This document discusses several theories of learning, including behaviourism, constructivism, and social constructivism. It provides an overview of key theorists and perspectives within each theory. Behaviourism, associated with theorists like Pavlov and Skinner, views learning as changes in observable behaviour caused by environmental stimuli and reinforcement. Constructivism, associated with Piaget, sees learning as an active process of constructing knowledge based on mental schema and interactions with the environment. Social constructivism, developed by Vygotsky, emphasizes the social aspects of learning and the role of language and culture. The document examines evidence of each theory in modern classrooms and considers their implications for teaching approaches and views of the learner.

1. THEORIES OF
LEARNING
B A P R I M A R Y E D U C AT I O N H E Y R 1 ( L E V E L 4 )

2. LEARNING INTENTIONS FOR THIS
SESSION…
oReflect on significant points in our own learning
oConsider three classic theories of learning, their approaches to
knowledge and learning their associated theorists –
Behaviourism, Constructivism and Social Constructivism in
the context of the primary classroom

3. HOW DO YOU LIKE TO LEARN?
1. Do you feel you need a real, hands-on experience in order
to understand an idea?
2. Can you think of an occasion when the concept you were
presented with just did not make sense?
3. Can you remember a really good teacher and how they
helped you to learn? What did they do that was special?
4. Are you more motivated to learn when you know there is a
reward at the end of it? (e.g. a qualification…QTS)

4. DISCUSS ……………….
• What is a theory?
• Who creates theories?
• Who are the theorists in education?
• Is theory important once you are teaching
in the classroom?

5. WHAT WAS MR KEATING’S THEORY REGARDING
THE STUDY OF POETRY?
• What is a Theory?
• Who creates theories?
• Who are the theorists in education?
• Is theory important once you are teaching in the
classroom?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkpWk8FJsys

6. DEFINITIONS:
A THEORY OF LEARNING IS…
• A conceptual framework describing how information has the
potential to be absorbed, processed and retained during
learning.
• Cognitive, emotional and environmental influences
(remember Bronfenbrenner Session 1)- as well as prior
experience -all play a part in how understanding is acquired
or knowledge retained

7. BEHAVIOURISM AND CHANGES IN
BEHAVIOUR CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
AND REINFORCEMENT
• Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov

8. BEHAVIOURISM AND CHANGES IN
BEHAVIOUR OPERANT CONDITIONING
Figure 1: Operant conditioning with a laboratory rat

9. EVIDENCE OF BEHAVIOURISM IN 21ST
CENTURY CLASSROOMS?
•https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=H6LEcM0E0io
•Have you seen evidence of
behaviourism in a classroom?

10. HOW BEHAVIOURISM VIEWS
LEARNING AND STUDENT MOTIVATION
• Do you think that motivation in this instance is EXTRINSIC and would therefore involve the
use of extrinsic motivation of learners?
• What are your thoughts in terms of the use of pedagogical (teaching) approaches that are
in line with this theory?
• What assumptions do you think are made about the learner?
• Learning is seen to come from outside, i.e. extrinsic, assumes no prior knowledge. The
students are regarded as ‘empty vessels to be filled’, or blank slates to be written on –
‘tabula rasa’ (Locke, 17th century)
• No account is taken of any prior knowledge or practical life experience
• Students are required to demonstrate certain behaviours, e.g. repetition of facts such as
tables, recitation of poetry
• Students’ behaviours are required to conform to a strict set of rules within the school and
classroom

11. PAUSE: HOW DO YOU THINK THIS THEORY
COULD BE USED IN RELATION TO AN
OBSERVATION IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT?
• Referencing:
Make a pretend book reference ‘Harvard Style’ for Pavlov.
• Developing your argument :
Do you think there are any limitations of the behaviourist theory?
Cannot make direct links between animal responses and humans

12. CASE STUDY 1: APPLICATION OF
BEHAVIOURISM

13. LEARNING AND COGNITIVE
CONSTRUCTIVISM
• Guess the theorist?
• Key idea: Children have to construct their own
understanding from their interaction with the world.
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
Piaget differed from the behaviourists in being interested in the what was happening inside a
child's mind (cognition). He developed his theories of children’s learning by observing them
in their own environment. He believed that all children are born with the basic building blocks
of cognition and described children as ‘lone scientists’ who could set their own goals and
motivate themselves to learn- INTRINSIC motivation.

