This document provides definitions and explanations of key concepts related to learning theories and principles. It discusses several major schools of learning theory, including behavioral theory, cognitive theory, social learning theory, social constructivism, multiple intelligences theory, and brain-based learning. For each theory, it outlines some of the core ideas and implications for how learners learn most effectively. It also describes principles of learning such as readiness, exercise, effect, primacy, recency, intensity, requirement, and freedom. Overall, the document aims to provide insight into learning from the perspective of educational psychology and different learning theories.

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14-8-2016
Unit -2
Educational Technology and Learning
Definition: Learning
Is the act of acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing, existing knowledge,
behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types
of information.
Knowledge or skill acquired through study, experience, or being taught.
Occurs when we are able to: Gain a mental or physical grasp of the subject. Make sense of a
subject, event or feeling by interpreting it into our own words or actions. Use our newly
acquired ability or knowledge in conjunction with skills and understanding we already
possess.
Measurable and relatively permanent change in behavior through experience, instruction, or
study.
Is "detection and correction of error" where an error means "any mismatch between our
intentions and what actually happens. (Harvard Business School psychologist Chris Argyris)
It cannot be measured, but its results can be observed.
Educational psychologists and pedagogues have identified several principles of learning, also
referred to as laws of learning, which seem generally applicable to the learningprocess. These
principles have been discovered, tested, and used in practical situations. They provide additional
insight into what makes people learn most effectively. Edward Thorndike developed the first
three "Laws of learning:" readiness, exercise, and effect. Since Thorndike set down his basic
three laws in the early part of the twentieth century, five additional principles have been
added: primacy, recency, intensity, freedom and requirement.
The majority of these principles are widely applied in aerospace instruction, and some in many
other fields, as outlined below:
Principles of Learning
Readiness:- Readiness implies a degree of concentration and eagerness. Individuals learn
best when they are physically, mentally, and emotionally ready to learn, and do not learn well
if they see no reason for learning. Getting students ready to learn, creating interest by
showing the value of the subject matter, and providing continuous mental or physical
challenge, is usually the instructor’s responsibility
Exercise:-The principle of exercise states that those things most often repeated are best
remembered. It is the basis of drill and practice. It has been proven that students learn best
and retain information longer when they have meaningful practice and repetition. The key

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here is that the practice must be meaningful. It is clear that practice leads to improvement
only when it is followed by positive feedback.
Effect: - The principle of effect is based on the emotional reaction of the student. It has a
direct relationship to motivation. The principle of effect is that learning is strengthened when
accompanied by a pleasant or satisfying feeling, and that learning is weakened when
associated with an unpleasant feeling. , every learning experience should contain elements
that leave the student with some good feelings.
Primacy:-The state of being first often creates a strong, almost unshakable, impression.
Things learned first create a strong impression in the mind that is difficult to erase. For the
instructor, this means that what is taught must be right the first time. For example, a student
learns a faulty technique; the instructor will have a difficult task correcting bad habits and “re
teaching” correct ones. The student's first experience should be positive, functional, and lay
the foundation for all that is to follow. What the student learns must be procedurally correct
and applied the very first time.
Recency: - The principle of recency states that things most recently learned are best
remembered. Conversely, the further a student is removed time-wise from a new fact or
understanding, the more difficult it is to remember. For example, it is fairly easy to recall a
telephone number dialed a few minutes ago, but it is usually impossible to recall a new
number dialed last week.
Intensity: - The principle of intensity implies that a student will learn more from the real
thing than from a substitute. For example, a student can get more understanding and
appreciation of a movie by watching it than by reading the script. Likewise, a student is likely
to gain greater understanding of tasks by performing them rather than merely reading about
them.
Requirement: - The Principle of requirement states that "we must have something to obtain
or do something." It can be ability, skill, instrument or anything that may help us to learn or
gain something. A starting point or root is needed; for example, if you want to draw a person,
you need to have the materials with which to draw, and you must know how to draw a point,
a line, and a figure and so on until you reach your goal, which is to draw a person.
Freedom: - The principle of freedom states that things freely learned are best learned.
Conversely, the further a student is coerced, the more difficult is for him to learn, assimilate
and implement what is learned. Compulsion and coercion are antithetical to personal growth.
The greater the freedom enjoyed by individuals within a society, the greater the intellectual
and moral advancement enjoyed by society as a whole. Since learning is an active praocess,
students must have freedom: freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom to bear the
results of action—these are the three great freedoms that constitute personal responsibility. If
no freedom is granted, students may have little interest in learning.
PREAMBLE
The learner-centered psychological principles provide an essential framework to be incorporated in
new designs for curriculum and instruction, assessment systems for evaluating educational goal

