Learning theories

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Learning theories by Mind Map: Learning theories

1. Cognitivism

1.1. Definition

1.1.1. Cognitive learning is a change in knowledge attributable to experience (Mayer 2011). It focuses on mental processes

1.1.2. the mind as a reference tool to the real world

1.1.3. focuses on “how information is received, organized, stored, and retrieved by the mind” helping learners to organizing relate new information to existing knowledge in memory.

1.2. Example

1.2.1. Mind maps are used to organise ideas/concepts that students need to learn.Compare and contrast matrix/chart are used to connect concepts.Through scaffolding, educators can systematically develop students' knowledge.

1.2.2. Before teachers introduce a new concept for students, they give students warm-up activities to guide students comprehending better. Also after teaching, teachers tell students some methods like using mnemonic device to help students form a long-term memory.

1.2.3. Teachers put some fundamental knowledge that students have known in order to refer to new knowledge.

1.3. Influence(s)

1.3.1. Teachers would need to spend effort to decide the most appropriate activities/tools during lesson planning. In this connection, teachers would also need to spend time on preparing the related teaching materials for students.

1.3.2. According to human's information-process components, cognitivism theory is conducive to help students perceive, understand, and retrieve knowledges. Then, when students need to solve problems, they can use these knowledge stored in their brain.

2. Constructivism

2.1. Definition

2.1.1. psychological & philosophical perspective contendingthe nature of learning

2.2. Example(s)

2.2.1. creating appropriate learning environments

2.2.2. 1.The use of cooperative learning groups.2.Conducting lesson outside of the classroom to let learner face directly the society.3.As students feel pessimistic and boring in traditional text-based teaching mode, teachers can hold some collaborative work for students to discuss their ideas based on their own experience for constructing and applying what they learn.For example, experiment activities are arranged during sciences classes. 4. Teachers change their pedagogical method to .

2.3. Influence(s)

2.3.1. Students will be active in self-centred learning based on their experience. They can use these knowledge into real lives for having a better life.

2.3.2. Teachers would need to incorporate certain experiment activities during their lesson planning. This would be a great challenge for teachers, in particular those in secondary schools, given the already tight teaching schedule.

3. Behaviorism

3.1. Definition

3.1.1. Learning as shaping behaviour.The goal of instruction is to elicit the desired response from the learner who is presented with a target stimulus.

3.2. Example(s)

3.2.1. Positive reinforcement: 1.Companies promote high performing employees to higher positions. 2.Students who get 7 score and onward on assignments will be given a badge. Parents give candies to their kids when they are well-behaved. 3.Reward / Incentive - A word of praise when students perform well. Reward / Incentive - Give students rewards for completing their homework.

3.2.2. Punishment - Students who arrive late to school will receive a warning. Three warnings would result in a them receiving a demerit.

3.2.3. A positive punishment- Students who plagiarize (behavior) in his/her study in university. Students who plagiarize usually receive a fail grade from teachers. In more serious cases, they will be liable to disciplinary action (aversive stimulus).

3.3. Influence(s)

3.3.1. 1. A structured behaviorist approach in designing multimedia tool can lead to rapid acquisition of basic concepts, skills and factual information within a clear framework. (Atkins, 1993)

3.3.2. 2. There are no opportunity for reflection and intervention on the part of the student that deviated from the prescribed learning tracks. (Ravenscroft, 2003)

3.4. Experiments

3.4.1. Pavlov's 'Dog Salivation Experiment', in which a dog salivates at the sound of a bell (McLeod, 2013).

3.4.2. Skinner's 'Skinner Box', in which a rat learns to press a lever in order to obtain food (McLeod, 2015).

4. Final Reflections on the use of this mind map in building our knowledge of the learning theories

4.1. Mind map is an ideal tool to let us organise those different concepts. And we may find out the connections from these concepts to construct our own understanding. This mind map tool has the functions like website linking, photo attachment. It means that can build up or organise our own knowledge in different ways, such as knowledge visualisation.But in fact, like this application Mindmeister, it is not easy to get a whole picture of the whole map. It will be a barrier to find the note or to connect the concepts. - Cedric

4.2. Yes, this is indeed an application of the learning theory of cognitivism, in that mind maps are used to link/organise our knowledge of the learning theories - Matthew

4.3. First, this e-learning tool is quite easy to use and very convenient to collaborate with my peers on building our knowledge of the learning theories together. Everyone can easily assess this mind map via a weblink and contribute their ideas and understanding of the learning theories and share together. Second, using a mind map to present our understanding of the 3 learning theories to a certain extent forces us to filter the information content of the theories and give a precise description on each theory. Before writing down my understanding on each theory, I need to read related information content of each theory and I learn about the instructional strategies and techniques of the learning theories for facilitating learning in the process. Yet, it is quite difficult to view the whole picture of the map. - Sharon

4.4. This mind map activity helped build my knowledge on the three learning theories as they were applied in the designing of this mind map. Behaviorism – If we did not complete this mind map there would be a consequence. Cognitivism – The mind map enabled us to link and organize our ideas of the learning theories in a systematic manner. Constructivism – We were given a framework, in which we were to explore the three learning theories and construct our own knowledge in a cooperative learning group. - Arti

4.5. Owing to the making of this mind map, it gives a clear stream of thoughts for everyone to understand the three theories and these examples are beneficial for us to think how to use the three theories in real teaching because we search some experiments for these three theories respectively to make sure that we can have a better understanding of these three theories. But I think mind map is not suitable to write too many things on it. It's beneficial for users to list an outline to express their thoughts. -Stella