Associative / Behaviouirist - Building Concepts step by step
Skinner
law of Operant conditioning - electrocuting mice
making mistakes demoralised learners and interfered with their steady progress - skinner cited in Moore 2000
Gagne (Instructivism and Instructional Design)
Constructive
Individual - Achieving understanding through active discovery
Piaget
Papert
Kolb
Biggs
‘The brain learns when it is trying to make sense; when it is building on what it already knows, when it
recognises the significance of what it is doing; when it is working in complex, multiple perspectives”
(Abbott (1994) cited in Hoult)
Social - Achieving understanding through dialogue and collaboration
Bruner
When selecting an educational theory Bruner stresses the importance of understanding “what you want to use
the knowledge for.” (Bruner, 2006)
Bruner (1966:135) ‘Learning is an active process during which children construct their knowledge from
past and present experiences’
Vygotsky (Social Development)
Vygotsky’ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) What I can do, What I think I can do, What I can't do
Laurillard and Pask (Conversation Theory)
Minimal guidance in instruction does not work - Kirschner et al
Situative
Developing Practices in a commmunity Lave & Wenger
Applying sit learning - Extended projects in which pupils are genuinely building something
Cole, Engstrom and Wertsch (Activity Theory)
Accelerated Learning
Drink water - Trevor Brocklebank at Leeds cited in Lucas, 2001
Comprehension,Commitment, Control - Silcock 2003
Children applying themselves voluntarily to work thereby acknowledge its worth: i.e. they make a
value-commitment (see Silcock and Duncan, 2001, for a longer discussion of this).
The second is that they have the intellectual tools needed to manage the job in hand in ways expected of
them, and see that they have. A girl faced by a scientific exercise must know both what the exercise asks
of her and be confident, in her own mind, she has suitable means for tackling it.
those who truly commit themselves to a project realise its worth for them, as well as knowing they are
potentially capable of accomplishing the tasks are involved
Black argues the same (1998), as does Broadfoot (2001):The learning theory espoused is that learners
progress via their own commitments, in situations they - in Silcock 2003
Pupils, similarly, easily divorce themselves emotionally from classrooms or subjects where they are
unsure what is going on. - Silcock 2003
Not only should teachers always move from known to unknown, they should regularly revisit
familiar territory to ensure the webs of knowledge which are called 'cognitive structures' really are
interconnecting - Silcock 2003
Adey and Shayer (1994) stress, learning accelerates when pupils conquer real challenges set for them not when
problems are pre-eliminated. in Silcock 2003
Intervention not instruction
Adey and Shayer free learners to suggest their own solutions to problems, discuss and explain these to
others, debating and arguing about outcomes. But, once they begin to make progress, pupils are led to an
understanding of principles behind the scientific work engaged with. Teachers,
Knowledge retention
Ebbinghaus - Memory Curve
Teaching techniques
Advanced Organisers - Ausubel
information presented by an instructor that helps the student organize new incoming information.[6] This is
achieved by directing attention to what is important in the coming material, highlighting relationships, and
providing a reminder about relevant prior knowledge - Woolfolk, A.E., Winne, P.H., Perry, N.E., & Shapka, J.
(2010). Educational Psychology (4th ed).