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attainments, as well as for the systemic redesign of professional development programs and
educational system structures.
The principles are expected to speak to teachers, instructors, and others involved in designing or
implementing instruction. They contribute to understanding effective strategies that can address
problems of low levels of academic achievement.
BACKGROUND
The learner-centered psychological principles, which are consistent with more than a century of
research on teaching and learning, are widely shared and implicitly recognized in many excellent
programs found in today’s schools. They also integrate research and practice in various areas of
psychology, including developmental, educational, experimental, social, clinical, organizational,
community, and school psychology. In addition, these principles reflect conventional and scientific
wisdom. They comprise not only systematically researched and evolving learner-centered principles
that can lead to effective schooling, but also principles that can lead to positive mental health and
productivity of our nation’s children, their teachers, and the systems that serve them.
Learner-centered psychological principles provide a framework for developing and incorporating the
components of new designs for schooling. These principles emphasize the active and reflective
nature of learning and learners. From this perspective, educational practice will be most likely to
improve when the educational system is redesigned with the primary focus on the learner.
LEARNER-CENTERED PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES
The following 14 psychological factors pertain to the learner and the learning process. They focus on
psychological factors that are primarily internal to and under the control of the learner rather than
conditioned habits or physiological factors. However, the principles also attempt to acknowledge
external environment or contextual factors that interact with these internal factors.
The principles are intended to deal holistically with learners in the context of real-world learning
situations. Thus, they are best understood as an organized set of principles; no principle should be
viewed in isolation. The 14 principles are divided into those referring to cognitive and metacognitive,
motivational and affective, developmental and social, and individual difference factors influencing
learners and learning.
Finally, the principles are intended to apply to all learners-from children, to teachers, to administrators,
to parents, and to community members involved in our educational system.
Cognitive and Metacognitive Factors
1. Nature of the learning process.The learning of complex subject matter is most effective when it is an
intentional process of constructing meaning from information and experience.
There are different types of learning processes; forexample, habit formation in motor learning, and
learning that involves the generation of knowledge or cognitive skills, and learning strategies.Learning in
schools emphasizes the use of intentional processes that students can use to construct meaning from
information, experiences, and their own thoughts and beliefs. Successfullearners are active, goal-directed,
self-regulating, and assume personalresponsibility for contributing to their own learning.
2. Goals of the learning process.The successfullearner, over time and with support and instructional
guidance, can create meaningful, coherent representations ofknowledge.
The strategic nature of learning requires students to be goal directed. To construct usefulrepresentations of
knowledge and to acquire the thinking and learning strategies necessary for continued learning success
across the life span, students must generate and pursue personally relevant goals. Initially, students’short-
term goals and learning may be sketchy in an area, but over time their understanding can be refined by
filling gaps,resolving inconsistencies,and deepening their understanding ofthe subject matter so that they
can reach longer-term goals. Educators can assist learners in creating meaningful learning goals that are
consistent with both personaland educational aspirations and interests.
3. Construction of knowledge. The successfullearner can link new information with existing knowledge in
meaningful ways.
Knowledge widens and deepens as students continue to build links between new information and
experiences and their existing knowledge base.The nature of these links can take a variety of forms, such
as adding to, modifying, or reorganizing existing knowledge or skills. How these links are made or

