Learning Theory Fundamentals

There are three schools of thought when it comes to designing educational curriculum:
Behaviourist, cognitivism, and constructivism.
All three are relevant.
Behaviourist
Behaviourist is based on the presumption that human behaviour is predictable.
An example of structured learning is found in most “structured (or programmed) curriculum”.
Structured learning has preset objectives about what is to be learned, as well as predetermined reinforcer’s when objectives are met.
The end-goal is defined up front, and each step necessary to achieve the goal is given to the student. Once the student achieves the desired end-result, s/he is reinforced by getting a good grade.

Behaviourist approaches:
Relies on overt behaviour,
Are outcome based, and
Relies on frequent reinforcement of responses.

Cognitivism
Cognitive theory says that learning is a process that is dictated by the students previous experiences, and how the information is presented to the student.
Cognitivists are more concerned with the way information is represented in memory, schemata, and mental models.

The cognitive school of thought says that we all organize knowledge and meaning by modifying mental representations. We select information from the environment and store it in our short-term memory. At that point, we decide to either forget it or process it and store it into long-term memory. Cognitivists believe we learn by association.

Cognitive approaches:
Rely on the student’s schema’s, attitudes, and experiences.
Believe the new information has to fit into what currently exists.

Constructivism
An example of “Constructivist” teaching.
Constructivism dominates the environmental design of education. Constructivists believe the environment needs to be highly adaptive to the student. A constructivist designer might provide all information necessary for learning but allow the student to learn materials and information in the most comfortable way for them.

One way of thinking about constructivism is by thinking a teacher asking students to build a house. The instructor would provide a basic picture of a house. Tools would be available, and the teacher would be available for help when needed, but for the most part the students are on their own as to how they want to go about building the house.

Constructivist approach:
Relies heavily on the students initiative
Allow students to learn at their own speed

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