Chomsky on Humanism (1/3)

Humanism

Summary: Humanism is a paradigm/philosophy/pedagogical approach that believes learning is viewed as a personal act to fulfil one’s potential.

Key proponents: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Malcolm Knowles

Key terms: self-actualization, teacher as facilitator, affect

Humanism

Humanism, a paradigm that emerged in the 1960s, focuses on the human freedom, dignity, and potential. A central assumption of humanism, according to Huitt (2001), is that people act with intentionality and values. This is in contrast to the behaviorist notion of operant conditioning (which argues that all behavior is the result of the application of consequences) and the cognitive psychologist belief that the discovering knowledge or constructing meaning is central to learning. Humanists also believe that it is necessary to study the person as a whole, especially as an individual grows and develops over the lifespan. It follows that the study of the self, motivation, and goals are areas of particular interest.

Key proponents of humanism include Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. A primary purpose of humanism could be described as the development of self-actualized, automomous people. In humanism, learning is student centered and personalized, and the educator’s role is that of a facilitator. Affective and cognitive needs are key, and the goal is to develop self-actualized people in a cooperative, supportive environment.

Related theories include: Experiential Learning (Kolb),

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and Facilitation Theory (Rogers).

Category: Humanist Theories

Humanism

Summary: Humanism is a paradigm/philosophy/pedagogical approach that believes learning is viewed as a personal act to fulfil one’s potential.

Key proponents: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Malcolm Knowles

Key terms: self-actualization, teacher as facilitator, affect

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Summary: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (often represented as a pyramid with five levels of needs) is a motivational theory in psychology that argues that while people aim to meet basic needs, they seek to meet successively higher needs in the form of a hierarchy.

Originator: Abraham Maslow in 1943.

Key terms: deficiency needs, growth needs, physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, self-actualization

Experiential Learning (Kolb)

Summary: A four-stage cyclical theory of learning, Kolb’s experiential learning theory is a holistic perspective that combines experience, perception, cognition, and behavior.

Originators: David A. Kolb (1939-)

Key Terms: Learning cycles, learning styles, concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation

Building knowledge: constructivism in learning

Constructivism.

Social Development Theory (Vygotsky)

Summary: Social Development Theory argues that social interaction precedes development; consciousness and cognition are the end product of socialization and social behavior.

Originator: Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934).

Key terms: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)

Communities of Practice (Lave and Wenger)

Summary: Etienne Wenger summarizes Communities of Practice (CoP) as “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” This learning that takes place is not necessarily intentional. Three components are required in order to be a CoP: (1) the domain, (2) the community, and (3) the practice.

Originators: Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger in 1991 and further elaborated in 1998.

Key Terms: domain, community, practice, identity, learning

Constructivism

Summary: Constructivism as a paradigm or worldview posits that learning is an active, constructive process. The learner is an information constructor. People actively construct or create their own subjective representations of objective reality. New information is linked to to prior knowledge, thus mental representations are subjective.

Originators and important contributors: Vygotsky, Piaget, Dewey, Vico, Rorty, Bruner

Keywords: Learning as experience, activity and dialogical process; Problem Based Learning (PBL); Anchored instruction; Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD); cognitive apprenticeship (scaffolding); inquiry and discovery learning.

Discovery Learning (Bruner)

Summary: Discovery Learning is a method of inquiry-based instruction, discovery learning believes that it is best for learners to discover facts and relationships for themselves.

Originator: Jerome Bruner (1915-)

Keywords: Inquiry-based learning, constructivism

Stage Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget)

Summary: Piaget’s Stage Theory of Cognitive Development is a description of cognitive development as four distinct stages in children: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and formal.

Originator: Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Key Terms: Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, formal, accommodation, assimilation.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget: How a Child Thinks

VYGOTSKY'S DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY: AN INTRODUCTION ( DAVIDSON FILMS )

Social Development Theory (Vygotsky)

Summary: Social Development Theory argues that social interaction precedes development; consciousness and cognition are the end product of socialization and social behavior.

Originator: Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934).

Key terms: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory is the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), who lived during Russian Revolution. Vygotsky’s work was largely unkown to the West until it was published in 1962.