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develop may vary in different subject areas and among students with varying talents, interests,and
abilities. However, unless new knowledge becomes integrated with the learner’s prior knowledge and
understanding, this new knowledge remains isolated, cannot be used most effectively in new tasks,and
does not transfer readily to new situations.Educators can assist learners in acquiring and integrating
knowledge by a number of strategies that have been shown to be effective with learners of varying
abilities, such as correct mapping and thematic organization or categorizing.
4. Strategic thinking. The successfullearner can create and use a repertoire of thinking and reasoning
strategies to achieve complex learning goals.
Successfullearners use strategic thinking in their approach to learning, reasoning, problem solving, and
concept learning. They understand and can use a variety of strategies to help them reach learning and
performance goals, and to apply their knowledge in novel situations.They also continue to expand their
repertoire of strategies by reflecting on the methods they use to see which work well for them, by
receiving guided instruction and feedback, and by observing or interacting with appropriate models .
Learning outcomes can be enhanced if educators assist learners in developing, applying, and assessing
their strategic learning skills.
5. Thinking about thinking. Higher order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate
creative and critical thinking.
Successfullearners can reflect on how they think and learn, set reasonable learning or performance goals,
select potentially appropriate learning strategies or methods, and monitor their progress toward these
goals. In addition, successfullearners know what to do if a problem occurs or if they are not making
sufficient or timely progress toward a goal. They can generate alternative methods to reach their goal (or
reassess the appropriateness and utility of the goal). Instructional methods that focus on helping learners
develop these higher order (metacognitive) strategies can enhance student learning and personal
responsibility for learning.
6. Context of learning. Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology,and
instructional practices.
Learning does not occur in a vacuum. Teachers play a major interactive role with both the learner and the
learning environment. Cultural or group influences on students can impact many educationally relevant
variables, such as motivation, orientation toward learning, and ways of thinking. Technologies and
instructional practices must be appropriate for learners’ level of prior knowledge, cognitive abilities, and
their learning and thinking strategies.The classroom environment, particularly the degree to which it is
nurturing or not, can also have significant impacts on student learning.
21-8-2016
Topic: Major Schools of Learning (Theories)
Behavioral Theory: - Learning takes place when there is a change in behavior. Rewards and
Punishments, Responsibility for student learning rests squarely with the teacher. Lecture-
Based and Highly Structured
Cognitive Theory: - Learning by thinking, reasoning and transferring. Grew in response to
Behaviorism. Knowledge is stored cognitively as symbols. Learning is the process of
connecting symbols in a meaningful and memorable way. Studies focused on the mental
processes that facilitate symbol connection.
Social Learning Theory: - Grew out of Cognitivism. Learning takes place through
observation and sensorial experiences. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Social
Learning Theory is the basis of the movement against violence in media and video games.

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Social Constructivism: - Grew out of and in response to Cognitivism and was framed
around Metacognition, Knowledge is actively constructed. Learning is a search for meaning
by the learner. Contextualized an Inherently Social Activity Dialogic and Recursive the
Responsibility of the Learner
Multiple Intelligences:- Grew out of Constructivism and was framed around Meta cognition.
All people are born with 8 intelligences: • 1. Verbal-Linguistic 2. Visual-Spatial 3. Logical-
Mathematical 4. Kinesthetic 5. Musical 6. Naturalist 7. Interpersonal 8. Intrapersonal Enable
students to influence their strengths and purposefully target and develop their weaknesses.
Brain-Based Learning:- Grew out of Neuroscience and Constructivism. Processing of Parts
and Wholes Focused Attention and Peripheral Perception Conscious and Unconscious
Processes Several Types of Memory Embedded Learning Sticks Challenge and Threat Every
brain is unique. • Opportunities for Group Learning • Regular Environmental Changes •
Multi-Sensory Environment • Opportunities for Self-Expression and Making Personal
Connections to Content • Community-Based Learning.
Implications oflearning theories onlearning oflearners:
Behavioral Theory:
1. Learners should be told the explicit outcomes of the learning so that they can set
expectations and can judge for themselves whether or not they have achieved the outcome of
the day’s lesson.
2. Learners must be tested to determine whether or not they have achieved the learning
outcome.CCE forms of testing and assessment should be integrated into the learning
sequence to check the learner's achievement level and to provide appropriate feedback.
3. Learning materials must be sequenced appropriately to promote learning. The sequencing
could take the form of simple to complex, known to unknown, and knowledge to application
.4. Learners must be provided with feedback so that they can monitor how they are doing and
take corrective action if required
Cognitive theory
1. Learners should be told why they should take the lesson, so that they can attend to the
information throughout the lesson.
2. Information critical for learning should be highlighted to focus learners' attention.
3. The difficulty level of the material must match the cognitive level of the learner, so that the
learner can both attend to and relate to the material. Links to both simpler and more
complicated materials can be used to accommodate learners at different knowledge levels
4. Strategies should be used to allow learners to retrieve existing information from long-term
memory to help make sense of the new information. Learners must construct a memory link
between the new information and some related information already stored in long-term
memory.
5. Information should be chunked to prevent overload during processing in working memory

