Download Course: Introduction to Psychology Presenters: Sandra Whyte and

Course: Introduction to Psychology
Presenters: Sandra Whyte and Kerry White.
Date: April 5, 2016
Pair Work
Participants will be paired and required to explore through discussion one of the following
concepts from theoretical perspectives and state how it is applicable to the learning environment
a. Learning
b. Memory
c. Nutrition
d. Behaviour
e. Motivation
f. Personality
g. Social Psychology
Learning – perception, cognitive, affective, psychomotor
Order of Discussion
1. Introductory activity
-Gather all students to stand in a circle
- read a provocative statement
- Students who agree with your statement are placed in one group and those who disagree
are placed in the other group.
They will be ask why the agreed or disagreed.
2. What is learning?
Tell me,
I forget.
Show me,
I remember.
Involve me,
I understand.
(Ancient Chinese Proverb)
Learning is a step by step process in which an individual experiences permanent, lasting
changes in knowledge, behaviours, or ways of processing the world.
We learn everyday through observations, so be careful of what u do in your environment.
Select persons from the class and write responses on the board. Then together a definition
will be created.
What is Behavior Potential?
This means that behavior changes that are temporary or due to things like drugs, alcohol, etc., are
not "learned".
* Behavior Potential - once something is learned, an organism can exhibit a behavior that
indicates learning as occurred. Thus, once a behavior has been "learned", it can be exhibited by
"performance" of a corresponding behavior.
How Do We Define the Learning Process?
The Four Factors That Form the Definition of Learning:
1) learning is inferred from a change in behavior/performance*
2) learning results in an inferred change in memory
3) learning is the result of experience
4) learning is relatively permanent
It is the combination of these 4 factors that make our definition of learning. Or, you can go with
a slightly less comprehensive definition that is offered in many text books:
Learning is a relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience
Active learning involves providing opportunities for students to meaningfully talk and listen,
write, read, and reflect on the content, ideas, issues and concerns of an academic subject.
(Meyers & Jones, 1993)
Factors affecting the development of intrinsic motivation in a school setting:
–
Level of challenge offered by tasks and materials
–
Quality and timing of feedback to students about their work
–
Supports and scaffolds available to learners
–
Students’ interest in tasks and content
–
Nature of the learning context
– Intrinsically motivated students tend to persist longer, work harder, actively apply
strategies, and retain key information more consistently.
Types of Learning

