Learning Theories and Technology

Behaviorism was one of the first learning theories publicised around 1890 by Pavlov. Behaviorism started with observing the similarities of how animals act and behave when met with the same stimuli. By watching the outside behaviorists hoped to figureout what was going on inside. They "believe that knowledge does not depend upon introspection, and they completely reject discussion about internal mental states. Rather, behaviorism’s focus is on the external observation of lawful relations between and among outwardly observable stimuli and the responses that follow (Boghossian, 2006, 715 ). In other words people learn by acting, and having successes and failures. these successes and failures condition the individual to act in such a way to recieve more successes or rewards and have less failures or punishments. Behaviorism had a major impact on how adults dealt with child development. The system of rewards and punishments was used widely throughout houses and schools. These rewards and punishments were used to condition children to behave and work hard. "Ultimately, the goal of conditioning is to produce a behavioral result." (Boghossian, 2006, 716).



Later in the late 1960's early 70's Bandura came out with Social Learning Theory. Social learning theory is based on the premise that much of human learning occurs through the observation of a human model (Gagne, 1977, 282). Through his experiments he observed children watch then imitate the actions they saw adults do. "It appeared that we do learn from what others model for us and not nessassarily what we experience first hand." (Ochsner). While behaviorism consists of learning through self trial and error Social Learning Theory uses the success and failure of others to learn. "Intuitively, learning by imitation should be an efficient form of learning, because we can avoid mistakes or achieve positive ends by imitating others who already know how to avoid or achieve (Gagne, 1977, 282). From Banduras work teachers and parents then became not just enforcers of rules and instructors of knowledge but also role models.



Social Learning Theory "is often called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it also encompases attention, memory and motivation" (Ochsner). Cognitive Theory looks at "the constructs of self-regulation, social situation, strength of self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy value" (Hortz, 2008, 307). Basically it begins the stage of looking at behavior as coming from within the brain. Some of the ways that schools have used Cognitive Theory is through programs like this:

The focus of the curriculum was to promote the use of self-regulation skills to foster regular, leisure-time exercise among students. This curricular unit also targeted fitness knowledge and SCT constructs such as strength of self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and social situation...Self-regulation instruction covered goal setting, strategic planning, self-monitoring, and self reflection. Strength of self-efficacy instruction included identification of barriers to physical exercise and strategies for overcoming barriers to physical exercise. Outcome expectancies instruction covered experiencing physical and social outcomes, as well as evaluating these outcomes.(Hortz, 2008, 308)

By having the students look inward to discover thier own motivations the programs hope to guide learners so they are mentally able to think about thier action before they act. However "focus on the cognitive domain ignores a widerange of issues relating to how knowledge is formed and applied, including communication, social interaction and styles of work (Machanick, 2007, 2). This is a great reason why many researchers now combine the two into the theory of Socail Cognitive Learning Theory.



The next theroy is constructivism. In constructivism students build or construct there knowledge from their own experiences. "Constructing knowledge means that students are active participants in a learning process by seeking to find meaning in their experiences... For the constructivist, each person’s subjective experience is just as valid as anyone else’s, and no one has an epistemically privileged viewpoint" (Boghossian,2006, 714). In education students are given the tid-bits and beginings of information and projects and then the teacher helps. "Constructivism replaced the teacher as the center of knowledge (objective), with the learner (subjective). Independent of the teacher, each learner’s subjective experiences now have a special and unique meaning. (Boghossian, 2006, 715)when asked. Another version of Constructivism is Social Constructivism. In social constructivism it is not so much about being inside your own head to find knowledge but also "placing the social aspect of learning at the centre. Instead of focusing on the development of individuals’ cognitive models, the focus is on how the individual interacts with a community in developing their understanding. (Machanick, 2007, 7). Constructivism is the basis of Montasory schooling. Student becomes interested in something asks they get a lesson.



Constructionism would be the next and last Llearning theory. 'While constructivism deals with knowledge formation in the head, constructionism deals with knowledge formation outside the head between participants in social relationship" (Hruby, 2001, 51). While Constructivism is the learning going on and finding the knowledge yourself alone, "Constructionism, by contrast, may be usefully understood as being about the way knowledge is constructed by, for, and between members of a discursively mediated community" (Hruby, 2001, 8). It seems to be a middle ground for many learning theories and behiorial theories.



Along with learning theories another factor that impacted the classrooms of the wentieth and twentifirst centuries is technology. Where exactly did technology in the classroom come from. Well, “in March of 1985, the American Industrial Arts Association changed to the International Technology Education Association” at this time it became the first Technology focused association (Wicklein, 25). Prior to this change they had established a document which Wicklein also states as the “the starting point of the modern era of technology education…, it was the Jackson's Mill document that provided the needed systemic refocus of the curriculum formerly known as industrial arts” ( 25). This document, Jackson’s Mill Industrial Arts Curriculum, was the first attempt at focusing some of education on technology. (Layton). “Michael Neden and Max Teachers in Pittsburg, Kansas, redesigned and reconfigured their teaching laboratory to reflect modular learning experiences in technology education” (Wicklein, 25). It was in those elementary schools that “started a nationwide redesign in both physical characteristics of the technology education laboratory and the curricular format in the delivery of technology content” (Wicklein, 25). "The start of Technology education was fostered and pushed through by teachers" (Layton).



Looking ahead with all the theories and technology. Teachers must learn all of these theories because they all have there place in learning and so thier place in the classroom. Teachers cannot shy away from using tactics from any one of their theories if it fits thier curriculm and could help students understand the content and materials. At the same time though teachers should not feel pressured to use something just for the sake of the theory. Strategies based in a particular theory used need to reflect the content and why they used them. Technology is the same way. Some teachers force technology into thier classrooms and they end up with technology for technologies sake and pulling away from the content we. Teachers need to focus on thier content and thier classroom and adjust thier teaching to benifit the students not the fads of the day.















Boghossian, P. (2006). Behaviorism, constructivism, and Socratic pedagogy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 38(6), 713-722



Gagne, E. D., Middlebrooks, M. S. (1977). Encouraging generosity: a perspective from social learning theory and research. The Elementary School Journal. 77(4), 280-291



Hortz, B. PHD.,ATC, Lingyak Petosa, R., PHD. (2008). Social cognitive theory varialbes mediation of moderate excercise. Am J Health Behav, 32(3), 305-314



Hruby, G. G. (2001). Sociological, postmordern, and new realism perspectives in social constructionism: Implications for literacy research. Reading Research Quarterly,36(1), 48-62



Layton, J. (2008). Technology/gaming educations future: How can technology and video games help save Americas schools? [Electronic version].Retrieved October 10, 2008, from http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1479204



Machanick, P. (2007). Asocial construction approach to computer science education. Com[uter Science Education, 17(1), 1-20



Ochsner, K. (2008, February 06). Theory master theater - Bandura social learning. [Video file]. Video Posted to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byhLPxT_FJQ

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