Learner-Centered

Theories of Learning

http://brent.edu.ph/academics/middle-school/
Learning Outcomes

• Analyze learner-centered theories

of learning.
THE NATURE OF LEARNING
Learning is generally defined as any
change in the behavior of the learner.
The change can be deliberate or
unintentional, for better or for worse,
correct or incorrect, conscious or
unconscious (Mayer, 2011; and Schunk,
2012 in Woolfolk, 2013).
THE NATURE OF LEARNING
Learning is a process that brings
together personal and environmental
experiences and influences for
acquiring, enriching or modifying one’s
knowledge, skills, values, attitudes,
behavior, and world views (“Education,”
n.d.).
THE NATURE OF LEARNING
Burns (1995) defined learning as a
relatively permanent change in
behavior with behavior including both
observable activity and internal
processes such as thinking, attitudes,
and emotions.
THE NATURE OF LEARNING
Santrock (2012, p. 217) defined learning
as a relatively permanent influence on
behavior, knowledge, and thinking skills
that comes about through experience.
The definition of learning covers the
following elements:
A. It is a long-term change (though it does not
necessarily last forever.)
B. The change is brought about by experience.
C. It does not include changes that are
physiological like maturation, mental illness,
fatigue, hunger or the like.
D. It involves mental representation or association,
presumably, it has its basis in the brain.
THE NATURE OF LEARNING
Woolfolk (2016) asserts that “learning
occurs when experience (including
practice) causes a relatively permanent
change in an individual’s knowledge,
behavior or potential for behavior.”
THE NATURE OF LEARNING
For Omrod (2015), “learning is a long-
term change in mental representations
or associations as a result of
experience.”
THE NATURE OF LEARNING
Learning is also defined as “any
relatively permanent change in
behavior that occurs as a result of
practice and experience.”
Elements of Learning:
a. A change in behavior, better or worse
b. Change take place through practice or
experience (not changes due to growth or
maturation)
c. Behavior change must be relatively permanent
and last for a fairly long time
Types of Learning
a. Motor Learning
b. Verbal Learning
c. Concept Learning
d. Discrimination Learning
e. Learning of Principles
f. Problem Solving
g. Attitude Learning
Motor Learning
• It is a form of learning for one to
maintain and go through daily life
activities such as walking, running,
driving, climbing, and the like.
• These are activities involve in
motor coordination.
Verbal Learning
• It involves the use of spoken
language as well as the
communication devices used.
• Signs, pictures, symbols, words,
figures, sounds are tools used in
such activities.
Concept Learning
• A form of learning which requires
the use of higher-order mental
processes like thinking, reasoning,
and analyzing.
• It involves two processes:
abstraction and generalization.
Discrimination Learning
• It is learning to differentiate
between stimuli and responding
appropriately to these stimuli.
• An example is being able to
distinguish the sound of horns of
different vehicles like bus, car, and
ambulance.
Learning of Principles
• It is learning principles related to
science, mathematics, grammar, and
the like.
• Principles show the relationship
between two or more concepts, some
examples of which are formulas, laws,
associations, correlations, and the
like.
Problem Solving
• This is a higher-order thinking
process.
• It requires the use of cognitive
abilities – such as thinking,
reasoning, observation,
imagination, and generalization.
Attitude Learning
• Attitude is a predisposition which
determines and predicts behavior.
• Learned attitudes influence one’s
behavior toward people, objects,
things, or ideas.
NATURE OF THEORIES
OF LEARNING
A learning theory is an organized set of
principles explaining how individuals
acquire, retain, and recall knowledge.
DEFINING LEARNER-CENTERED
ACTIVITY: By Row (5 per group)
Examine the word “learner-centered”.
Quickly, jot down at least 10 words
that come to your mind.
DEFINING LEARNER-CENTERED
Learner-centered is the perspective that
focuses on individual learners – their
heredity, experiences, perspectives,
backgrounds, talents, interests, capacities,
and needs, with a focus on learning – the
best available knowledge about learning and
how it occurs, and about teaching practices
that are most effective in promoting the
highest levels of motivation, learning and
achievement for all learners.
Learner-centered
Psychological Principles
a. They pertain to the learner and the
learning process.
b. They focus on psychological factors
primarily internal and under the control of
the learner.
c. They deal with external or contextual
factors that interact with the internal
factors.
Learner-centered
Psychological Principles
d. They are seen as an organized set of
principles; no principle to be viewed in
isolation.
e. The principles are classified under
cognitive, metacognitive, motivational,
affective, developmental, social, and
individual differences factors related to
learning.
Learner-centered
Psychological Principles
f. These principles apply not only to all
learners but to everybody involved in the
educational system, as for example,
teachers, administrators, parents, staff,
and guidance counselors.
Cognitive and Metacognitive
Factors
1. Nature of the Learning Process
Learning of complex subject matter is
most effective when it is an intentional
process of constructing meaning from
information and experience.
Cognitive and Metacognitive
Factors
2. Goals of the Learning Process
The successful learner, over time, with
support and guidance can create
meaningful, coherent representations of
knowledge.
Cognitive and Metacognitive
Factors
3. Construction of Knowledge
The learner can relate new information in
meaningful ways.
Cognitive and Metacognitive
Factors
4. Strategic Thinking
The learner can create and use a
repertoire of thinking and reasoning
strategies to achieve complex goals.
Cognitive and Metacognitive
Factors
5. Thinking About Thinking
Higher-order strategies for electing and
monitoring mental operations facilitate
creative and critical thinking.
Cognitive and Metacognitive
Factors
6. Context of Learning
Learning is influenced by environmental
factors including cultures, technology, and
instructional practices.
Motivational and Affective
Factors
7. Motivational and Emotional Influences in
