Theories and styles of
learning
Neil Denby
Objectives …
• To identify the teaching role as exemplified
by the Standards
• To explain the relationship between
teaching and learning
• To represent learning theory
• To consider and discuss theory and
application
• To illustrate features of lessons
Key questions …
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What is the job of the teacher?
How do children learn?
How are both exemplified in the classroom?
What should we look for in observations?
How should we plan theories into lessons?
Piaget: Cognitive Development Theory
• Physical maturation leads to sequential
development that includes cognitive development
• Learners thought to learn new concepts by
assimilation, taking in and adapting new
information to fit existing concepts, and by
accommodation, modifying concepts in light of
new information
Lev Vygotsky
Social constructivism: Talk and social interaction are
the key learning tools:
‘What a child can do today in co-operation,
tomorrow he will be able to do on his own’
Scaffolding: Extending what learners can do by
breaking the learning process down into easy steps
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): Ensuring that
a child works within the ZPD
Bruner
The spiral curriculum
The curriculum re-visits topics, allowing learners to
address increasingly complex components of a topic
Learning …
Aspect
Behaviourism
Cognitivist
constructionism
Humanism
Participatory/
Situation
Theorists
Pavlov, Watson,
Tolman, Skinner
Piaget, Bruner
Maslow, Rogers
Lave, Wertsch,
Engestrom
View of the
learning
process
Leads to change in
behaviour
Internal mental process,
including insight,
information processing,
memory, perception …
A personal act to fulfil
potential
Interaction/observation in
social contexts
Movement from the
periphery to the centre of
a community of practice
Locus of
learning
Stimuli in external
environment
Internal cognitive
structure
Affective and cognitive
needs
Learning is about the
relationship between
people and environment
View of
transfer
Common elements
across different contexts
Over-arching general
principles
Changes in selfidentity as a learner
Transfer problematic
Purpose in
education
Produce behavioural
change in desired
direction
Develop capacity and
skills to learn more
effectively
Become selfactualised …
autonomous
Full participation in
communities of practice
and engagement with
resources
Educator’s
role
Arrange environment to
bring about desired
response
Structuring of content of
learning activity
Facilitates
development of the
whole person
Works to establish
communities of practice
in which conversation
and participation occur
(Adapted from Wegerif, 2002: 9)
Behaviourism
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Focus on observable changes to behaviour
One’s environment shapes behaviour
Continuity and reinforcement
Stimulus–Response (S–R)
‘Activity’ is important – not passive learning
Frequent practise takes place in differing
contexts … essential
• Reinforcement as a motivator (+ve)
• Clear objectives for pupils
Cognitive constructionism
• Consider patterns of behaviour … the whole,
rather than the sum, of the component parts
• The act or process of knowing
• Instruction should be well organised
• Instruction should be clearly structured
• The way a task is displayed should make the
problem clear to the learner
• Prior knowledge is important
• Feedback gives information to learners about
their success or failure
Humanism
• Reject the notion of reductionism, preferring to
treat people as a ‘whole’
• High-quality personal involvement
• Self-initiation
• Pervasive – difference in behaviour, attitude …
• Learner evaluation …
• Essence is ‘meaning’ – meaning is involved with
whole experience
Participatory situationist
• Learn from observing other people in a social
setting
• People join communities of practitioners, observe
and assimilate the required knowledge
• When people get together, particular pieces of
information take on a relevance and are passed
on
• Teachers work so that people can become
participants
• Relation between knowledge and activity
Group task …
• Discuss the different learning styles: Which
ones were you aware/unaware of?
• How, as teachers, can you accommodate
differing learning theories in your lessons?
• Undertake an observation that focuses on
styles of teaching and learning
• Report back to group
References …
Franklin, S. (2006) ‘VAKing out learning styles: Why the notion of
“learning styles” is unhelpful to teachers’, Education 3–13, 34(1):
81–7
Wegerif, R. (2002) Report 2: Literature Review in Thinking Skills,
Technology and Learning, A Report for NESTA Futurelab (Milton
Keynes: Open University)