- 1. Theme 2: What is learning?:Classic & contemporary views
Imagine the following.friends contactyou and ask you to advise them
(after allyou are now becoming a teacher!) on How to give up junk
food and lose weight How to learn Spanish vocabulary How to write
and then make a speech inpublic (they have seen you do it very
well) Understand how people see Four cases: Different people &
different types of learning What to do? P Conway, PDE @ UCC 1
2. Variety of theories with deeproots Many theories (folk &
official) No one approach has all theanswers P Conway, PDE @ UCC2
3. Some approaches: learningas Plato: recollection V Locke: writing
ona blank tablet Skinner (Behaviourism): actions of theenvironment
on the learner Kohler (Gestalt): patterns & structure ofthe
mind e.g. Aha Simon (Cognitive Science/AI/IP):ascomputerlike
phenomenon Piaget (Constructivism): .as an adaptivefunction of an
organism Vygotsky, Dewey (Social constructivism):as becoming a
member of community ofpracticeP Conway, PDE @ UCC3 4. The learning
paradox & theory of recollection I know Meno what you mean
youargue a man cannot searchforwhat he does not knowfor he doesnot
know what to look for; for if heknows, he has no need to
inquire;and if not, he cannot; for he does notknow the subject
about which he isto enquire (Plato, 370BC/1956) Recollection: The
Myth of Er:Drinking on the banks of theForgetful River (but not too
much!) P Conway, PDE @ UCC 4 5. The tabula rasa blankslate: Feed
everything in Let us then suppose the mind to be, aswe say, white
paper [tabula rasa], void ofall characters without any ideas;
howcomes it to be furnished? Whence comesit by that vast store,
which the busy andboundless fancy of man has painted on itwith an
almost endless variety? Whencehas it all the materials of reason
andknowledge? To this I answer, in oneword, from experience: in
that all ourknowledge is founded, and from that itultimately
derives itself. (Locke, 1689, AnEssay on Human Understanding) P
Conway, PDE @ UCC5 6. Putting the building blocksin place (Lockes
blank slate)Bringing out out what the learneralready knows (Platos
recollection)P Conway, PDE @ UCC6 7. Plato & Locke shared
someideas (mistaken assumptions) Learner is passive in both Plato:
learner as spectator on reality Locke: an empty cabinet waiting to
befilled Experience is something thathappens to a learner Locke
(YES) Plato (yes) BUT Lockes atomism Simple ideas ----> complex
ideas?P Conway, PDE @ UCC7 8. Behaviourism & schooling
Psychology as the behaviouristviews it is a purely
objectiveexperimental branch of naturalscience. Introspection forms
noessential part of its methodThebehaviourist, in his efforts to
get aunitary scheme of animal response,recognizes no dividing line
betweenman and brute Watson,Psychological Review, 1913P Conway, PDE
@ UCC 8 9. ClassicalconditioningREAD: pp.19-32, Seifert& Sutton
(2009)P Conway, PDE @ UCC9 10. Operant conditioning P Conway, PDE @
UCC 10 11. Applications in educationBehaviour modification ABA in
regular & specialeducation (e.g. ASDs, EBD) To develop &
strengthen newbehaviour; To maintainbehaviour, To stop behaviour,To
modify emotional response Think about: 1. Cues/triggers,2.
rewardsProgrammed instruction: Mastery learning Break learning into
small steps,easy to hard & shapebehaviour up the
learningpyramidP Conway, PDE @ UCC11 12. Behaviourism &
schools:Practices, limits & ethics Conditioning occurs all the
time - bothclassical and operant Pay attention to cues, rewards
&unintentional reinforcement Objections: Limits & ethics
Conditioning beliefs, attitudes? Student awareness, thinking, HOT?
Should rely on intrinsic rewards rather thanpunished by rewards
(see Kohn) Does all learning necessitate direct reward orpunishment
of the learner? The end of free will (Skinners book WaldenTwo, I.e.
ABA-based Utopia) P Conway, PDE @ UCC12