If you have already taken my theories course, you might imagine that I jumped at the opportunity to teach learning theories.  You will find much of this week's lesson to be repetitive.  I would be disappointed if you did not.  Nevertheless, read it again -- it will do you good.

For the rest of you who have not had my theories course, this will be a bit of a preview of what to expect when you take Instructional Theory from me (it's a required course).

At the top of this page, I have suggested a chapter you may wish to read from a book I enjoy very much.  I recommend the entire book to you, but don't go out and buy it.  It is available in its entirety online.  I have also included links to a few web sites that I find contain interesting introductions to these theories.  There is also a set of slides associated with this discussion.

Instructional Design and Learning Theory

How does Learning Theory fit into Instructional Design?  First, you have to understand what a learning theory is.  In essence, a learning theory is a theoretical construct of the way humans learn.  There are many paradigms.  Each has strengths and weaknesses.  All are heavily based on a psychological foundation.  In my opinion, no single paradigm can completely explain all of the complexities of learning.  On the other hand, every paradigm explains some part of the learning process very well.  The key is to learn about all of the theories and recognize when each applies to a given situation, and more importantly, when each does not apply.

Last week, we studied learner analysis.  An understanding of learning theory helps you understand your learners.  For example, how do your students represent new information in their brains?  Who are your learners?  What are they like?  How do you motivate your students to want to pay attention to you?  How this occurs will be explained differently by the different learning theorists.  Each will point to their research and their theory to explain how a student grows from being a novice to an expert in a specific domain of knowledge.  As instructional designers, each of you will analyze your learners from a particular perspective.  The end results will be similar.  However the instructional activities each of you will design will differ considerably -- even for similar students and similar tasks.  Why?  Because a behaviorist, cognitivist, social learning theorist, constructivist, and multiple intelligence theorist describe the learning process in humans differently.

Next week, we will look at performance objectives.  A performance objective is a statement about what the student should be able to do at the end of a segment of instruction.  This includes the subordinate skills and knowledge you identified in your task analysis.  However, the approach you take to the task will differ depending upon the theoretical paradigm you use to guide your student's learning.  A behavioral approach will focus on external stimulation and motivation.  A constructivist will focus on prior learning and helping the student build their own meaning out of the information presented.  However, in the end, the concept of the performance objective is that the student will do something at the end of the instruction that she could not do at the beginning.

The performance objective identifies the target your are trying to reach.  The learning theory is how you believe the student gets there.  Thus, the theoretical paradigm you adopt will influence the way you develop your learner analysis and learning objectives -- and therefore your instruction -- throughout your career, regardless what you teach.  

So we begin this week with a foundational discussion of learning theories.  I will introduce five learning theories:  behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, Social Learning Theory, and Multiple Intelligences (and a brief mention of psychoanalysis).  This discussion is intended to provide you with a brief introduction to these theories of learning, not to be a comprehensive guide to understanding learning theory.  Each of these paradigms could easily be the subject of a two-semester series.  Therefore, you may wish to do some extracurricular study on these theories.  My intent is to get you started in the right direction.

I strongly recommend you prepare yourself for this lesson by reviewing the Suggested Readings listed above.  These are all available on the World Wide Web and will provide you with a starting place for your study of the learning theories.  With that in mind, let us begin with a bit of psychologist humor from The Far Side (1999): 

Behaviorism

Behaviorism has dominated learning theory for nearly half a century.  Despite the numerous attacks upon behaviorism, the concept of the stimulus-response psychology of learning is a powerful framework within which to form a theory of instruction.  The work of Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949) has helped shape education since the 1930's and has influenced a number of other psychologists, most  notably, B.F. Skinner (1904-1990).  Behaviorism also formed the basis of other theories of learning including Social Learning Theory and, to a certain extent, Multiple Intelligences.

The idea of stimulus-response was first proposed by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936).  You might recall that he studied the connection between sounds and the dog's food.  Pavlov set the direction of behaviorism and coined many of the terms used in behaviorism still used today.  It was Pavlov's contemporary behaviorist, John B. Watson (1878-1958), who first dubbed this paradigm of learning "behaviorism."

In the mid-1950s, learning research began to study and embrace more fully the learner's response to stimuli.  Specifically, what role does reward and/or punishment play in student learning.  Skinner was at the forefront of this movement.  However, he was more interested in education and voluntary behavior such as learning new skills, rather than the study of reflexive behavior such as Pavlov's famous experiments with salivating dogs.  Skinner demonstrated that the behavior of an organism could be shaped by reinforcement, or rewards, of the desired responses.  While his experiments were based on pigeons, he generalized the results to human learning.

From Skinner's work emerged programmed instruction, a technique of leading a learner though a hierarchical series of instructional steps to a desired level of performance.  Programmed instruction allows students to work at their own pace.  As students master concepts, they are moved to the next step.  Students who do not master the concept are referred to previous steps for remedial instruction.  Skinner's work with programmed instruction lead to direct improvement in instructional practices and student learning.

Because behaviorists rely solely upon observable behaviors, they do not speculate on what goes on inside the brain when learning takes place.  Therefore, behaviorism is best suited for explaining relatively simple learning tasks.  Conversely, behaviorism has limited application to higher-level learning. For example, behaviorists hesitate to speculate about human information processing, even if an understanding of these processes may be helpful in the design of instruction for the development of problem-solving skills.

Constructivism

The genesis of the learning theory now referred to as constructivism is traced to Jean Piaget (1896-1980).  One of the greatest educational philosophers of our age, John Dewey (1859-1952) accepted much of the theory of constructivism.  The work of Lev I. Vygotsky (1896-1934) influenced the development of constructivist learning theory.  However, while Vygotsky is sometimes claimed to be a constructivist, he is most appropriately identified by his later work as a pioneer in Social Learning Theory.