Vygotsky’s theory is one of the foundations of constructivism. It asserts three major themes:

Major themes:

1. Social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of cognitive development. In contrast to Jean Piaget’s understanding of child development (in which development necessarily precedes learning), Vygotsky felt social learning precedes development. He states: “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological).” (Vygotsky, 1978).
2. The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO). The MKO refers to anyone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept. The MKO is normally thought of as being a teacher, coach, or older adult, but the MKO could also be peers, a younger person, or even computers.
3. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is the distance between a student’s ability to perform a task under adult guidance and/or with peer collaboration and the student’s ability solving the problem independently. According to Vygotsky, learning occurred in this zone.

Vygotsky focused on the connections between people and the sociocultural context in which they act and interact in shared experiences (Crawford, 1996). According to Vygotsky, humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments. Initially children develop these tools to serve solely as social functions, ways to communicate needs. Vygotsky believed that the internalization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.

Applications of the Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory

Many schools have traditionally held a transmissionist or instructionist model in which a teacher or lecturer ‘transmits’ information to students. In contrast, Vygotsky’s theory promotes learning contexts in which students play an active role in learning. Roles of the teacher and student are therefore shifted, as a teacher should collaborate with his or her students in order to help facilitate meaning construction in students. Learning therefore becomes a reciprocal experience for the students and teacher.

Cognitivism

Summary: The cognitivist paradigm essentially argues that the “black box” of the mind should be opened and understood. The learner is viewed as an information processor (like a computer).

Originators and important contributors: Merrill -Component Display Theory (CDT), Reigeluth (Elaboration Theory), Gagne, Briggs, Wager, Bruner (moving toward cognitive constructivism), Schank (scripts), Scandura (structural learning)

Keywords: Schema, schemata, information processing, symbol manipulation, information mapping, mental models

Cognitivism

The cognitivist revolution replaced behaviorism in 1960s as the dominant paradigm. Cognitivism focuses on the inner mental activities – opening the “black box” of the human mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn. Mental processes such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving need to be explored. Knowledge can be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions. Learning is defined as change in a learner’s schemata.

A response to behaviorism, people are not “programmed animals” that merely respond to environmental stimuli; people are rational beings that require active participation in order to learn, and whose actions are a consequence of thinking. Changes in behavior are observed, but only as an indication of what is occurring in the learner’s head. Cognitivism uses the metaphor of the mind as computer: information comes in, is being processed, and leads to certain outcomes.

Category: Cognitive Theories

Cognitive Load Theory of Multimedia Learning (Sweller)

Summary: A theory that focuses the load on working memory during instruction.

Originators and proponents: John Sweller

Keywords: cognitive load theory, working memory, multimedia learning

Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer)

Summary: A cognitive theory of multimedia learning based on three main assumptions: there are two separate channels (auditory and visual) for processing information; there is limited channel capacity; and that learning is an active process of filtering, selecting, organizing, and integrating information.

Originator: Richard Mayer

Key terms: dual-channel, limited capacity, sensory, working, long-term memory

Cognitivism

Summary: The cognitivist paradigm essentially argues that the “black box” of the mind should be opened and understood. The learner is viewed as an information processor (like a computer).

Originators and important contributors: Merrill -Component Display Theory (CDT), Reigeluth (Elaboration Theory), Gagne, Briggs, Wager, Bruner (moving toward cognitive constructivism), Schank (scripts), Scandura (structural learning)

Keywords: Schema, schemata, information processing, symbol manipulation, information mapping, mental models

Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

Summary: Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.

Originator: Albert Bandura

Key Terms: Modeling, reciprocal determinism

Attribution Theory (Weiner)

Summary: Attribution Theory attempts to explain the world and to determine the cause of an event or behavior (e.g. why people do what they do).

Originator: Bernard Weiner (1935- )

Key terms: Attribution, locus of control, stability, controllability

B. F. Skinner, Behaviorism and Your Superstitious Beliefs

behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism part2

Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism & Learning and Instructional Th...

Behaviorist Theory Movie Presentation- high def.wmv

Category: Behaviorist Theories

Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)

Summary: Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.

Originators and Key Contributors: First described by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian physiologist, in 1903, and studied in infants by John B. Watson (1878-1958).

Keywords: stimulus-response, psychic reflexes, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned response, respondent conditioning

Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

Summary: Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.

