Theories of Education

1. Theories of Learning: eLearning
• This slideshow will explore four broad
perspectives of learning theory relating to
eLearning; associationist/empiricist, cognitive,
situative, and connectivist.
• It will discuss the significance of this theory and
discuss the implications for teaching.
• It will also give a teaching/learning example from
my own context.

2. Associationist: Significance: Teaching Implications: Example/Teaching:
Associationismviews learning as the
building of knowledge though new
associations between ideas; it is an
organised accumulating of
associations and skills (Greeno,
Collins, & Resnick, 2009). Empiricism
states that knowledge comes from
experience through the senses and
learning occurs from interactions
with the environment (Schuh &
Barab, 2008). Therefore, the
associationist/empiricist perspective
can be described as behaviourism;
learning in terms of observable
behaviour (Strong & Hutchins, 2010;
Wilson & Myers, 2000).
Behaviourism views learning as a
process of breaking down whatever
is to be learnt into small steps and
repeating those steps, successful
repetition is positively reinforced
until the steps can be reproduced
independently (Schuh & Barab,
2008). Arrangement of associations
from the simple to complex is a key
component in the learning process
as it enables students to succeed in
learning by small logical ordered
steps (Mayes & de Freitas, 2004).
Perspective:
Associationism views learning as the
building of knowledge though new
associations between ideas; it is an
organised accumulating of
associations and skills (Greeno,
Collins, & Resnick, 2009). Empiricism
states that knowledge comes from
experience through the senses and
learning occurs from interactions with
the environment (Schuh & Barab,
2008). Therefore, the
associationist/empiricist perspective
can be described as behaviourism;
learning in terms of observable
behaviour (Strong & Hutchins, 2010;
Wilson & Myers, 2000). Behaviourism
views learning as a process of
breaking down whatever is to be
learnt into small steps and repeating
those steps, successful repetition is
positively reinforced until the steps
can be reproduced independently
(Schuh & Barab, 2008). Arrangement
of associations from the simple to
complex is a key component in the
learning process as it enables
students to succeed in learning by
small logical ordered steps (Mayes &
de Freitas, 2004).
Significance:
The behaviourist perspective has a
strong focus on equity of access and
opportunity for knowledge
acquisition. It also supports the
development of practices that ensure
all students can achieve a satisfactory
level of basic knowledge (Greeno et
al., 2009). The behaviourist
perspective places strong emphasis
on the efficiency of conveying
information and training skills. It also
stresses the importance of teaching
practices that involve well organised
routines of classroom activity, with
clear plans and goals (Greeno et al.,
2009). According to Wilson and Myers
(2000), behaviourism has taken a back
seat, especially in the last two
decades. However, they defend
behaviourism and its core
beliefs/intentions; active learning,
close association with the
environment. Behaviourism has been
around for many years and is a
valuable theory for anyone planning
learning experiences to be familiar
with. Many classrooms and learning
programs still use behaviourism
principles today but it is only one
perspective among many (Wilson &
Myers, 2000).
Implication for Teaching:
Educators planning lessons based on
the behaviourist perspective will find
it appropriate to pre-plan, organise,
and programme instructional content
with specific observable outcomes
defined for learning. They should
arrange the content so that students
can make logical progress towards
correct responses and receive
reinforcement as necessary (Schuh &
Barab, 2008). People learn best when
tasks are broken down into smaller
more manageable tasks ranging from
simple to complex. This also improves
confidence as smaller tasks tend to
provide greater success, improving
motivation to continue. Measurable
behaviours are the best index of true
learning outcomes and should be
used to gauge instructional
effectiveness (Wilson & Myers, 2000).
Skinners operant conditioning is
aligned with the cognitive
perspective. Skinner believed that
learning could be viewed as
conditioning where behaviour that is
followed by reinforcement will
increase in frequency or probability
(Schuh & Barab, 2008). Programmed
instruction is an excellent example
of
this. Programmed instruction
facilitates learning by using
reinforcement and feedback. The
content is analysed and pre-planned.
This provides the learner with a direct
map of exactly what is to be learned.
Example/Teaching:
I run a program in our library called
iPads & Androids for Beginners. It is
an introductory course for adult
learners based on behaviourism. This
is a very basic course for those people
who have been left behind,
technologically speaking, and want to
catch up. My lessons are pre-planned
and learning objectives are clearly
defined before beginning. All
knowledge, gestures and information
is delivered by the facilitator. The
learners are then required to
replicate the behaviours on a device
of their own. I show them how to
power on, how to adjust the volume,
how to effectively make soft touch
selections and all other demonstrable
information a new tablet user needs.
The lesson is structured in such a way
that learning is sequential from
simple to more complex behaviours.
