learning theories

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Albert Bandura

Under the social learning theory, an individual learns through observation and imitation of others.

We learn not only how to perform a behavior but also what will happen to us in a specific situation if we do perform it.

Observation

ImitationModeling

Characteristics of Social Learning Theory

It is observational learning which consists of four phases – attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.

ATTENTION

Mental focus or concentration.

Willingness to observe

RETENTION

Ability to store the information

PRODUCTION

To actually translate the behavior into action.

MOTIVATION

Force that drives one to act

Characteristics of Social Learning Theory

It is vicarious learning which is acquired from observing the consequences of other’s behavior.

It is self-regulated which occurs when one evaluate his or her own behavior.

Models used in social learning are classified as :

Real-life (parents and teachers) Symbolic (books) Reprentional (films)

The components of successful modeling include:

Motivation – Pupils should know the reason why they demonstrate the behavior of model.

Attention – It is important that students are observing about what is being done.

Retention – Provide mechanisms to help learners remember the behavior.

Motor Reproduction – Pupils must be physically capable of the performing the behavior.

Self Management – Learners should be helped gain control of their own way of learning.

FIELD THEORY

Kurt Lewin

Behavior is the function of the present life space.

This theory has also extended the concept of “wholeness” of the learning condition by showing the role played by the cultural and social environment in determining what man responds to.

The Learning Process

Learning is the most universal and important occupation of a man. It is the great task of childhood and youth.

This is the means of achieving progress in any period in one’s life.

At every moment in his life, man engage to some form of learning.

Learning is integrated, directed, systematic, purposive, and ongoing process that occurs in the individual that enables him to meet specific objectives, fulfill his interest, and satisfy his needs, and cope with problems that confront him.

Conceptually, as viewed by educators, the process of learning involves five

well-defined phases.

Unfreezing

Stage where individual become motivated and ready to consider changes in attitudes, behaviors, knowledge and skills.

Problem Diagnosis

Stage of determining and examining the forces supporting the need for change.

Goal-Setting

• Stage where the desire changes in attitude, knowledge, skills, and behaviors are explicitly stated.

New Behavior

• Stage where the individual learns, adapts, and practices the newer knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors which are desired.

Refreezing

• Stage where learning have found to be relevant and beneficial and assimilated into the learner’s ongoing frame work of knowledge, attitudes, skill and behavior.

• Athikson and Shiffrin postulate information processing theory as the individual learns when the brain takes in information (encoding), performs operation on it, stores the information (storage), and retrieves it when needed (retrieved).

The sequence of information processing

INFORMATION PROCESSING- is the change (processing) of

information in any manner detectable by an observer.

Pattern of information processing

sensory registersshort term memorylong term memory

Concepts in cognitive theories of learning

perception - act of apprehendingstorage - putting information in

memoryencoding - changing the formatrehearsal - finding the informationretrieval - mental restorationdual-coding - encodes the complex

network of images

episodic memory - images relating to personal experiences

semantic memory - stores facts and information

procedural memory - keeps information about how things are processed

Information Processing Theories as Applied in Classroom Teaching

Hold learner’s attention and interest in all cognitive tasks.

Guide learners to assess learning materials considered most important to learn.

Establish the basis of new learning materials.

Concentrate on important and key concepts and ideas.

Organize all important information to be learned.

Confine processing to few information at a time.

Employ interesting drill strategies and approaches.

Develop skills of learners in forming images of information they encounter.

Commulative learning theory

CHRISTOPHER KLAUSMEIR, learning occurs as the individual develops higher level skills that build

successively on lower skills.

TYPES OF LEARNING

1. SIGNAL LEARNING - when two stimuli are simultaneously presented and the response previously drawn only by the unconditioned stimulus is also elicited by the newly conditioned stimulus.

2. STIMULUS RESPONSE LEARNING - when a response to specific stimuli that has been discriminated against from other stimuli.

3. MOTOR CHAINS / VERBAL CHAINS LEARNING - when two or more separated motor/verbal responses may be combined to develop a more complex learning skill.

4. DISCRIMINATING LEARNING - when discriminating a specific stimuli from other.

5. CONCEPT LEARNING - when making a common response to stimuli that are different in various ways.

6. RULE LEARNING - when learning two or more concepts in a given period of time.

7. PROBLEM SOLVING - this is learning to recall and apply a rule.

COMMULATIVE LEARNING THEORY AS APPLIED IN CLASSROOM TEACHING

observe sequence in teaching in terms of level of learning skills and capabilities required of the learner.

check learner's capabilities in each level of the same lesson.

be sure that the prerequisite learning skills are acquired before moving to the next.

Meaningful Learning Theory

Ausubel postulated meaningful learning theory where an individual learns by relating newly acquired information t

what the learner already knows.

The characteristics and concepts related to meaningful learning theory are:

Meaningful Learning Set

Characterized by meaningful learning attitude that the learner can make sense out of the information to be acquired.

Relevant Prior Knowledge

Characterized by information to which a new idea can be related and understood.

OrganizationCharacterized by finding connections

among various pieces of information one needs to learn.

Elaboration

Expanding on novel information and data based on what the learner already knows.

Visual Imagery

This is shaping a mental picture of information on a given subject.

Advanced OrganizersInitial activities and techniques that

provide a structure for the new information and relate it to information learners already know.

Cognitive Structure

Refers to the ability and organization of a learner’s knowledge in a given subject matter.

Other Related Views of learning

Metacognitive View of Learning

Ability to monitor one’s own cognition.

This is characterized by an awareness of an ability to capitalize on one’s own knowledge as applied to specific task.

Constructivist View of Learning

This theory states that learners must individually discover and transform information, check against old rule and revise it when it no longer works.

Reception and Discovery Learning Theory

This is characterized by the use of advanced organizers; the use of examples and the focus on similarities and differences.

It is important to present both examples and non-examples to encourage learners to make intuitive guesses.