Originator: Albert Bandura

Key Terms: Modeling, reciprocal determinism

Behaviorism

Summary: Behaviorism is a worldview that operates on a principle of “stimulus-response.” All behavior caused by external stimuli (operant conditioning). All behavior can be explained without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness.

Originators and important contributors: John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, E. L. Thorndike (connectionism), Bandura, Tolman (moving toward cognitivism)

Keywords: Classical conditioning (Pavlov), Operant conditioning (Skinner), Stimulus-response (S-R)

GOMS Model (Card, Moran, and Newell)

Summary: The GOMS Model is a human information processing model that predicts what skilled users will do in seemingly unpredictable situations.

Originators and proponents: Card, Moran and Newell in 1983; Bonnie John et al.

Keywords: Goals, operators, methods, selection rules

Behaviorism.

http://www.learning-theories.com/behaviorism.html
Behaviorism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YZVFj5OxFk
Summary: Behaviorism is a worldview that operates on a principle of “stimulus-response.” All behavior caused by external stimuli (operant conditioning). All behavior can be explained without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness.

Originators and important contributors: John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, E. L. Thorndike (connectionism), Bandura, Tolman (moving toward cognitivism)
Keywords: Classical conditioning (Pavlov), Operant conditioning (Skinner), Stimulus-response (S-R)

Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate (i.e. tabula rasa) and behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the antecedent behavior will happen again.

In contrast, punishment (both positive and negative) decreases the likelihood that the antecedent behavior will happen again. Positive indicates the application of a stimulus; Negative indicates the withholding of a stimulus. Learning is therefore defined as a change in behavior in the learner. Lots of (early) behaviorist work was done with animals (e.g. Pavlov’s dogs) and generalized to humans.

Behaviorism precedes the cognitivist worldview. It rejects structuralism and is an extension of Logical Positivism.

Radical behaviorism
Developed by BF Skinner, Radical Behaviorism describes a particular school that emerged during the reign of behaviorism. It is distinct from other schools of behaviorism, with major differences in the acceptance of mediating structures, the role of emotions, etc.

Learning theories.

http://www.learning-theories.com/

Theories and Models of Learning for Educational Research and Practice. This knowledge base features learning theories that address how people learn. A resource useful for scholars of various fields such as educational psychology, instructional design, and human-computer interaction. Below is the index of learning theories, grouped in somewhat arbitrary categories.

Paradigms:
Behaviorism
Cognitivism
Constructivism
Design-Based
Humanism

Behaviorist Theories:
Behaviorism Overview
Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)
GOMS Model (Card, Moran, and Newell)
Operant Conditioning (Skinner)
Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

Cognitivist Theories:
Cognitivism Overview
Assimilation Theory (Ausubel)
Attribution Theory (Weiner)
Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller)
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer)
Component Display Theory
Elaboration Theory (Reigeluth)
Gestalt Psychology (Tolman)
Mental Models (Johnson-Laird)
Schema Theory
Stage Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget)
Constructivist, Social, and Situational Theories:
Constructivism Overview
Case-Based Learning
Cognitive Apprenticeship (Collins et al.)
Communities of Practice (Lave and Wenger)
Discovery Learning (Bruner)
Goal Based Scenarios
Social Development Theory (Vygtosky)
Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
Situated Learning (Lave)

Motivational and Humanist Theories:
Humanism Overview
ARCS Model of Motivational Design (Keller)
Experiential Learning (Kolb)
Facilitative Teaching (Rogers)
Invitational Learning (Purkey)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow)
Design Theories and Models (Prescriptive):
Design-Based Research Overview
ADDIE Model of Instructional Design
ARCS Model of Motivational Design (Keller)
Elaboration Theory (Reigeluth)
Descriptive and Meta Theories:
Activity Theory (Vygotsky, Leont’ev, Luria, Engstrom, etc.)
Actor-Network Theory (Latour, Callon)
Distributed Cognition (Hutchins)
Identity Theories:
Erikson’s Stages of Development (Erikson)
Identity Status Theory (Marcia)
Self-Theories: Entity and Incremental Theory (Dweck)
Miscellaneous Learning Theories and Models:
Affordance Theory (Gibson)
Multiple Intelligences Theory (Gardner)