How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice

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Mellon, C. A. (1986). Library anxiety: A grounded theory and its development. College & Research Libraries, 47(2), 160-165. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.3.276 Megan Dixon is headteacher (acting) at Sandbach Primary Academy, and director of English and co-director at Aspirer Research School. She tweets @DamsonEd Vygotsky built on the work of Piaget and believed knowledge is constructed, but felt that prior theories overemphasized the role of the individual in that construction of knowledge. Instead, he “was most interested in the role of other people in the development and learning processes of children,” including how children learn in cooperation with adults and older or more experienced peers who can guide them with more complex concepts (Kretchmar, 2019b). Vygotsky was also interested in how language and learning are related. He postulated that the ways in which people communicate their thoughts and understandings, even when talking themselves through a concept or problem, are a crucial element of learning (Kretchmar, 2019b). For Vygotsky, interaction and dialogue among students, teachers, and peers are key to how learners develop an understanding of the world and of the socially constructed meanings of their communities.

These are all areas of study and findings that have been widely discussed for many years. Complex topics Because humanists see people as autonomous beings, they believe that learning should be self-directed, meaning students should have some choice in what and how they learn. Humanistic education is often connected with student-centered pedagogical approaches such as differentiated curricula, self-paced learning, and discovery learning (Lucas, 1996). Self-directed learning can take many forms, but it generally means that the instructor acts as a guide, and learners are given the freedom to take responsibility for their own learning. Teachers will provide the materials and opportunities for learning, but students will engage with the learning on their own terms. In a library classroom, we can give students choices about the topics they will research or offer learners different types of activities to practice skills and demonstrate what they have learned. Quite possibly the best pedagogical book I’ve ever read. 28 educational giants all in one place with practical strategies and fab illustrations.”

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The findings, in this context, are clear - carefully defined approaches considering the application of the principles of cognitive load theory appear to benefit learning. Reality versus theory Elicit performance. Allow time for students to practice skills and demonstrate their abilities. Ideally, students would be given low-stakes opportunities for practice, so they feel comfortable if they do not succeed immediately. We were impressed how comprehensive and rigorous each section is in its research, yet still manages to be highly accessible too. For example, each section starts with the heading of the paper followed by a key quote from the research. Each section also provides a full reference list, as well as suggested readings and links in case you wanted to delve deeper into the topic. We think that the use of QR codes here is genius too! Usability

Knowles proposed andragogy as “the art and science of helping adults learn” (1988, p. 43). Andragogy is based on a set of assumptions about the ways in which adult learners’ experience, motivations, and needs differ from those of younger students, and suggests that traditional classroom approaches developed with younger students in mind will not necessarily be successful with adult learners. Perhaps one of the biggest differences between child and adult learners, according to Knowles (1988), is that adults are interested in the immediate applicability of what they are learning and are often motivated by their social roles as employees, parents, and so on. As Knowles notes, in traditional classrooms, children are usually taught discrete subjects like math, reading, and history, and their learning is focused on building up knowledge for the future. Young students might not use geometry in their everyday lives, but it forms a foundation for more complex math and for future job or life tasks like measuring materials for home repairs. Sharp, A. (2012). Humanistic approaches to learning. In N.M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer. Keeping this idea of learning across theories in mind, we can sum up the key takeaways from this chapter: Behaviorism is based largely on the work of John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner. Behaviorists were concerned with establishing psychology as a science and focused their studies on behaviors that could be empirically observed, such as actions that could be measured and tested, rather than on internal states such as emotions (McLeod, 2015). According to behaviorists, learning is dependent on a person’s interactions with their external environment. As people experience consequences from their interactions with the environment, they modify their behaviors in reaction to those consequences. For instance, if a person hurts their hand when touching a hot stove, they will learn not to touch the stove again, and if they are praised for studying for a test, they will be likely to study in the future

Our Review Summary

Knowles, M. S. (1988). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy. Revised and updated. Cambridge, The Adult Education Company. How Learning Happens introduces 32 giants of educational research and their findings on how we learn and what we need to know to learn effectively, efficiently, and enjoyably. Many of these works have inspired researchers and teachers all around the world and have left a mark on how we teach today. If you can think of examples of behaviorism from several different learning experiences, were they more appropriate in some situations than others? How so? Number Three – People learn differently, depending on whether they’re left-brain dominant or right-brain dominant.This is pretty much indisputable. It’s a well-known fact that left-brainers are logical and objective, whereas right-brainers are intuitive and subjective. Which would have a huge impact on learning… if it wasn’t completely WRONG.

Maybe reading their full articles on these topics (instead of just the chapters summarizing the articles) would give a more detailed view and be a fairer presentation, but I had been thinking “these are straw men arguments, they aren’t presenting these ideas on their own terms before explaining WHY they are problematic” for a good several chapters, so when they leveled the accusation at another author (without much context or fair treatment of his work), it was frustrating to say the least. I will say that the authors do make connections between articles in different sections, which is helpful. Less specifically, “Here’s how this work built on or responded to this one,” and more just their own brief insights and connections. Roy, L., & Novotny, E. (2000). How do we learn? Contributions of learning theory to reference services and library instruction. Reference Librarian, 33(69/70), 129-139. https://doi.org/10.1300/J120v33n69_13

Cognitivism

Learning is the change in knowledge, behavior, or understanding that occurs when people make connections between new information and their existing knowledge. Various theories attempt to describe the factors that enable the learning process.

Lucas, C. J. (1996). Humanism. In J. J. Chambliss (Ed.), Philosophy of education: An encyclopedia. Routledge. Perry, W. G., Jr. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years; A scheme. Holt. Selbing I, Olsson A. Anxious behaviour in a demonstrator affects observational learning. Sci Rep. 2019;9(1):9181. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-45613-1 It certainly doesn’t tell us if applying this theory to her teaching will mean that Harry, Alisha, Mia and Josh will learn the knowledge they need to recall about the Tudors more effectively. The learning theories outlined above discuss various cognitive processes involved in learning, as well as some of the motivators and conditions that facilitate learning. While these theories attempt to describe how people learn, it is important to note that individuals are not born ready to engage in all of these processes at once, nor do they necessarily all engage in the same processes at the same time. Rather, more complex processes develop over time as people experience the world and as their brain matures. In addition to studying how people learn, some theorists have also proposed theories or frameworks to describe developmental stages, or the various points in human development when different cognitive processes are enabled, and different kinds of learning can occur.Now updated to include a new section on Memory and Cognition with five new chapters, this revised second edition explores a selection of the key works on learning and teaching, chosen from the fields of educational psychology and cognitive psychology. It offers a roadmap of the most important discoveries in the way learning happens, with each chapter examining a different work and explaining its significance before describing the research, its implications for practice, and how it can be used in the classroom –including the key takeaways for teachers.