Constructivism espouses the engagement of students in meaningful experiences as the essence of learning.  Constructivism represents a shift from the passive transfer of information to active problem solving.  Constructivism emphasize that learners create their own interpretations of the information and the world they are exposed to.  A constructivist will argue that a learner places the learning experience within the sphere of his or her own experience and prior knowledge.  Therefore, the goal of instruction is not to teach information but to create situations within which students will interpret information for their own understanding.  The role of instruction is not to have the students memorize facts but to help students assemble knowledge.

Constructivism is a departure from behaviorism, where students learn from the reinforcement of their behaviors.  Constructivism also departs from the behaviorism-based Social Learning Theory, where the student learns from the reinforcement and the behaviors of others.  While constructivism has some similarity to Multiple Intelligence theory, the two are not closely related.  To a constructivist, students learn most effectively when they are engaged in authentic tasks that relate to meaningful contexts and the student's prior experience.  The overarching goal of constructivism is to give students the ability to use knowledge to facilitate thinking in real life.

Constructivists disagree with much of the cognitive information processing model in that simply "mapping" the workings of the mind and brain are not enough to guide instruction.  Rather, the student builds knowledge from information and the world around them.

Social Learning Theory

Social Learning Theory is an extension of behaviorism and is related to Multiple Intelligence theory.  Social Learning Theory falls under the social psychology branch of the psychological sciences and is a well-established paradigm in the field of learning and instruction.  Social psychologists study the effects of the social environment both inside and outside the classroom on student learning.  In addition to the structure of the groupings, they also study the structure of the authority of the school and classroom and the reinforcement/punishment structure of the organization.

Two of the most important social learning theorists are the Russian psychologist Lev I. Vygotsky (1896-1934) and American Albert Bandura (1925- ).  Social learning theorists postulate that a learner receives vicarious reinforcement and/or punishment through seeing the results of the behavior of others.  Further, Social Learning Theory proposes that learners may learn new skills by modeling the behaviors of others.

In recent years, researchers have taken the position that cooperative social learning methods are both more effective and more socially beneficial than competitive and individualistic learning.  Techniques that employ the principles of small-group collaboration, learner-controlled instruction, and group reinforcements and rewards based on group performance are rooted directly in Social Learning Theory and have gained wide-spread acceptance throughout education.

Social learning theorists and social psychologists are less concerned with the inner information processing of individual students because they are concerned with the effects of social interaction on students and student learning.

Multiple Intelligences

Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory was first proposed by cognitive psychologist Howard Gardner (1943- ) in 1993.  MI combines and extends behaviorism, Social Learning Theory, and cognitive information processing.  MI also shares some similarity with constructivism, though the two theories are not related.  MI pluralizes the traditional concept of intelligence.  An intelligence is the ability to perform meaningful work within a particular cultural setting.  MI separates the intelligence needed to create an end to a story, anticipate a move in chess, or repair a quilt.  Products from these intelligences include scientific theories, music compositions, and political campaigns.

MI is supported by the cognitive information processing model.  However, only those skills and behaviors universal to the human mind and valued in more than one cultural setting are included in the MI theory.  Gardner proposes that human intelligence is divided into eight intelligences (seven prior to 1998):

1. Music Intelligence:  certain parts of the brain play important roles in the perception and production of music.  Music, however, is only appreciated within specific cultural or social contexts.

2. Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence:  control of the body is localized to the motor control area of the cerebral cortex.  Of course, performance of hitting a tennis ball is very different from reading or solving a mathematical equation.  The development of the brain in the motor area is biological.  Appreciation and evaluation of those movements are dependent on the social culture.

3. Logical-mathematical Intelligence:  the ability to solve logical and mathematical problems is controlled by the development of the associative areas of the cerebral cortex.  Logical-mathematical intelligence is quite rapid and is largely non-verbal in nature.  One must formulate the solution before it may be articulated.

4. Linguistic Intelligence:  development of "Broca's Area" of the cerebral cortex is important to verbal abilities.  Culture and society determines the language a child will learn first.

5. Spatial Intelligence:  visual arts are dependent upon spatial intelligence, as is engineering.  The occipital lobe and the right hemisphere of the brain are important for spatial intelligence.

6. Interpersonal Intelligence:  interpersonal intelligence builds on a core capacity to notice distinctions in others -- specifically, differences in mood, temperaments, motivations, and intentions.  This skill is highly developed in leaders, teachers, therapists, and sales people.  These abilities are centered in the fontal lobes of the brain.

7. Intrapersonal Intelligence:  also located in the frontal lobes of the brain, a developed intrapersonal intelligence is the ability to build a viable and accurate model of him- or herself.  This intelligence is most private and draws upon the first six for complete formulation.

8. Naturalist Intelligence:  naturalist intelligence is our relationship to our surroundings.  It includes the ability to identify food, detect danger, and so on.  This intelligence is located in the association areas of the cerebral cortex and is highly dependent upon culture and society for full development.

Gardner has proposed that a ninth intelligence be added -- Existential Intelligence, or the knowledge of one's own existence.  However, this intelligence has not yet been added to the list of intelligences.

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is not a theory of learning and has limited application to instructional design.  However, due to it's significant historical importance, it is included briefly in this discussion.  Without doubt, the most famous psychoanalyst is Sigmund Freud (1865-1939).  Psychoanalysts attempt to probe an individuals unconscious mind to understand their emotions and behavior.  Psychoanalysis is not often employed in the development or delivery of instruction to most students.

Return to Week 7 New Materials

David L. Breithaupt, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2004 , David L. Breithaupt, Ph.D.  All rights reserved.

Revised: 30 September 2004