Learning Theories attempt to describe how children, as well as adults,
learn new things. Over the past two to three generations, learning
theories have shifted focus from the teacher to the student.
Behaviorism, popular in the 1940s and
1950s, held that people could be trained to do something through either
positive reinforcement or punishment. It treated all students
equally, and presupposed that there was some knowledge that the
instructor had that could be imparted to the student this way.
By the 1960s and 1970s it became clear that
individuals were not uniform, and that the way in which people think is
important when learning new ideas. Cognitivism looks beyond
behavior and attempts to determine how individuals retain information in
short and long-term memory.
Constructivism puts the focus and
responsibility of learning on the student, with a teacher creating the
environment and opportunities for students to construct their own
learning. The teacher is the facilitator for the learning, which strives
to be engaging and connected to real-world problems.
Technology mirrors this change from static
knowledge passed to students to situations where students choose the
path and often the tools for their own learning. Creating
multimedia, image maps, and other exercises allow students to develop
their own understandings of math, science, and social studies. |