1) The document discusses various theories of learning including behavioral, cognitive, and constructivist theories. Behavioral theories discussed include Pavlov's classical conditioning, Thorndike's law of effect, and Skinner's operant conditioning. Cognitive theories include Bruner's stages of learning and Ausubel's meaningful learning theory. 2) Constructivist theories emphasize that learning involves actively constructing one's own understanding rather than passively receiving information. Constructivists believe learning depends on how information is mentally processed and connected to prior knowledge. 3) For effective learning to occur, instructors should consider students' cognitive development and help students organize new information by relating it to what they already know. Learning involves both individual cognitive processes and

1. Chapter 1
UNDERSTANDING
LEARNING AND
ACQUISITION OF
KNOWLEDGE
Reported by: Sheila Mae Rosali d.N. Lavapie

2. Introduction
• Learning
-is a biological response to external stimuli.
-means constructing a personal
interpretation of reality.
-continues throughout our lives and affects
almost everything we do.

3. Nature of Learning
• Ornstein (1990)
-”as a reflective process whereby the learner either
develops new insights & understanding or
changes & restructures his or her mental
processes.”
• Lardizabal (1991)
-”learning is an integrated, on-going process
occurring within the individual, enabling him to
meet specific aims, fulfill his needs and interests,
& cope with the learning process.”
-unfreezing, problem diagnosis, goal setting, new
behavior, & refreezing.

4. • Slavin (1995)
-change in an individual caused by experience.
• Calderon (1998)
-acquisition through maturation & experience of new
& more knowledge, skills, & attitudes that will
enable the learner to make better & more adequate
reactions, responses, & adjustments to new
situations.

5. Views on How Learning Occurs
Two major groups of Learning theories:
•Behavioristic Theories
•Cognitive Theories
Theorists from both sides agree that learning is a
result of experience, but they disagree on how
learning occurs & how to best establish the
conditions that maximize learning in the first place.

6. Theories of Learning
-are sets of conjectures & hypotheses that
explain the process of learning or how
learning takes place.
•Behavioral
•Cognitive
•Cognitive Constructivist
•Social Constructivist Theories

7. A. Behavioral Theories of Learning
-Using techniques borrowed from the
physical sciences, researchers began
conducting experiments to understand
how people & animals learn.
-Important researchers are Ivan Pavlov,
Edward Thorndike & B.F. Skinner.

8. 1. Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
Theory
• Stimulus generalization
-refers to the process by which the
conditioned response transfers to the
other stimuli that are similar to the
original conditioned stimulus.
• Generalization
-appears to explain the transfer of a
response to a situation other than that in
w/c the original learning occurred.

9. •Discrimination
-refers to the process by w/c we learn
not to respond to the similar stimuli in
an identical manner.
•Extinction
-refers to the process by w/c
conditioned responses are lost.

10. 2. Thorndike’s S-R Theory
•Law of Effect
-states that if an act is followed by a
satisfying change in the environment,
the likelihood that the act will be
repeated in the similar situation
increases.
•Law of Exercise
-states that any connection is
strengthened in proportion to the
number of times it occurs and in
proportion to the average vigor and
duration of the connection.

11. •Law of Readiness
-states that when an organism, both
human and animal, is ready to form
connections to do so is satisfying and
not to do so is annoying.

12. 3. B.F. Skinner Operant Conditioning
Theory
•Reinforcement
-defined as any behavioral
consequence that strengthens (that is,
increases the frequency of) a behavior.

13. •Positive reinforcers
-are events that are presented after a
response has been performed and that
increase the behavior or activity they
follow.
•Negative reinforcers
-are escapes from unpleasant situations
or ways of preventing something
unpleasant from occurring.

14. Category of Reinforcers
•Primary reinforcers
-are those that satisfy basic human
needs. (food, water, security, warmth &
sex)
•Secondary reinforcers
-are those that acquire reinforcing
power because they have been
associated with primary reinforcers.
(money, grades)

15. 4. Social Learning Theory
-developed by Albert Bandura, social
learning theory accepts most of the
principles of behavioral theories but
focuses to a much greater degree on the
effects of cues on behavior and on internal
mental processes, emphasizing the effects of
thought on action and action on thought.

16. Bandura’s Model of Observational Learning
Modeled Behavior kATTENTION
Experience
Personality characteristics
Relationship w/ model
Situational vaiables
RETENTION
Rehearsal
Organization
Recall
Other cognitive skills
REPRODUCTION
Cognitive representation
Concept matching
Use of feedback
MOTIVATION
External incentives
Vicarious incentives
Self-evaluation & incentives
Internalized standards
Social comparison
Matching Behavior

17. Four Phases of Observational
Learning
1.Attention
-an observer must attend to and
recognize the distinctive features of the
model’s response because mere
exposure to a model does not ensure
acquisition of behavior.
2. Retention
-reproduction of the desired behavior
implies that a student symbolically
retains the observed behavior.

