OEP 101: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY LECTURE FIVE LEARNING THEORIES AND TEACHING

OEP 101: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

LECTURE FIVE

LEARNING THEORIES AND TEACHING

What is a theory?

Dorin, Demmin and Gabel (1990) say that; theories provide general observations on a phenomenon made over time but the information gained so far has not yet being established beyond doubt.

A theory is a fact based framework for describing a phenomenon. In psychology, theories are used to provide a model for understanding human thoughts, emotions and behaviors.

A psychological theory has two key components:

·        it must describe a behavior

·        it must make predictions about future behavior

For a theory to be recognized, lies a collective assumptions of the existence of the phenomenon, and that it has the best explanation of phenomenon and the respective people are working on it to eventually prove that it is true.

Education psychology  include some theories that dominate and impact the field and related fields for a certain period of time and then they lose their dominance to other theories seen as more “plausible” (reasonable or believable).

1. Behavioral Approaches

Is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning which occurs through interaction with the environment. Behaviorists believe that our responses to environmental stimuli shape our actions.

Among the  behaviorists includes Edward Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Tolman and B.F. Skinner. The main focus of behaviorism is that behavior is learnt through conditioning. behaviorists believe that learning is expressed by change in overt behavior (observable behavior), the environment changes behavior and that  the formation of a bond of things or events depends on the time interval between them.

Behaviorism defines learning as permanent changes of behavior as a result of experience. There must be a change in observable behavior to definitely prove that learning has taken place. Lack of change in behavior implies that learning has not occurred.

To behaviorists learning is associated by classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning.

However, it is important to have a glance at Edward Thorndike theory of response association expressed as S                   R = Stimulus Response

·        The theory states that, when an organism detects a certain stimulus it gives a specific response based on previous encounters.

This approach of learning had three laws:

a)     Law of exercise: states that, connection between stimulus and response is strengthened depending on how frequent they are used together.

b)    Law of effect: states that strengthening or weakening of the connection between stimulus and response are the results of the consequences of the response.

c)     Law of readiness: states that the basis of individual’s response depends on the extent of his/her preparedness to act.

Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning is also known as Pavlovian Conditioning. Refers to a learning procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (eg. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (eg. a bell).

Pavlov Terminologies

·        Unconditioned stimulus (US): a stimulus in the environment that biologically makes an organism to give a specific response, eg. food makes organisms salivate.

·        Conditioned stimulus (CS): this is a neutral stimulus that naturally does not produce response but after being paired several times with the US produces a response eg. A bell before connected to food.

·        Unconditional Response (UCR): this is an unlearned response produced by UCS. The dog naturally salivate when food powder was placed on the tongue, we normally salivate when we taste something delicious. UCR can be counted as reflex action.

·        Conditional Response (CR): this is a response that is elicited by CS alone. Before pairing CS and UCS there was no response, but after pairing an organism makes a response on CS in the absence of UCS.

      Identify the UCS,UCR, CS, and CR in a given paragraph bellow:

Example:

Alexander is four years old. One night his parents decided to light a fire in the family room fireplace. A burning ember jumped out of the fireplace and landed on Alexander’s leg, creating a nasty burn. He cried because the burn hurt. A week later, when Alexander’s parents started to light another fire in the fireplace, Alexander began to cry.

From the paragraph above

    UCS = the nasty burn

    UCR = crying

    CS = the fire in the fireplace

    CR = crying

Pavlov Observations on Classical Conditioning

·        Extiction: if one stops pairing the CS and UCS, the CR will cease in response to CS. The dogs stopped to salivate if the bell was presented alone several times in absence of food.

·        Stimulus generalization: CR can occur in presence of stimuli that are similar to the UCS. The dogs salivated when they had sounds similar to the bell.

·        Stimulus discrimination: an organism can learn to discriminate between the Cs and other stimuli similar to the Cs ie give CR only to one specific CS. This occurs after recognizing that only one specific neutral stimulus is accompanied with reward. The dogs learned to respond only to the bell and not to other similar sounds.

·        Spontaneous recovery (learning): the extinguished Cr can reappear latter if Cs is again paired with the UCS. The time taken to establish the connection during spontaneous recovery is much shorter than the initial one to establish the conditioning. Also after spontaneous recovery it takes a shorter time to extinguish CR if the CS is presented alone in absence of UCS.

·        Higher – order Conditioning: once an organism has learned to associate CS and UCS, another neutral stimulus can be presented at the same with the CS. Eventually the new stimulus becomes CS that can elicit CR in absence of the original CS.

