Creating a Learning Theories Advanced Organizer
Creating a Learning Theories Advanced Organizer
In prior deliverables, different concepts and theories of instructional models and common terminology were discussed and were introduced to an intra-field debate. Learning theories are no different; there are as many theorists of each of the major theories, Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism, and just as many models. Within this deliverable, an understanding of the theories will be made, through the use of an advanced organizer, comparing and contrasting the major theories and the sub-sets Principles, Characteristics, Theorists, and Theories/Models.
Behaviorism is a response given to an environmental stimulus that is usually followed on with a reinforcement to enforce or diminish behavior. Although instruction had been studied and analyzed for over 100 years it was not until the 1950’s a definitive theorist came to defining the field of Instructional Design through behaviorism. Specifically, B. F. Skinner’s Reinforcement Theory was a catalyst to the Instructional Field. Through this theory B. F. Skinner was able to transcend Pavlov’s work of respondent behavior into operant behavior responding to the environment. However, behaviorism focused on the environment and only saw the learner as a “black box,” making it difficult to segue to problem solving. To move beyond, theorists had to look within the “black box” and the theory of cognitivism was brought forth.
Cognitivism is focused on learner cognition in the internal structures of the learner and how the information is received, organized, stored, and retrieved by the mind (Ertmer, 1993). Cognitivism gained speed in the 1960’s to overcome the limitations of behaviorism. The learners were unable to transfer learning to action, training was too general, divergent (moving apart) and convergent (merging) reasoning were not facilitated, and the introduction of complex instructional requests. Theorist started looking at how the mind attains and
In prior deliverables, different concepts and theories of instructional models and common terminology were discussed and were introduced to an intra-field debate. Learning theories are no different; there are as many theorists of each of the major theories, Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism, and just as many models. Within this deliverable, an understanding of the theories will be made, through the use of an advanced organizer, comparing and contrasting the major theories and the sub-sets Principles, Characteristics, Theorists, and Theories/Models.
Behaviorism is a response given to an environmental stimulus that is usually followed on with a reinforcement to enforce or diminish behavior. Although instruction had been studied and analyzed for over 100 years it was not until the 1950’s a definitive theorist came to defining the field of Instructional Design through behaviorism. Specifically, B. F. Skinner’s Reinforcement Theory was a catalyst to the Instructional Field. Through this theory B. F. Skinner was able to transcend Pavlov’s work of respondent behavior into operant behavior responding to the environment. However, behaviorism focused on the environment and only saw the learner as a “black box,” making it difficult to segue to problem solving. To move beyond, theorists had to look within the “black box” and the theory of cognitivism was brought forth.
Cognitivism is focused on learner cognition in the internal structures of the learner and how the information is received, organized, stored, and retrieved by the mind (Ertmer, 1993). Cognitivism gained speed in the 1960’s to overcome the limitations of behaviorism. The learners were unable to transfer learning to action, training was too general, divergent (moving apart) and convergent (merging) reasoning were not facilitated, and the introduction of complex instructional requests. Theorist started looking at how the mind attains and
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