Report - Unit 1 Topic 2
Report - Unit 1 Topic 2
Report - Unit 1 Topic 2
Why this is true is complicated. (If you’re teaching, you may have more pressing concerns than being able to
define obscure learning theories which don’t seem to have a place or role in what you’re teaching tomorrow.)
I thought it might be useful to have a brief overview of many of the most important learning theories teachers
should know in a single graphic, which is why I was excited to find Richard Millwood‘s excellent graphic.
Millwood is Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, Director of Core Education UK. (You can read his
blog here.) While the graphic is necessarily brief (and has a few typos), I found it did a great job of bringing
together a lot of the most critical–and common–learning theories in one place.
If you get nothing else from a post like this, perhaps the most critical takeaway is that there are dozens of
theories that underpin what and how you teach already, and that the better you understand them, the better
chance you’ll have to master your current approach and begin to bring new possibilities into your classroom as
your ‘teaching brain’ makes room for this kind of thinking.
Some definitions were a bit too brief, so I added language for clarity or depth (though a few I need to go back
and further deepen and explain, like ‘Interpersonal Relations.) Let me know in the comments if you have any
suggested citations or ideas that could improve the resource. I’ll continue to add resource, links, and citations
as relevant.
1.Instructivism
The premise behind ‘Instructivism’ is that teachers take on a central role in the learning process and transfer
that knowledge directly to the students.
2. Multiple Intelligences
We have several different ways of learning and processing information, but these methods are relatively
independent of one another: leading multiple intelligences as opposed to a (single) ‘general intelligence)
factor among correlated abilities.
3. Experiential Learning
Knowledge is continuously gained through both personal and environmental experiences. The learner must be
able to reflect on the experience, use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience, and make decisions and
solve problems to use the ideas gained from the experience.
4. Learning Styles
Optimal learning demands that students receive instruction tailored to their learning styles.
5. De-schooling Society
School is damaging to education: “The pupil is thereby ‘schooled’ to confuse teaching with learning, grade
advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something (well)
or new.”
6. Homeschooling
Homeschooling: Characterized primarily by the family being responsible for the child’s ‘education.’ There’s a
spectrum of approaches available from reproducing school at home, to project-based learning in authentic
and self-actuated and organized learning environments, to complete ‘unschooling.’
7. Unschooling
The underlying assumption of Unschooling is that children will learn naturally if given the freedom to follow
own interests and a rich assortment of resources.
8. Critical Pedagogy
An educational movement guided by passion and principle to help students develop consciousness of
freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take
constructive action.
9. Interpersonal Relations
Teacher types: lion-tamer, entertainer and new romantic–the problem of self-judgment in assessment
Montessori Principles:
Mixed-age classrooms, with classrooms for children aged 2.5 or 3-years-old to 6-years-old.
Student choice of activity within a prescribed range of options
Uninterrupted blocks of work time
A ‘Constructivist’ or ‘discovery’ model where students learn concepts from working with materials rather than
by direct instruction
13. Constructionism
The underlying principle of Constructionism as a learning theory is that the learner is not a passive ‘vessel,’ but
must actively participate in their own learning. It requires learners to build on existing knowledge when
acquiring new knowledge.
1a. Knowledge is not passively received either through the senses or by way of communication;
1b. Knowledge is actively built up by the cognizing subject;
2a. The function of cognition is adaptive, in the biological sense of the term, tending towards fit or viability;
2b. Cognition serves the subject’s organization of the experiential world, not the discovery of an objective
ontological reality.
19. Scaffolding
Scaffolding is the support given during the learning process which is tailored to the needs of the student with
the intention of helping the student achieve his/her learning goals.
Reference:
https://www.teachthought.com/learning/a-visual-summary-the-most-important-learning-theories/
12 Principles of Modern Learning – by Richard Olsen
Well, that depends on how you define ‘learning’ and what you’d consider ‘modern.’ Richard Olsen put
together this useful visual way, way back in 2013–a chart that lays out three categories of a modern approach
to learning–Modern, Self-Directed, and Social.
These broad categories are then broken up into four principles per category. Each principle is then described
by its Reality (its function) and Opportunity (the result of that function). Honestly, these two categories are a
bit confusing–or at least the distinction between some of the entries are (the ability to participate and enables
modern learners to participate, for example).
The four principles of Modern Inquiry Learning, according to the graphic, are Compile, Contribute, Combine,
and Change, with their respective Realities and Opportunities shown below.
Principle: Contribute
Reality: The ability to participate in more complex projects
Opportunity: Enables learners to participate in more complex projects
Principle: Combine
Reality: The ability to reuse and build upon the work of others (ed note: as we are doing with this post)
Opportunity: Allows learners to move beyond individual and isolated projects
Principle: Change
Reality: The ability to quickly obtain learning feedback from multiple sources
Principle: Compare
Reality: The ability to view the learning artifacts of others…
Opportunity: Enables modern learners to learn from what other learners are doing or have done.
Principle: Catch
Reality: The ability to participate in virally amplified online activities and events…
Opportunity: Enables modern learners to easily identify new and important ideas and content.
Principle: Cooperate
Reality: The ability to learn in the same communities as experts and professionals.
Opportunity: Enables modern learners to make better decisions about their own learning.
Communicating
Reality: The ability to publish using a variety of media for low or no cost…
Opportunity: Enables modern learners to share their ideas and get feedback from others.
Collaborating
Reality: The ability to form learning networks…
Opportunity: Enables modern learners to contrast ideas and experiences with other learners.
Learning Collectively
Reality: The ability to form highly interconnected groups around an object of interest…
Opportunity: Enables modern learners to engage in shared meaning-making.
Reference:
https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/12-principles-of-modern-learning/