The way teachers react to students’ answers can induce fear that can negatively affect learning process and vice versa. If the teacher is too harsh to students’ answers, they may be conditioned to fear the teacher and lose interest to his/her subject. Alsoconditioning can account for test anxiety (fear of tests and examinations) among students.

Just as students learn to fear neutral things they can also learn not to fear the same things through extinction process. Remember extinction is stopping giving a response to CS. One can learn not to fear teachers or other objects in school.

Operant Conditioning (Instrumental Conditioning)

The approach of operant conditioning was developed by B.F.Skinner (1904-1990). He postulated that psychology should deal with observable behaviors that can be measured and ignored the process taking place in the mind ie. mentalprocess.

In Pavlov’s experiment the dog had to wait for someone to introduce UCS for it to give a response.

In operant conditioning (sometimes called Instrumental Conditioning) the organism ‘opereates’ on the environment based on the consequences of its actions ie deliberately initiating and operating in a process of responses. The individual and the consequences are instrumental in his/her behavior.

Skinner used a special box (called Skinner Box) to study the behavior of some animals (mostly rats) to demonstrate his theory.

Based in these experiments Skinner established the following basic aspects of operant conditioning.

The sequence of operant conditioning can be illustrated in the following chart.

                            

 Actions that lead to positive consequences are repeated and those that bring negative consequences are avoided. Repeating or avoiding are both responses. Positive Reinforcement is a pleasant or rewarding consequence that follows a response and as a result makes it likely for response to be repeated in future when under the same circumstances.

A student will always study more for a course she/he does well. Negative reinforcement is a consequence that makes a person escape or avoid painful situation. These responses are likely to be repeated since they remove unpleasant conditions. A person will repeat taking pills that relief (avoid) headache when s/he gets a headache in the future.

Responses that do not get reinforcement eventually become extinct. Extinction means an organism stopping giving a response in presense of stimulus after learning that it will not be reinforced. A student will stop raising a hand to a teacher whom s//he knows will not select him/her to answer the questions.

In some occasions it takes time and trial and error to make an association between stimulus, response and reinforcement ie to establish new behavior through a process known as behaviorism shaping. Behavioral shaping invoves giving reinforcement to responses that lead to the final required response and ignoring the other responses, until the individual learns the association between the stimulus and the desired response.

Primary and Secondary Reinforcement

Reinforcers are objects, events or actions that increase the individual’s possibility of repeating a specific behavior in the future, The power of a reinforce depends on the person or organism being reinforced eg. money is an effective reinforce to humans but worth nothing to a dog and even a small child.

Aspirin is a reinforce to a person with headache but not to a person starving. As a teacher you must identify things or objects that are effective as reinforcers to students and sometimes to a specific student.

Types of Reinforcers

There are two types of reinforcers, namely Primary reinforcement and Secondary reinforcement.

Primary reinforcement: are natural things that meet our basic needs such as food, water and shelter. Other things that are paired with primary reinforcers and eventually get their own reinforcing powers ar known as secondary reinforcers. Money is a good example of secondary reinforce. Many of the reinforcers in schools are secondary reinforcers. When a secondary reinforce acquires the properties of a primary reinforcer it is known as a generalized reinforce. When we just work to get money just for the sake of becoming rich then money is a generalized reinforcer.

Schedules of Reinforcement

From the experiences not all of our responses are given reinforcement immediately. Some responses are reinforced immediately while others are not reinforced immediately ie the reinforcement is provided later. In most cases when we pay cash to  the shopkeeper we get the object we want.

Schedules of reinforcement refers to a system that indicates which response get reinforcement and which will not get reinforcement.

In continuous reinforcement every response is followed by reinforcement. Every time a student gives a correct answer in the classroom the teacher nods in recognition. In the long run this schedule is not very effective since some people and organisms stop responding to enjoy the reinforcements that have been accumulated.

Continuous reinforcement is very effective in establishing new behavioral response. Once the intended behavioral responses has been established we can move on to partial reinforcement schedules ie not all responses get reinforcement, but rather just some of them. Partial reinforcement schedules have been known to be more effective in maintaining an established response than the continuous reinforcement. Partial reinforcement schedules can be in various patterns.

Patterns of partial reinforcement:

There are two types of partial reinforcement patterns namely as: Interval schedules and ratio schedules

In the Interval schedules; presentation of reinforcement is based on time factor. In fixed interval schedules a response is reinforced after a fixed amount of time has elapsed since the last reinforcement.

