Praxis II: Students as Learners

Behaviorism was developed by B. F. Skinner and this school of thought assumes that the learning process takes place through conditioning.

• A theoretical perspective that proposes that learners construct a body of knowledge from their experiences—knowledge that may or may not be an accurate representation of external reality.
• The term refers to the idea that learners construct knowledge for themselves---each learner individually (and socially) constructs meaning---as he or she learns

• a taxonomy in which six learning tasks, varying in degrees of complexity, are identified for the cognitive domain:
• Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation
• Make sure you can recognize the differences between lower-order and higher-order thinking in classroom activities, using Bloom’s taxonomy

• Creating
• Evaluating
• Analyzing
• Applying
• Understanding
• Remembering

The learner is able to recall, restate and remember learned information.

The learner grasps the meaning of information by interpreting and translating what has been learned.

The learner makes use of information in a context different from the one in which it was learned.

The learner breaks learned information into its parts to best understand that information.

The learner makes decisions based on in-depth reflection, criticism and assessment.

The learner creates new ideas and information using what has been previously learned.

• Albert Bandura
• Jerome Bruner
• John Dewey
• Jean Piaget
• Lev Vygotsky
• Howard Gardner
• Abraham Maslow
• B.F. Skinner

• Social learning theory: Theory that emphasizes learning through observation of others
• Social cognitive theory: Theory that adds concerns with cognitive factors such as beliefs, self-perceptions, and expectation to social learning theory

• Enactive learning: is learning by doing and experiencing the consequences of your actions (self-regulation of behavior, goal directed behavior, self-monitoring)
• Vicarious learning: is learning by observing others

• Attention
• Retention
• Production
• Motivation and reinforcement

• Promoted discovery learning by encouraging teachers to give students more opportunity to learn on their own.
• Discovery learning encourages students to think for themselves and discover how knowledge is constructed
• Discovery learning is learning in which students construct an understanding on their own
• Related to Piaget and Dewey’s views

• Viewed problem solving according to the scientific method as the proper way to think and the most effective teaching method
• Schools should teach learners how to solve problems and inquire/interact with their natural and social environments
• Every learner attempts to explore and understand his/her environment

• Organization: – ongoing process of arranging information and experience into mental systems or categories
• Schemes: – mental systems of categories and experiences
• Adaptation: – adjustment to the environment

• Assimilation: – fitting new information into existing schemes
• Accommodation: – altering existing schemes or creating new ones in response to new information

search for mental balance between cognitive schemes and information from the environment

actions a person carries out by thinking them through instead of literally performing the actions

• Sensorimotor: – 0-2 yrs – involves the senses and motor activity
• Preoperational: – 2-7 yrs – stage before a child masters logical mental operations
• Concrete operational: – 7-11 yrs – mental tasks tied to concrete objects and situations
• Formal operational: – 11-adult – mental tasks involving abstract thinking and coordination of a number of variables

• Goal of education should be to help children learn how to learn
• Importance of developmentally appropriate education
• Individuals construct their own understandings
• Value of play

• emphasizes role in development of cooperative dialogues between children and more knowledgeable members of society
• Children learn the culture of their community (ways of thinking & behaving) through interactions

phase at which a child can master a task if given appropriate help and support

• support for learning and problem solving. The support could be anything that allows the student to grow in independence as a learner
• Private talk

• Linguistic (verbal)
• Musical,
• Spatial,
• Logical-mathematical
• Bodily-kinesthetic (movement)
• Interpersonal (understanding others)
• Intrapersonal (understanding self)
• Naturalist

• Humans have a hierarchy of needs ranging from lower-level needs for survival and safety to higher-level needs for intellectual achievement and finally self-actualization
• Self-actualization: fulfilling one’s potential

• Operant conditioning: – a form of learning whereby a response increases in frequency as a result of its being followed by reinforcement
• When behaviors are followed by desirable consequences, they tend to increase in frequency
• When behaviors do not produce results, they typically decrease and may even disappear altogether

• Eight stages of psychosocial development
• Developmental crisis: – conflict between a positive alternative and a potentially unhealthy alternative
• The way in which the individual resolves each crisis will have a lasting effect on that person’s self-image and view of society

• Trust vs. mistrust
• Autonomy vs. shame/doubt
• Initiative vs. guilt
• Industry vs. inferiority
• Identity vs. role confusion
• Intimacy vs. isolation
• Generativity vs. stagnation
• Ego integrity vs. despair

situations in which no choice is clearly and indisputably right

the thinking process involved in judgments about questions of right and wrong

• Level 1: – Preconventional Moral Reasoning – judgment is based own person needs and others’ rules
• Level 2: – Conventional Moral Reasoning – judgment is based on others; approval, family expectations, traditional values, laws of society, and loyalty to country
• Level 3 – Postconventional Moral Reasoning – social contract and universal ethics

• Proposed a different sequence of moral development, an Ethic of Care
• Individuals move from a focus on self-interest to moral reasoning based on commitment to specific individuals and relationships, and then to the highest level of morality based on the principles of responsibilities and care for all people

• One’s knowledge and beliefs about one’s own cognitive processes, and one’s resulting attempts to regulate those cognitive processes to maximize learning and memory
• Knowledge about our own thinking processes

• In contemporary cognitive psychology, an organized body of knowledge about a specific topic
• Basic structures for organizing information, concepts

• A phenomenon whereby something that an individual has learned at one time affects how the individual learns or performs in a later situation
• Influence of previously learned material on new material

the internal desire to perform a particular task; motivation associated with activities that are their own reward

motivation promoted by factors external to the individual and unrelated to the task being performed; motivation created by external factors (reward or punishment)

characteristic approaches to learning and studying

• Concrete operational thinking: (Piaget)
• Late elementary to middle school
• Mental tasks tied to concrete objects and situations
• Visual and aural learners: (hearing)

• Gender differences
• Cultural expectations and styles