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(Miller, 1956) To facilitate deep processing, learners should be asked to generate the
information maps during the learning process or as a summary activity after the lesson
(Bonk & Reynolds, 1997)
6. Other strategies that promote deep processing should be used to help transfer information
to long-term storage. Strategies that require learners to apply, analyze, and evaluate
7. Promote higher-level learning, which makes the transfer to long-term memory more
effective.
Social Constructivism
1. Learning should be an active process. Keeping learners active doing meaningful activities
results in high-level processing, which facilitates the creation of personalized meaning.
Asking learners to apply the information in a practical situation is an active process, and
facilitates personal interpretation and relevance.
2. Learners should construct their own knowledge rather than accepting that given by the
instructor. Knowledge construction is facilitated by good interactive online instruction, since
the students have to take the initiative to learn and to interact with other students and the
instructor, and because the learning agenda is controlled by the student (Murphy&Cifuentes,
2001).
3. Collaborative learning should be encouraged to facilitate constructivist learning
(Hooper & Hannafin, 1991; Johnson &Johnson, 1996; Palloff & Pratt, 1999). Working with
other learners gives learners real-life experience of working in a group, and allows them to
use Their met cognitive skills. Learners will also be able to use the strengths of other learners,
and to learn from others. When assigning learners for group work, membership should be
based on the expertise level and learning style of individual group members, so that
individual team members can benefit from one another's strengths.
4. Learners should be given control of the learning process. There should be a form of guided
discovery where learners are allowed to make decision on learning goals, but with some
guidance from the instructor.
5. Learning should be made meaningful for learners. The learning materials should include
examples that relate to students, so that they can make sense of the information
6. Assignments and projects should allow learners to choose meaningful activities to help
them apply and personalize the information.
7. Learning should be interactive to promote higher-level learning and social presence, and to
help develop personal meaning. According to Heinich et al. (2002), learning is the
development of new knowledge, skills, and attitudes as the learner interacts with information
and the environment
DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE:

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Looking into the concepts of different learning theories, it is evident that all the learning
theories have their own importance accordingly and the three important factors to take place
learning are:
Learner: Level, Grade, background, individual differenc.
Content: Feasibility of the content, level of expected achievement, attainment of level of
mastery
Environment: Availability of resources, Teacher, work place, mode of course transaction
Maxims for Learning and Instruction
Maxims derived from recent theory in learning and instruction and from reflection on
excellent practice can be applied to teacher education, not only to improve the training of
prospective teachers, but also to improve their ability to teach others. Especially useful are,
examples from Reading Recovery, a successful literacy training program. Some of the
maxims include:
(1) Instruction should use a whole-to-part approach;
(2) Instruction should be rooted in authentic, real world situations;
(3) Instruction should foster flexibility through multiple perspectives;
(4) Instruction should be sensitive to the developmental progression of students;
(5) Instruction should assume an action orientation;
(6) Instruction should involve modeling;
(7) Instruction should involve coaching;
(8) Instruction should involve scaffolding; and
(9) Instruction should foster reflection and articulation.
The great irony of teacher education appears to be that prospective teachers are taught in
ways that are inconsistent with the maxims of effective learning and instruction. An
experimental pre service education course, on a small scale how the maxims developed can
be applied to teacher education. (Anderson, Richard C.; Armbruster, Bonnie B.)
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/resources/learn/foundational-principles
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/learning
http://faculty.washington.edu/robinet/Learning.htm
http://nobaproject.com/modules/factors-influencing-learning
ww.academia.edu/6730061/Learning_Theories_Implications_in_Teacher_Education