The time period between reinforcement is constantly the same. An employer can decide to give reinforcement to his worker after five days of work ie paying the worker at the end of every fifth day. Giving a test on every last Monday of each month is another example.

In variable Interval schedules the amount of time that elapses between the reinforcement varies. The individual (organism) knows that s/he will be given reinforcement but does not know when. The employer may pay his worker after five days this time, next payment after seven days and the following payment after four days. A teacher may decide to give a quiz after five days, then after six days and the next one after three days. Note that an individual has to give responses to get reinforcement within the respective period of time. The main limitation of fixed interval is that some people stay idle and only give responses just before the time reinforcement is expected.

In the ratio schedule presentation of reinforcement is based on a number of correct responses one has to make to get reinforcement. In fixed ratio schedules one is reinforced after making a fixed number of correct responses since the last reinforcement.

An employer can decide to give reinforcement after his worker has produced a specific number of items eg paying the worker after baking 100 loaves of bread. In classroom a teacher can only marks student’s exercise after he has completed five questions.

A variable ratio schedule implies one gets reinforcement after a set of average number of correct responses. These set vary in the number of correct responses. The first set might be after five responses, the second set after four responses and the following after six responses. A worker may get reinforcement after baking 100 loaves then after baking 200 loaves and then after just baking 75 loaves.

The effects of this type of schedule of reinforcement used differ. Fixed ratio is more effective when establishing a new behavior. The best schedule for maintaining behavior is variable ratio. The individual does not stop giving responses since s/he is always expecting to get reinforcement after the next response.

PREMARK’S PRINCIPLE

This principle was described by David Premark. Actions that are more desirable to the individual can be used as reinforcers for less desirable ones. Desirable actions done by individual more often and much longer in terms of time relative to the less desirable ones ie desirable actions have high frequency activity. In life every person has actions that s/he likes more and other actions that s/he likes less. Many children (and adults too) like to watch television and dislike homework.

Premark’s principle says that watching television can be used as a reinforcement for doing homework or washing pots. A child is required to complete homework or washing pots before being allowed out to play.

As a teacher it is advisable to identify desirable actions of your students and then make a reinforcement hierarchy ie listing actions of student with the most desirable action at the top and ending the least desirable action at the bottom. To obtain the list you can tell students to write what they like or you can observe them during their spare time.

COGNITIVE THEORIES OF LEARNING

Several psychologists identify cognitive processes as critical component in understanding human behavior. All cognitive theories look beyond overt behavior and rather focus on brain and mental processes in explaining learning. Other common features in these theories include making inferences on observable mental processes, believing that individuals are actively involved in learning process and learning involves relating new information to previously learned information.

Edward Tolman (Tolman & Honzik, 1930) proposed Latent learning in which an organism learns about its environment without reinforcement or a change in behavior. We develop cognitive map of our environment and only demonstrate this knowledge when reinforcement is available.

When in a new surroundings you observe the area and learn about the layout of objects without expecting any reinforcement. Later on the information acquired can be used to give a response that leads to reinforcement.

Gestalts psychologists

Psychologists of this perspective were against behaviorism by emphasizing that mental processes are important in explaining learning. Among the basic ideas of this theory is that we perceive things in whole and not in segment and the perception formed can be different from the reality.

Cognitive Constructivism

Constructivists hold that a learner is actively constructing and inventing his/her own knowledge from past experiences rather than just receive and absorb what s/he gets from others including teachers. A learner modifies his/her understanding in relation to the new information leading to internalization of concepts, rules and principles that are later applied in future encounters.

Constructivists main ideas are (Elliot et al, 2000):

·        We only know subjective reality and not the object reality since knowledge we have is based on our subjective experiences

·        Knowledge is subjective because each one has his/her own unique experiences

·        The knowledge of two people are said to be “taken as shared” to the extent that their constructions seem to function in the same way in given situation

·        Knowledge is constructed through the process of adapting to events and ideas one experiences

·        The construction of knowledge is significantly influenced by symbols and materials one uses or has ready access to.

·        Readiness to learn means that an individual is ready to learn when his/her existing cognitive constructions are capable of incorporating new information.

Piaget’s theory of Learning

This theory believes that learning is determined by mental structures and how the new information is incorporated into the existing knowledge.

Implications of cognitive theories on education are:

·        Cognitive processes influence learning

·        Learning difficulties often indicate ineffective cognitive processes, especially for children with learning disabilities

·        As children grow they become capable of increasingly more sophisticated thought

·        People organize things they learn

·        New information is most easily acquired when people can associate it with things they have already learned

·        People control their own learning