14. PIAGET’S STAGES
• Piaget classified the child’s development into four sequential periods:
• 1. Sensorimotor period (from birth - 18 to 24 months)
* Children actively explore the world
* Develop cognitively as they try to make
sense of it eg. What happens when I throw a
ball?

15. 2. Pre-operational period (approx. ages 2-7)
* can imagine future and reflect on past
(but still mostly in present).
* think along one line at a time
* trouble with understanding conservation

16. 3. Concrete Operational Period (7-11)
*period of significant cognitive growt
h
* understanding of reversibility
* development of reasoning

17. 4. Formal operational period (11+)
• Development of more complex
reasoning
• Hypothetical and abstract thought
• Ideal vs. Reality considered

18. PAUSE: HOW DO YOU THINK THIS THEORY
COULD BE USED IN RELATION TO AN
OBSERVATION IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT?
• Referencing:
Make a pretend book reference ‘Harvard Style’ for Piaget.
• Developing your argument :
o Observations restricted to his own children
o Stages of development are too rigid- not all children develop in such a linear way.
o Children can be ‘taught’ how to achieve different levels at an earlier age through adult
input and carefully designed lessons.

19. EVIDENCE OF CONSTRUCTIVISM IN
21ST CENTURY CLASSROOMS?
•Have you seen evidence of in a
constructivism classroom?

20. What key differences do you think there are between
Behaviourism and Constructivism?
What aspects of learning do they fail to address?
BEFORE WE LOOK AT ANOTHER
THEORY:

21. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM:
VYGOTSKY
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) Vygotsky not known in the
west until 1978.
Vygotsky disagreed with Piaget’s view of children as
‘lone scientists’ and proposed that a child’s learning
was the result of social interactions.
He emphasised the significant role that language plays
in the development of abstract thought.
Vygotsky’s early work on the mind and children’s
learning was banned by the Russian government-
viewed as pandering to western culture.

22. THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL
DEVELOPMENT
Why do you think that some some tasks remain beyond a child’s current
ability level, even with support?

23. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM: BRUNER
His model proposed
that learners can
represent knowledge in
three ‘modes’:

24. ENACTIVE
• Knowing through
doing
• Manipulating
• In the present

25. ICONIC (PICTURING)
• Think about objects
that are not
physically present
• Manipulate them
and consider their
properties

26. SYMBOLIC (LANGUAGE AND
SYMBOLS)
• Use of language or
mathematical
notation
• Most powerful
because can reason
abstractly by using it.

27. EVIDENCE OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
IN THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
•Have you seen evidence of in a
social constructivism
classroom?

28. EVIDENCE OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
IN THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
• Group activities and collaborative learning
• Mixed-ability grouping
• The use of teaching assistants and learning mentors to support individuals and groups
• Emphasis on language and communication from the early years
Criticisms of Vygotsky’s work
Over emphasises on the need for language development- what about those children with language
development delay?
Do they have no basis for learning?
Too focused on Marxist ideology (the good of the state), rather than developing children as individuals
Assumes that all children have positive social and cultural experiences – many do not.

29. VYGOTSKY AND BRUNER
• Learning is constructed through active participation with others and the environment
• Affected by social group, norms, beliefs, values, mores
‘one child’s learning in terms of social constructivism may be very different from
another’s, even when they live in the same area’
Wilson and Kendall-Seatter (2010:433)

30. ASSIGNMENT FOCUS: BRUNER AND
PIAGET BOTH AGREED AND DISAGREED…
(MCLEOD, 2008)

31. CASE STUDY 3

32. TASK: OVERVIEW OF THEORIES OF
LEARNING
• Work with your group to match the statements to the headings
Behaviourism Cognitive
Constructivism
Social
Constructivism
View of
Knowledge
View of
Learning
View of
Motivation
Implications
for Teaching

33. APPLYING WHAT YOU KNOW: LEGO
CHALLENGE!
Review and complete your tasks, reflect on the level of
engagement with the task.
List the benefits and draw backs of each way of
working.

