Learning Theories Simplified: ...and how to apply them to teaching

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In 1985 Dugan Laird stated in his book Approaches to Training and Development that learning occurs when the senses are stimulated. Understanding the Stage a child is in informs what they should be presented with based on what they can and cannot do at the Stage they’re in.

Rudolf Dreikur proposed the theory that mutual respect should be the basis for discipline and that this mutual respect motivates learners to display positive behaviors. H, Smiths’ non-fiction best sellers list for nearly a year, is being translated into fifteen languages, including Japanese and Arabic, and was chosen by the Chartered Management Institute as the CMI’s Practical Management Book of the Year for 2014. Looking at Skinner’s classic studies on pigeons’ / rat’s behavior we can identify some of the major assumptions of the behaviorist approach. Candidates had to satisfy a range of the conditions on his list and also be able to solve genuine problems of difficulties. According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated.

Positive Reinforcement: Suppose you are a coach and want your team to improve their passing accuracy in soccer.

We can all think of examples of how our own behavior has been affected by reinforcers and punishers. Developed by the American psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1980s, facilitative learning is a humanistic approach to learning.When consistent outcomes are required, a constructivist approach may not be the ideal theory to use. The basic premise for Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that students progress through a set of sequential needs from physiological to self-actualization. The behaviors seemed to be associated with the environment, suggesting the pigeons were responding to certain aspects of their surroundings.

However, the patients can become over-reliant on the tokens, making it difficult for them to adjust to society once they leave prison, hospital, etc. However, operant conditioning fails to take into account the role of inherited and cognitive factors in learning, and thus is an incomplete explanation of the learning process in humans and animals. In the case of Memory, for example, Western cultures tend towards note-taking, mind-maps or mnemonics whereas other cultures may use different Memory tools like storytelling. When the child has developed a working Schema that can explain what they perceive in the world, that Schema is in a state of Equilibrium.These are those actions that are the basic movements, running, jumping, walking etc and commonly form part of more complex actions such as playing a sport. Or perhaps you like plenty of demonstrations and examples, while your deskmate prefers written instruction. Students adapt their models of understanding either by reflecting on prior theories or resolving misconceptions. Social learning theory suggests that individuals can learn new behaviors by observing others and the consequences of their actions, which is similar to the reinforcement and punishment processes in operant conditioning. Gamification and game-based learning is a great way to get people to think creatively and draw connections, as it enables them to absorb course material in a different way.

The truth is, great teaching involves a cocktail of most of these at some point (and a few actual cocktails at the weekend to recover!Make sure you evaluate your courses and learning materials regularly to ensure you’re always giving employees and learners the most recent and relevant information. This experiment demonstrates that behaviors can be conditioned even without a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Skinner believed that we do have such a thing as a mind, but that it is simply more productive to study observable behavior rather than internal mental events. If a student fails to gain social status by gaining attention, they move on to trying to gain power and control, failure at each successive level ultimately ends with feelings of inadequacy.