4.1 Learning and motivation notes

1. 4.1.1Learning: nature, factors, curves, memory and transfer

   Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour that comes from experience and practice (not from maturation, fatigue or drugs); how well it happens depends on the learner, the teacher, the material and the surroundings, it can be drawn as a learning curve, it is kept by memory and lost by forgetting, and what is learnt in one task can help or hinder another (transfer).

   Standard · 25 min · Read here
2. 4.1.2Classical conditioning and Thorndike's connectionism

   The behaviourist (S-R, association) theories explain learning as links between a stimulus and a response: Pavlov showed that a neutral stimulus paired with a natural one comes to call out the same response (classical conditioning), Watson built behaviourism on it and conditioned fear in Little Albert, and Thorndike showed learning by trial and error, governed by his laws of readiness, exercise and effect.

   Standard · 21 min · Read here
3. 4.1.3Operant conditioning, Hull and programmed learning

   B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning says behaviour is shaped by its consequences (reinforcement makes it more likely, punishment less likely); Clark Hull explained learning as drive reduction building habit strength; and Skinner's ideas became programmed instruction (linear), later answered by Crowder's branching programme.

   Standard · 17 min · Read here
4. 4.1.4Cognitive and constructivist theories: Gestalt, Tolman, Gagne, Bruner

   Cognitive theories say learning happens inside the mind, by seeing relations (Gestalt insight), building cognitive maps (Tolman), climbing a hierarchy of learning types (Gagne) and discovering structure (Bruner); constructivism adds that each learner builds knowledge from experience, and metacognition lets the learner plan and check that learning.

   Standard · 22 min · Read here
5. 4.1.5Social learning (Bandura) and motivation (Maslow)

   Albert Bandura showed that children learn a great deal by watching others (models) and what happens to them, through attention, retention, reproduction and motivation, and later built this into social cognitive theory with self-efficacy (belief in one's own ability) at its centre; motivation is the force that starts, directs and keeps up behaviour, and Maslow arranged human needs in a hierarchy from physiological needs to self-actualisation.

   Standard · 23 min · Read here
6. 4.1.6Methods of teaching: maxims, stages, inductive, heuristic, project and Dalton plan

   Teaching is a tripolar process (teacher, child, curriculum) whose aim is an inquiring mind; it follows maxims (known to unknown, concrete to abstract), passes through pre-active, interactive and post-active stages, and uses methods that make the pupil active: inductive, heuristic (Armstrong), project (Kilpatrick), the Dalton plan (Parkhurst) and programmed learning (Skinner).

   Standard · 14 min · Read here

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