different features of a particular field of study.
• A large proportion of learned difficulties can be traced to insufficient general
knowledge, especially in cross cultural situations.
 HOW DO YOU MAKE CONNECTIONS?

• Teachers must help schemate and to make connections between ideas.

• Techniques used to strengthen connections;
• Discussions, songs, role play, illustrations, visual aids and explanations of how a piece
of knowledge applies.
 EDUCATIONAL IMPLEMENTATIONS

• Prior knowledge is essential for the comprehension of new information, teachers either
need to;
• Help learners build the prerequisite knowledge, or
• Remind them of what they already know before introducing new materials.
• Schemata grow and changes as new information is acquired.
• Schema research indicates that abstract concepts are best understood after a foundation
of concrete, relevant information has been established.
 SCHEMA THEORY HAS BEEN APPLIED IN
VARIOUS AREAS LIKE:
• Motor learning- developing a motor schema has resulted in better performance in
children when learning motor task.
• Reading comprehensions- schema theory is often used to assist second language
learning since it often contains reading a lot of text in target language.
• Mathematical problem solving- conducted a research showing that 3rd-graders
taught to using schemata to solve mathematical problems formulated in words
performed better than their peers who were taught to solve them in four steps (read
and understand/plan to solve/solve/look back and check).
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SCHEMA

• Meaningful – always organized meaningfully, without meaningful connections,

important information can be easily lost.
• Embedded – each schema is embedded in other schemata and itself contains sub
schema. E.g.” transportation” schema includes “motorbike” which is it’s own schema.
“Transportation” is part of “country infrastructure” schema.
• Changing- schema change moment by moment as new information is received.
• Moveable –schema may also be reorganized when incoming data reveals a need to
change or restructure the concept.
 BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

• Bandura’s asked the questions;

• “ How are societies so successful in transmitting their ideas of what is good and bad
behavior, of what is valued and of what skills are most important?”
• The learners in these societies often seem unaware that they have “taught” these
behaviors.
 FOUR (4) PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL LEARNING

• Attention –we cannot learn if we are not focused on a task.

• Retention –we learn by interacting information in our memories.
• Reproduction- we reproduce previously learnt information ( behavior skills,
knowledge ) when required.
• Motivation- we need to be motivated to do anything.
• Often that motivation originates from our observation of someone else being rewarded
or punished for something they have done or said.
• Much human learning is the result of observing the behavior of other people;
• We learn to imitate certain behaviors by being reinforced of other people.
• Significant others- parents, sports heroes, mass media stars, teachers, spouses, friends-
wield powerful influence on the lives of others.
 HOW CAN IT BE APPLIED TO EDUCATION?

• Social modelling is a very powerful method of education. If children see positive

consequences from a particular type of behavior, they are more likely to repeat that
behavior themselves. Conversely, of negative consequences are the results they are
less likely to perform that behavior.
• Novel and unique contexts often captures students attention and can stand out
memory.
• Students are more motivated to pay attention if they see others around them also
paying attention.
• Another less obvious application of this theory is to encourage students to develop
their individual “self efficacy” through confidence building and constructive feedback,
a concept that is noted in social learning theory.
 THANK YOU!
BY
JENNIFER B. BIALEN
BEE-III