34. LUNCH
Whodunnit?
Logistics
Seminars 14.30 – 16.30

35. DIRECTED TASK: CREATE A THEORIST
PROFILE AND AN ASSOCIATED TASK
PRESENT TO THE REST OF GROUP AT 2.30
P.M.

36. YOUR TASK
BA Hons Primary Education Year 1 Level 4

37. REFERENCES
• Bates, B. (2016) Learning Theories Simplified. London: Sage
• Gray, C. and MacBlain, S. (2015) Learning Theories in Childhood (2nd edition) Sage:
London
• Haste, H. (2016) Jerome Bruner 1915-2016 https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/jerome-
bruner-1915-2016
• McLeod, S. A. (2008). Bruner. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.htm
• Pound, L.(2006) How Children Learn. Practical Pre-School: London
• Schunk, D. (2014) Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective. Pearson: Harlow.
• Wilson, V. and Seatter, S.K. (2010) Developing Professional Practice 7-14 Essex: Pearson

38. APPLYING THEORY -
SCHEMAS
B A P R I M A R Y E D U C A T I O N H E L E V E L 4
K R I S T E N . W E I S S @ C A N T E R B U R Y . A C . U K
M A R I A . E L S A M @ C A N T E R B U R Y . A C . U K

39. LEARNING INTENTIONS FOR THIS
SESSION…
• To explore how schema are involved in
learning
• To begin to consider how to apply this
knowledge to learning experiences in the
primary and early years classroom.

40. SCHEMAS
• Early childhood pioneers – Frobel, Montessori, Steiner- all recognised the importance
of repeated behaviour in children's play and learning.
Their thinking now forms part of the EY curriculum.
‘For example, children may need to run, jump and walk through puddles many times to
check out what happens. In this was, they begin to understand more about the effects of
force on water’ (EYFS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-hmoWVU7vE
Note – not all schemas are seen to be desirable – and you may read that they could be
indicators of autistic behaviour – this is a debatable point! What do you think?

41. PIAGET AND SCHEMA THEORY
Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980)
Piaget was the first to recognise patterns in play and
learning in under fives
His thinking was that all learning is active and must be
constructed and re constructed.
Piaget describes schemas as ‘mental maps’ and ‘ideas in
action’
Schema theory is a basis to understand child
development.
Knowledge should be presented according to a child’s

42. BRUCE AND SCHEMA THEORY
Tina Bruce worked with the Froebel Institute (link to
Chris Athey)
Children learn through play but unlike Frobel, play
should not be unstructured.
The adult and the learning environment are vitally
important – this remains in the EYFS documents today
3 levels in which schemas operate:
Sensori-motor – senses and movement
Symbolic representation –pretend play
Functional dependency – cause and effect

43. NUTBROWN AND SCHEMA THEORY
Cathy Nutbrown built on work of Piaget,
Vygotsky, Athey and Bruce working from
1999
Her book, ‘Threads of Thinking’ draws on
her observations of children over a ten year
span.
Thought internalising action – so their play
demonstrates their knowledge
• Thought telling a story – children create
stories to show their knowledge and
understanding based on first hand
experiences.
• Many children’s schemas had
mathematical or scientific roots
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSW58hQDqw0

44. 8 MAIN FORMS OF SCHEMAS

47. CASE STUDIES
Read the studies
What does the observation tell you?
Remember that this is a single observation and
that knowledge is built up over time

48. Exploring
Messy play
Inspiring
Treasure Basket
Creativity
Gross motor skills
Fine motor skills
Stories, rhymes and
songs

49. WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR
OLDER LEARNERS?
• Return to Piaget – schemas help us to develop mental models for the future as learners
move through the stages of development
• Schemas develop our memories
• Schemas allow learners to rehearse and reapply learning and then are elaborated as we
move into adulthood
• Examples include
• how we behave in certain situations – restaurants, cinemas – we develop a ‘script’ of what
to expect and what we need to do.
• Problem solving based on experience
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+early+years+training&qpvt=youtube+early+years+training&view=detail&mid=E3FC420BE17CB5
D57899E3FC420BE17CB5D57899&&FORM=VDRVRV

50. REFERENCES
Bruce,T. (2001) Learning through play; Hodder and Stoughton
Louis,S., Beswick.C,. Magraw,L., and Hayes,L. Ed Featherstone,S. (2009)
Again!Again! Understanding schemas in Young Children London:
A&C Black
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSW58hQDqw0
Schema and Fairies Kathy Brodie
http://www.kathybrodie.com/articles/schema-and-fairies/