The behaviourist perspective has a
strong focus on equity of access and
opportunity for knowledge
acquisition. It also supports the
development of practices that
ensure all students can achieve a
satisfactory level of basic knowledge
(Greeno et al., 2009). The
behaviourist perspective places
strong emphasis on the efficiency of
conveying information and training
skills. It also stresses the importance
of teaching practices that involve
well organised routines of classroom
activity, with clear plans and goals
(Greeno et al., 2009). According to
Wilson and Myers (2000),
behaviourism has taken a back seat,
especially in the last two decades.
However, they defend behaviourism
and its core beliefs/intentions; active
learning, close association with the
environment. Behaviourism has
been around for many years and is a
valuable theory for anyone planning
learning experiences to be familiar
with. Many classrooms and learning
programs still use behaviourism
principles today but it is only one
perspective among many (Wilson &
Myers, 2000).
Educators planning lessons based on
the behaviourist perspective will find
it appropriate to pre-plan, organise,
and programme instructional
content with specific observable
outcomes defined for learning. They
should arrange the content so that
students can make logical progress
towards correct responses and
receive reinforcement as necessary
(Schuh & Barab, 2008). People learn
best when tasks are broken down
into smaller more manageable tasks
ranging from simple to complex. This
also improves confidence as smaller
tasks tend to provide greater
success, improving motivation to
continue. Measurable behaviours
are the best index of true learning
outcomes and should be used to
gauge instructional effectiveness
(Wilson & Myers, 2000). Skinners
operant conditioning is aligned with
the cognitive perspective. Skinner
believed that learning could be
viewed as conditioning where
behaviour that is followed by
reinforcement will increase in
frequency or probability (Schuh &
Barab, 2008). Programmed
instruction is an excellent of this. Programmed instruction
facilitates learning by using
reinforcement and feedback
providing the learning with a map of
what is to be learnt.
I run a program in our library called
iPads & Androids for Beginners. It is
an introductory course for adult
learners based on behaviourism.
This is a very basic course for those
people who have been left behind,
technologically speaking, and want
to catch up. My lessons are pre-planned
and learning objectives are
clearly defined before beginning. All
knowledge, gestures and
information is delivered by the
facilitator. The learners are then
required to replicate the behaviours
on a device of their own. I show
them how to power on, how to
adjust the volume, how to
effectively make soft touch
selections and all other
demonstrable information a new
tablet user needs. The lesson is
structured in such a way that
learning is sequential from simple to
more complex behaviours.

3. Cognitive: Significance: Teaching Implications: Example/Teaching:
The cognitivist perspective places
the mind at the centre of learning
(Wilson & Myers, 2000). In this
perspective the mind is viewed as an
information processing system and
focuses on an understanding of the
organisation, encoding and retrieval
of knowledge from the brain (Schuh
& Barab, 2008). There are five
general cognitive abilities; reasoning,
planning, solving problems, and
comprehending language (Greeno et
al., 2009). The cognitivist
perspective assumes that
understanding is gained by an active
process of constructions rather than
by passive assimilation of
information or rote memorisation
(Greeno et al., 2009). Therefore,
knowledge acquisition is viewed as
the outcome of an interaction
between new experiences and the
structures for existing understanding
(Mayes & de Freitas, 2004). The
cognitive perspective also places
information in a simple to complex
hierarchical system (Schuh & Barab,
2008).
The cognitive perspective is very
important in terms of eLearning
because of its long standing
academic rigor and successful
application of quality eLearning
experiences in the past. The attempt
to explain learning from within the
brain and has provided excellent
learning theories and strategies over
its lifetime, many of which are still
used throughout the world. Learning
experiences designed from a
cognitive perspective have much
strength. They focus on the
differences between students, their
interests, abilities, and engagement
in learning subject matters. The
cognitive perspective also supports
practices that allow for these varying
differences between students,
multiple understandings and
resources. A cognitive approach can
be viewed similar to coaching,
emphasis is on teachers and their
abilities to understand and give
attention to students thinking in an
attempt to identify potential areas
for improvement, guiding and
encouragement (Greeno et al.,
2009).
Educators planning lessons based on
the Cognitive perspective will find it
appropriate to analyse and sequence
material in a simple to complex
hierarchical system (Schuh & Barab,
2008). It is also important to be
mindful of memory load. Humans
are only able to hold in mind 5-7
chunks of information at a time.
When our limitations of working
memory are stretched, problems
begin to occur. Small steps, frequent
repetition, elaboration and
reference aides are all excellent
methods for improving knowledge
acquisition (Wilson & Myers, 2000).
Gagne’s conditions of learning
exemplify examples of cognitive
learning for any designers seeking a
cognitive approach, as does
constructivist theory and
information processing theory.