Observational Learning

Cognitive Learning

Discovery Learning

Conditioning: Operant and Classical

Constructive Learning

Affective Learning

Shaping Learning
What is observational Learning?
Observational Learning – learning not buy our own experiences, but watching someone else and
noting of the consequences of that behavior.
Which theorist speaks about observational learning?
Albert Bandura This experiment demonstrated that children can learn merely by observing the
behavior of a social model, and that observing reinforcement of the model's behavior could affect
whether or not a behavior was emulated. Bandura believed that humans are cognitive beings
who, unlike animals, are (1) likely to think about the links between their behavior and its
consequences, and (2) more likely to be influenced by what they believe will happen than by
actual experience.
-
How can observational learning be applied in the classroom?
Solicit response from students and adjust the correct answers.
What is cognitive learning?
Which learning through active and constructive process, and such as practice or using memory,
for example taught how to tell the time.
Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development.
There Are Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory:
1. Schemas
(Building blocks of knowledge).
2. Adaptation processes that enable the transition from one stage to another
(equilibrium,assimilation and accommodation).
3. Stages of Development:
o
sensorimotor,
o
preoperational,
o
concrete operational,
o
Formal operational.
How is cognitive learning applicable to the classroom?
Solicit response from the class
May include: -Activating prior knowledge before, during, and after
reading
-Self-questioning
-Monitoring comprehension
-Summarizing
The most direct way to increase learning rate is by increasing the number of positive, or
successful, instructional interactions (PII) per school day.
Conditional Learning
What is Classical conditional learning?
This is learning to associate a particular thing in our environment with a prediction of what will
happen next. This theory was posited by Ivan Pavlov.
The implications of classical conditioning in the classroom are less important than those
of operant conditioning, but there is a still need for teachers to try to make sure that students
associate positive emotional experiences with learning.
If a student associates negative emotional experiences with school, then this can obviously have
bad results, such as creating a school phobia
For example, if a student is bullied at school they may learn to associate the school with fear. It
could also explain why some students show a particular dislike of certain subjects that continue
throughout their academic career. This could happen if a student is humiliated or punished in
class by a teacher.
Operant conditioning
Operant Conditioning deals with operants - intentional actions that have an effect on the
surrounding environment. Skinner set out to identify the processes which made certain operant
behaviours more or less likely to occur.
Skinner's theory of operant conditioning was based on the work of Thorndike (1905). Edward
Thorndike studied learning in animals using a puzzle box to propose the theory known as the
'Law of Effect'.
Skinner thought that our education system was ineffective. He suggested that one teacher in a
classroom could not teach many students adequately when each child learns at a different rate.
He proposed using teaching machines (what we now call computers) that would allow each
student to move at their own pace. The teaching machine would provide self-paced learning that
gave immediate feedback, immediate reinforcement, identification of problem areas, etc., that a
teacher could not possibly provide.
B.F. Skinner (1938) coined the term operant conditioning; it means roughly changing of
behavior by the use of reinforcement which is given after the desired response. Skinner identified
three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior.
• Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease
the probability of a behavior being repeated.
• Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a
behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative.
• Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior
being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.
Discovery learning
Jerome Bruner believes teachers should confront children with problems and help them seek
solutions either independently or by engaging in group discussion.
Concepts children arrives at on their own are usually more meaningful than those proposed by
others.
The aim of education should be to create autonomous learners (i.e., learning to learn).
In his research on the cognitive development of children (1966), Jerome Bruner proposed three
modes of representation:

Enactive representation (action-based)

Iconic representation (image-based)

Symbolic representation (language-based)
Implications for the Classroom
For Bruner (1961), the purpose of education is not to impart knowledge, but instead to facilitate a
child's thinking and problem solving skills which can then be transferred to a range of situations.
Specifically, education should also develop symbolic thinking in children. Bruner (1960)
opposed Piaget's notion of readiness. He argued that schools waste time trying to match the
complexity of subject material to a child's cognitive stage of development. This means students
are held back by teachers as certain topics are deemed too difficult to understand and must be
taught when the teacher believes the child has reached the appropriate state of cognitive
maturity.
Constructive Learning
Meaningful learning is the active creation of knowledge structures from personal experience. In
other words, each learner builds a personal interpretation of the world from his or her
experiences.
Affective Learning discussion
As teachers and teachers in training we will want our students to respond to us and to schooling
in positive ways and to develop positive feelings about themselves as individuals and students.
Using techniques that are intended to encourage students to identify with others empathize with
them and engage in vicarious experiences.
Techniques of this type include role playing, psychodrama, social drama and stimulation games
etc.
Shaping learning
Shaping is defined as ‘… teaching new behaviours by systematically reinforcing successive
approximations towards the behavioural objectives’ (Suler-Araoff and Myer, 1991,p.597).
Shaping - operant conditioning method for creating an entirely new behavior by using rewards to
guide an organism toward a desired behavior (called Successive Approximations). In doing so,
the organism is rewarded with each small positive behavior in the right direction. Once one
appropriate behavior is made and rewarded, the organism is not reinforced again until they make
a further advancement, then another and another until the organism is only rewarded once the
entire behavior is performed. For Example, to get a rat to learn how to press a lever, the
experimenter will use small rewards after each behavior that brings the rat toward pressing the
lever. So, the rat is placed in the box. When it takes a step toward the lever, the experimenter will
reinforce the behavior by presenting food or water in the dish (located next to or under the lever).
Then, when the rat makes any additional behavior toward the lever, like standing in front of the
lever, it is given reinforcement (note that the rat will no longer get a reward for just taking a
single step in the direction of the lever). This continues until the rat reliably goes to the lever and
presses it to receive reward.
Tell me,
I forget.
Show me,
I remember.
Involve me,
I understand.
End of Discussion