FACILITATING LEARNING

NATURE OF INVOLVEMENT
A. PASSIVE
1. Verbal Receiving
2. Visual Receiving
B. ACTIVE
1. Participating
2. Moving

UNDERSTANDING LEARNING
 Nature of Learning
“A reflective process whereby the learner either develops new insights & understanding or
changes & restructures his or mental process.” (Ornstein, 1990)

“Learning is an integrated, on going process occurring within the individual, enabling him to
meet specific aims, fulfill his needs & interests & cope with the learning process.” (Lardizabal,
1991)

“A change in an individual caused by experience.” (Slavin, 1995)

“Acquisition through maturation & experience of new & more knowledge, skills & attitudes that
will enable the learner to make better & more adequate reactions, responses & adjustments to
new situations.” (Calderon, 1998)

VIEWS ON HOW LEARNING OCCURS

 2 Major Groups of Learning Theory
1. Behavioristic Theories
2. Cognitive Theories
Both theories agree that learning is a result of experience, but they disagree on
-How learning occurs
-How to best establish the conditions that maximize learning in the
first place
BEHAVIORISM - focuses on the study of observable & measurable behavior.

PRINCIPLES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

 Stimulus Generalization – refers to the process by which the conditioned response
transfers to the stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus.
 Discrimination – refers to the process by which the learn not to respond to similar
stimuli in an identical manner.
 Extinction – the unconditioned responses are lost.
Thorndike’s S-R Thoery
Viewed most behavior as a response to stimuli in the environment.
LAWS OF LEARNING
1. Law of Readiness-states that when an organism, both human & animal is ready
to form connections to do so is satisfying & not to do so is annoying.
2. Law of Exercise-states that any connection is strengthened in proportion to the
number of times it occurs & in proportion to the average vigor & duration of the
connection; practice makes perfect
3. Law of Effect-states that if an act is followed by a satisfying change in the
environment, the likelihood that the act will be repeated in similar situation
increases

B.F Skinner Operant Conditioning Theory

 Proposed another class of behavior, which is labeled operant behaviors because
they operate on the environment in the apparent absence of any unconditioned
stimuli such as food.
 Skinner’s work focused on the relation bet. behavior & its consequences
 The use of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to change behavior is often
referred to as operant conditioning.
 Skinner has shown that basic to operant conditioning is the use or
reinforcement.
Reinforcement- any behavioral consequence that strengthens (that is, increases
the frequency of) a behavior. It may be positive or negative.
Positive Reinforcers- are events that are presented after a response has been
performed and that increase the behavior of activity they follow.
Negative Reinforcers-are escapes from unpleasant situations or ways of
preventing something unpleasant from occurring.
Primary Reinforcers-are those that satisfy basic human needs.
Secondary Reinforcers-are that acquire reinforcing power because they have
been associated with primary reinforcers.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY (Albert Bandura)

 Focuses to a much greater degree on the effects of cues on behavior & on internal mental
processes, emphasizing the effects of thought in action & action on thought.
 Emphasizes the phenomena of modeling.
 Phases of Observational Learning

1. Attention-an observer must attend to & recognize the distinctive

features of the model’s response.
2. Retention-reproduction of the desired behavior implies that a student
symbolically retains the observed behavior.
3. Motor reproduction processes-demonstration of the solution or the
desired behavior
4. Motivational processes-although an observer acquires & retains the
ability to perform modeled behavior, there will be no overt
performance unless conditions are favorable.

COGNITIVE THEORIES OF LEARNING

 Concerned with the things that happen inside our heads as we learn. It emphasized how the
info. is processed.

Bruner’s Cognitive Learning Theory

 Advocated discovery learning(refers to obtaining knowledge for oneself) & hands on learning.
 Advocated the introduction of the real process of a particular discipline to students.

Three Stages in Bruner’s Theory of Intellectual Development

1. Enactive-where a person learns about the world actions on object

2. Iconic-where learning occurs through using models & pictures
3. Symbolic-which describes the capacity to think in abstract terms

Advance Organizer-help the individual link the new learning to his or her existing scheme.

Types of Advance Organizer

1. Expository-describes the new content

2. Narrative-the teacher presents the new info. in the form of a story to students
3. Skimming-is done by looking over the new material to gain a basic overview
4. Graphic Organizer-visuals to set up or outline the new info., includes the use or graphs &
concept maps.