18. 3. Motor reproduction processes
-after observation and after urging the
students to form an image of the task’s
solution they should be asked to
demonstrate the solution as soon as
possible.
4. Motivational processes
-although an observer acquires and
retains the ability to perform modeled
behavior, there will be no overt
performance unless conditions are
favorable.

19. 1.Bruner’s Cognitive Learning
Theory
-categorization of the forming of
concepts provides a possible set of
answers to how the learner derives
information from the environment.
•“Toward A Theory of Instruction”
-written by Jerome Bruner, in which he
explained how his ideas might be
translated into practice in the
classroom.

20. Three Stages in Bruner’s Theory of
Intellectual Development
1.Enactive
-where a person learns about the world
through actions on objects.
2. Iconic
-where learning occurs through using
models and pictures.
3. Symbolic
-which describes the capacity to think
in abstract terms.

21. 2. Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning
Theory
-meaningful learning implies that the
material to be learned is potentially
meaningful.
-meaningful learning occurs when the
material to be learned is related to what
the students already know.
•Advance Organizer
-is a general overview of new
information to be learned that occurs in
advance of the actual reading.

22. 3. Gagne’s Cognitive Learning
Theory
-according to him task would be best
learned by following specific sequences of
nine events:
•gaining attention;
•informing the learner of the objectives;
•stimulating recall of prerequisite learning;
•presenting new material;

23. •providing learning guidance;
•eliciting performance;
•providing feedback about performance;
•assessing performance; and
•enhancing retention and recall.

24. Five Major Categories of Learning
•Verbal information
•Intellectual skills
•Cognitive strategies
•Motor skills
•Attitudes

25. C. Constructivist Learning Theories
• Constructivism
-emphasizes the building that occurs in
people’s minds when they learn.
-suggests that the learner is much more
actively involved in a joint enterprise
with the teacher in creating meanings.

26. • “Cognitive constructivism”
-is about how the individual learner
understands things in terms of
developmental stages and learning
styles.
• “Social constructivism”
-emphasizes how meanings an
understanding grow out of social
encounters.

27. • “Zone of Proximal Development” (ZPD)
-by Lev Vygotsky, placed considerable
emphasis on children’s potential for
intellectual growth rather that
intellectual abilities at a particular point
in time.

28. Constructivist Teaching and Learning
Principles
1.Learners have their ideas.
2.Learners need first-hand experiences.
3.Learners like their ideas.
4.Learners see what they want to see.
5.Learners often are not aware of what they
know.
6.Students need to know how to learn.
7.Learners may not discover experts’
conclusions.

29. General Educational Applications of
CLT
First, learning depends on how information
is mentally processed.
Second, educators must also consider the
student’s level of cognitive development
when planning topics and methods of
instruction.
Third, students organize the information
they learn.

30. General Educational Applications of
CLT
Fourth, new information is most likely
acquired when people can associate it with
things that have already learned.
Fifth, from an operant conditioning
perspective, students actively respond if
they are to learn.

31. • Semantic Networks
-is a method of representing knowledge
as a system of connections between
concepts in a memory.

32. Schematic Presentation of a Semantic
Network
CRUST
BREAD
BUTTER KNIFE
SCALPEL
DOCTOR
NURSE

33. Types of Knowledge
• Declarative knowledge
-refers to one’s memory for
concepts, facts, or episodes.
• Procedural knowledge
-refers to the ability to perform
various tasks.

34. Knowledge Acquisition
1.Process the material semantically.
2.Process and retrieve information
frequently.
3.Learning and retrieval conditions should
be similar.
4.Connect new information to prior
knowledge.
5.Create cognitive procedures.

35. • Mnemonics
-are strategies considered as memory aids
that provide a systematic approach for
organizing and remembering facts that
have no apparent link or connection of
their own.
Ex. Order of Planets in the Solar System
(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)
Mnemonic: “My Very Educated Mother
Just Served Us New Pizzas”

36. • Word Identification Strategy
-part of the Strategic Instructional
Model, the steps are remembered using
the first-letter mnemonic.
Ex. DISSECT
• Discover the context;
• Isolate the prefix;
• Separate the suffix;
• Say the stem;
• Examine the stem;
• Check with someone; and
• Try the dictionary.

37. Identifying and Articulating learning
Objectives
•Objectives
-are statements of what will be
achieved as a result of the instruction
the teacher is designing.
•Performance objectives
-are objectives that specify what the
learner will be able to do when the
instructional event concludes.

38. Performance objectives have the
following characteristics:
S - specific
M- measurable
A - attainable
R - result-oriented
T - time-bound

39. Six Levels of Cognition
1.Knowledge
2.Comprehension
3.Application
4.Analysis
5.Synthesis
6.Evaluation

40. End of Report