Grammatikus uses cognitive game
based learning in an attempt to help
the user become more proficient in
their language abilities.
Grammatikus begins with a
diagnostic test to identify the
individual abilities of each user. It
then structures learning experiences
in a hierarchical system of difficulty
based on the learner’s abilities and
places new content and learning
experiences within their zone of
proximal development. New content
is introduced to the leaner by
displaying it on the screen. For
example, when explaining adverbs,
the game displays a sentence and
reads it out, underlining the adverb
and the audio voice explains the
definition of adverb. It repeats this
process and then prompts the user
to identify adverbs in a sentence by
selecting them via multiple choices.
As the user becomes confident at
this task the difficulty level will be
increased by not providing
suggestions and requiring a typed
answer. The difficulty continues to
increase by varying sentence types
and more difficult adverbs but keeps
learning with in zone of proximal
development. At the end the user
will sit a final adverb test, if they
pass they can move onto adjectives.

4. Situative: Significance: Teaching Implications: Example/Teaching:
The situative perspective views
learning as being part of a
community of practice, people
brought together formally or
informally through joint interest
(Schuh & Barab, 2008). Knowledge is
viewed as distributed among people
and their environments or situated
in the practices of communities.
Situative theory creates no boarders
between the person and the
environment but instead views them
as one. Therefore, the outcomes of
learning involve the abilities of
individuals to participate in those
practices successfully. Learning that
is situated often occurs
unintentionally, meaning that
learning is a natural occurrence from
being an active contributor to a
community of practice, so naturally
social interaction and collaboration
are essential components (Greeno et
al., 2009; Mayes & de Freitas, 2004;
Schuh & Barab, 2008). Wilson and
Myers (2000) believe that learning
that is situated should not always be
viewed as concrete in its context. It
can and does occur in a general or
imaginary sense because of its
multiplicity and interconnected
aspects (O'Donohue, 2010).
The situative perspective is aimed at
learning in the everyday world,
learning that occurs in our
communities of practice. It is an
important theory for eLearning
because it encourages modern
perspectives and theories like
andragogy, anchored learning and
adult learning theory. In the modern
world we are all part of multiple
complex communities where people
learn, interact and become socially
and culturally accustomed. The
situative perspective gives educators
the theory to create, facilitate and
work within these communities of
practice (Greeno et al., 2009). From
a school perspective, teachers are
mentors and classrooms represent
communities of practice in the
society. Teachers in the school
setting are encouraged to create a
professional setting which
exemplifies valued practices of the
social and cultural communities
represented in society and guide
students as they become competent
practitioners (Greeno et al., 2009).
Educators planning instruction based
on the situative perspective will find
it appropriate to design programs of
learning that involve the whole
person and environment. They will
need to encourage full participation
from all participants so that they are
active contributors of the
community; evolving, reproducing,
and transforming the community of
practice. Educators should design
holistic programs that focus on a
range of activity, meaning, cognition,
and learning experiences (Schuh &
Barab, 2008). Learning environments
need to be organised for
opportunities to acquire basic skills,
knowledge and conceptual
understanding that contribute to
students development of strong
identities as individual or lifelong
learners (Greeno et al., 2009; Wilson
& Myers, 2000). Knowledge is
located in the actions of persons and
groups. It evolves as individuals
participate in and negotiate their
way through new authentic
situations (Wilson & Myers, 2000).
Team Tablet is a situated learning
program that I run at our public
library with very close links to
andragogy and adult learning theory.
Like andragogy, this program is
based on the assumptions that;
adults are aware of why they need
to learn, adults need to learn
experientially, adults approach
learning as problem solving, and
adults learn best when the topic is of
immediately value (Chan, 2010).
Therefore, Team Tablet runs in a
very informal way. Participants come
together once a fortnight as a
community of practice to spend time
sharing new learning experiences,
troubleshooting, asking questions of
each other, helping each other set-up
profiles or installing apps. My
involvement is mainly to facilitate
the group and provide time and
space for them to meet. I attend
each meeting with something new
to share with the group and I
encourage all participants to do the
same. Almost all the learning is ad
hoc.

5. Connectivist: Significance: Teaching Implications: Example/Teaching:
Connectivismdescribes how learning
is emerging in the digital age as a
formation of networks. It focuses on
how knowledge and cognition are
distributed across networks of
people and technology. It also
proposes that learning is the process
of connecting, growing and
navigating those networks (Strong &
Hutchins, 2010). A learning
community is called a node and the
node is always part of a larger
network. The knowledge is seen as
distributed across the network and
can be stored in a variety of digital
formats (Kop & Hill, 2008). Siemens
(2005) proposes the following
principles of learning for
connectivism. Learning and
knowledge rest in diversity of
opinions, it is a process of
connecting specialised nodes or
information sources, and it may
reside in non-human appliances. He
also proposes that the capacity to
know more is more critical that what
is currently known, nurturing and
maintaining connections is needed
to facilitate continual learning, the
ability to see connections between
fields, ideas and concepts is a core
skill, currency is vitally important,
and decision making is itself a
learning process (Guder, 2010;
Ravenscroft, 2011; Siemens, 2005;
Transue, 2013).