Subsumption-the principle by which advance organizers are anchored. A process by which

new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structure.
Four processes that meaningful learning could take place
1. Derivative Subsumption-describes the situation in which the new info. you learn is an
example of a concept that you have already learned.
2. Correlative Subsumption-enriches the higher level concept.
3. Superordinate Subsumption-the proces by which a child may knew a lot of examples of
the concept, but did not know the concept itself until it was taught to him
4. Combinatorial Subsumption-a newly acquired knowledge combines with prior
knowledge to enrich the understanding of both concepts. It is learning by analogy.
Gagne’s Cognitive Learning Theory
Gagne’s Principles
1. Different instruction is required for different learning outcomes.
 Verbal Information-stating previously learned materials such as facts,
concepts, principles, & procedures.
 Intellectual Skills-discriminations, concrete concepts, rules
 Cognitive Strategies-employing personal ways to guide learning,
thinking, acting & feeling
 Attitudes-choosing personal actions based on internal states of
understanding & feeling.
 Motor Skills-executing performances involving the use of muscles
2. Learning hierarchies define waht intellectual skills are to be learned.
(Prerequisites are identified)
3. Events of learning operate on the learner in ways that constitute the conditions
of learning.

INSTRUCTIONAL EVENTS
 Gaining attention (reception)
 Informing learners of the objective (expectancy)
 Stimulating recall of prior learning ( retrieval)
 Presenting the stimulus (selective perception)
 Providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)
 Eliciting performance (responding)
 Providing feedback (reinforcement)
 Assessing performance (retrieval)
 Enhancing retention & transfer (generalization)

CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING THEORIES

 Constructivism is one of the most influential educational theories of our
time. It is one of the several impt. theories of learning that have affected
educator’s approach to teaching.
 Constructivism, particularly in its social forms, suggests that the learner is
much more actively involved in a joints enterprise with the teacher in
creating (constructing) new things. The emphasis is on the learner as an
active “ maker of meanings”.
 Types of Constructivism
1. Cognitive Constructivism or Individual Constructivism
-which is about how the individual learner understands things in terms of
developmental stages & learning style.
2. Social Constructivism-gives emphasis on how meanings & understanding
grow out of social encounters.

Constructivist Teaching and Learning Principles

 Learners have their ideas
 Learners need first-handed experiences
 Learners see what they want to see
 Learners often are not aware of what they know
 Students need to know how to learn
 Learners may not discover expert’s conclusions

Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory

 Emphasized social interaction & language as two central factors in cognitive
development.
 Zone of Actual Development-a child’d performance of a skill alone at a certain
level of competency of which he may not be proficient at it.
 Zone of Proximal Development-the difference bet. what the child can
accomplish alone & what she can accomplish with the guidance of another.

Scaffolding- the support or assistance that lets the child accomplish a task she
cannot accomplish independently.

Scaffold & fade-away technique- the withdrawal of guidance & assistance as

learners become more efficient, able to complete tasks on their own what they
could not initiallu do without the assistance.

Knowledge Acquisition, Representation & Organization

Knowledge Acquisiton- is the process of absorbing new info. in memory, the success of which is often
gauged by how well the info. can later be remembered. The process of storing & retrieving info.
depends heavily on the representation & organization of the info.

Semantic Network-method of representing knowledge as a system of connection

between concepts in memory.
 TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE
1. General vs. Specific- this involves whether the knowledge is useful in many
tasks, or only in one.
2. Declarative- this refers to factual knowledge
3. Procedural- this includes knowledge on how to do things.
4. Episodic- this includes memories of life events, like your high school
graduation
5. Conditional- this is about “knowing when & why” to apply declarative or
procedural strategies.

INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY

Describes how the learner receives info. (stimuli) from the environment through the senses &
what takes place in bet. determines whether the info. will continue to pass through the sensory
register then short term memory & the long term memory.

STAGES IN THE INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY

1. Encoding- info. is sensed, perceived & attended to
2. Storage- the info. is stored for either a brief or extended period of time
3. Retrieval- the info. is brought back at the appropriate time & reactivated for use on a current
task, the true measure of effective memory.
FORGETTING-the inability to retrieve or access info. when needed

Two Main Ways in which forgetting will likely occur:

1. Decay- info. is not attended to, & eventually fades away
2. Interference-new or old info. blocks access to the info. in question.

Methods for Increasing Retrieval of Information

 Rehearsal-this is repeating info. verbatim, either mentally or aloud.

 Meaningful Learning-this is making connections bet. new info. & prior knowledge.
 Organization-this is making connections among various pieces of info.
 Elaboration-this is adding addtional ideas to new information based on what one
already knows
 Visual Imagery-this means forming a “picture” of the information.
 Generation- things we “ produce” are easier to remember than things we hear.
 Context-remembering the situation helps recover information.
 Personalization-it is making the info. relevant to the individual.