Learning
What and how much is learned is
influenced by the learner’s level of
motivation. Motivation to learn is in turn
influenced by the learner’s emotional
states, beliefs, interests, goals, and habits
of thinking.
Motivational and Affective
Factors
8. Intrinsic Motivation to Learn
Learning is stimulated by tasks of optimal
novelty and difficulty, relevant to personal
interests, and providing for personal
choice and control.
Motivational and Affective
Factors
9. Effects of Motivation on Effort
Acquisition of complex knowledge and
skills requires extended learner effort and
guided practice. Without this motivation,
willingness to exert effort is unlikely,
unless coerced.
Developmental and Social
Factors
10.Developmental Influences on Learning
As individuals develop, they encounter
different opportunities and experiences,
as well as constraints for learning.
Learning is most effective when
differential within and across physical,
intellectual, emotional, and social
domains is taken into account.
Developmental and Social
Factors
11.Social Influences on Learning
Learning is influenced by social
interactions, interpersonal relations, and
communication with others.
Individual Differences Factors
12.Individual Differences in Learning
Learners have different strategies,
approaches, and capabilities for learning
that are a function of prior experience and
heredity.
Individual Differences Factors
13.Learning and Diversity
Learning is most effective when
differences in learners’ linguistic, social,
and cultural backgrounds are taken into
account.
Individual Differences Factors
14.Standards and Assessment
Setting appropriately high and challenging
standards and assessing the learner and
learning progress – including diagnostic
and outcome assessment are integral
parts of the learning process.
Learner-centered instructional strategies:
1. Problem-Based Learning
• emphasizes real-life problem-solving
2. Essential Questions
• causes the students to think and
provoke their curiosity
3. Discovery Learning
• students explore and figure out things
for themselves
THEORIES OF LEARNING
1. Behaviorism
• The learner is essentially passive
• Responds to environmental stimuli
• Behavior is learned or shaped through
positive reinforcement
• Operates on stimulus-response (S-R)
• Reinforcement, feedback, practice or
repetition
THEORIES OF LEARNING
1. Behaviorism
• Principles of learning should apply
equally to different behaviors and to a
variety of animal species.
• Learning processes can be studied
most objectively when the focus of
study is on the stimuli and responses.
THEORIES OF LEARNING
1. Behaviorism
• Internal processes tend to be excluded
or minimized in theoretical
explanations.
• Learning involves a behavior change.
• Organisms are born as blank slates.
• Learning is largely the result of
environmental events
Application of Theories
a. Drill/Rote work
b. Repetitive practice
c. Giving bonus points
d. Giving participation points
e. Verbal reinforcement
f. Establishing rules
g. Giving of rewards
Application of Theories
h. Applying punishment
i. Giving feedback
j. Positive reinforcement
k. Token reinforcers
l. Negative reinforcement
THEORIES OF LEARNING
2. Cognitivism or Cognitive Constructivism
• Mental processes such as memory,
knowing, problem-solving, reasoning,
and other such processes need to be
explored.
• It requires active participation in order
to learn and actions are seen as a
result of thinking.
THEORIES OF LEARNING
2. Cognitivism or Cognitive Constructivism
• Learning is defined as change in a
learner’s schemata.
• Learning is thought of as an internal
process rather than simply dealing
with or responding to external stimuli.
Application of Theories
a. Classifying or chunking information
b. Linking concepts
c. Providing structures
d. Real world examples
e. Discussions
f. Problem-solving
g. Analogies
Application of Theories
h. Imagery/ Providing pictures
i. Mnemonics
THEORIES OF LEARNING
3. Social Constructivism
• Learning is an active constructive
process.
• Learning is seen as an active
contextualized process of constructing
knowledge instead of simply acquiring
it.
Application of Theories
a. Case Studies
b. Research Projects
c. Problem Solving
d. Brainstorming
e. Collaborative Learning/ Group Work
f. Discovery Learning
g. Simulations
 View of Knowledge
Cognitive Social
Behaviorism
Constructivism Constructivism
Knowledge is a Knowledge systems Knowledge is
repertoire of of cognitive constructed within
behavioral structures are social contexts
responses to actively constructed through interactions
environmental by learners based with a knowledge
stimuli. on cognitive community.
structures.
 View of Learning
Cognitive Social
Behaviorism
Constructivism Constructivism
Passive absorption Active assimilation Integration of
of a predefined body and accommodation students into a
of knowledge by the of new information knowledge
learner; promoted by to existing cognitive community;
repetition and structures; discovery collaborative
positive by learners. assimilation and
reinforcement. accommodation of
new information.
 View of Motivation
Cognitive Social
Behaviorism
Constructivism Constructivism
Extrinsic, Intrinsic, learners Intrinsic and extrinsic;
involving positive, set their own goals, learning goals and
and negative and motivate motives are determined
reinforcement. themselves to both by learners and
learn. extrinsic rewards
provided by the
knowledge community.
 Implications for Teaching
Cognitive Social
Behaviorism
Constructivism Constructivism
Correct behavioral Teacher facilitates Collaborative
responses are learning by providing learning is facilitated
transmitted by an environment that and guided by the
teachers and promotes discovery teacher; group work.
absorbed by and assimilation/
students. accommodation.
Group Work (6 groups)
 Go to the library and consult any book on educational
psychology or theories of learning.
 Research on the following theories of learning:
 Social Learning Theory
 Socio-constructivism
 Experiential Learning
 Multiple Intelligences
 Situated Learning Theory and Community of Practice
 21st Century Learning Skills
Group Work (6 groups)
 Outline the highlights of each theory using the format
below.
 Identify the proponent/s
 Give its description
 Provide some of its implications to teaching
 Choose representative/s from the group to present your
findings.
 Each group will be given seven (7) minutes to present.