Connectivismoffers a theory of
learning for the digital age, an age
that we are already fully immersed
in (Kop & Hill, 2008). Technological
advancements are progressing at
rapid rates. This is exciting and
ground-breaking for educators.
However, old theories of learning
and knowing may not be appropriate
for new methods of learning and
distributing knowledge.
Connectivismasks the question,
what is learning and knowledge in
the digital age? Networked
technologies as learning tools is still
a relatively new field and
connectivism attempts to situate
learning within these geographies of
networks. Ravenscroft (2011)
believes that, “…through social and
more open technologies, we are
creating new spaces and contexts
which have the potential for learning
through new and developing digital
literacies (p. 7).”
Educators need to be aware of the
implications that connectivismmay
have on their roles in the future. Kop
and Hill (2008) believe that the ways
in which we teach and design
curriculum will particularly be
affected, as well as the spaces and
structures of learning. The
utilisation of information technology
in the classroom has become an
everyday feature of instruction and
this will produce significant changes
to education. One change in
particular is that learners will be at
the centre of the learning
experience rather than the tutor or
institution. This is because the
learners themselves will be
instrumental in determining the
content of the learning and deciding
the nature and level of
communication (Kop & Hill, 2008).
Ravenscroft (2011) believes that
“…embracing connectivismmeans
that we need to consider new design
metaphors for future leaning that
place the person, their social
behaviour, and their community at
the centre of the design process and
the resulting networked
technologies” (p. 13).
Social networking sites like LinkedIn,
Twitter and TED are becoming
increasingly popular tools for
individuals and organisations to
share knowledge, lessen personal
distance and provide professional
development opportunities. I
personally use all three of these for
my personal learning and
professional development. Through
Twitter I connect to librarians from
all over Australia and New Zealand.
From a conferencing perspective
Twitter is ground-breaking; librarians
are able to share their notes, photos
and highlights through Twitter. In
order to make it easy for anyone to
follow the conversation hashtags are
added to tweets. These keep all
related tweets together in a virtual
library. Therefore, if anyone
searches #ALIAconference2014, they
will be able to see all tweets
pertaining to the conference and
access valuable information. They
can also then join the conversation
by adding the same hashtag at the
end of their tweet and so on. Any
professional connections or
organisations can ne followed for
regular updates. In terms of
connectivism, I believe Twitter if
used professionally, exemplifies
modern connectivist learning
practices.

6. References
Chan, S. (2010). Applications of Andragogy in Multi-Disciplined Teaching and Learning. Journal of Adult Education, 39(2), 25-35.
Greeno, J. G., Collins, A. M., & Resnick, L. B. (2009). Cognition and Learning In D. C.
Berliner, & R. C. Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 15-46). New York, NY: Routledge.
Guder, C. (2010). Patrons and Pedagogy: A Look at the Theory of Connectivism. Public Services Quarterly, 6(1), 36-42.
Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning Theory of the Future or Vestige of the Past? International Review of Research in Open
and Distance Learning, 9(3), 1-13.
Mayes, T., & de Freitas, S. (2004). JISC e-Learning Models Desk Study. Stage 2: Review of e-learning theories, frameworks and models.
Retrieved from www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Stage%202%20Mapping%20(Version%201).pd
O'Donohue, M. (2010). A video interview with Etienne Wenger [Video file]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=o69pr9AYYO8
Ravenscroft, A. (2011). Dialogue and Connectivism: A New Approach to Understanding and Promoting Dialogue-Rich Networked Learning.
International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(3), 139-160.
Schuh, K. L., & Barab, S. A. (2008). Philosophical Perspectives. In J. M. Spector, M. D.
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Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance
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Strong, K., & Hutchins, H. (2010). Connectivism: a theory for learning in a world of growing complexity. Journal of Applied Reserach in
Workplace E-learning, 1(1), 53-67.
Transue, B. M. (2013). Connectivism and Information Literacy: Moving From Learning Theory to Pedagogical Practice. Public Services
Quarterly, 9(3), 185-195.
Wilson, B. G., & Myers, K. M. (2000). Situated Cognition in Theoretical and Practical Context. In D. H. Jonassen, & S. M. Land (Eds.),
Theoretical foundations of learning environments (pp. 57-88). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.