My Latest Attempt to Understand Learning Theory

I'd like to cover the points that stuck out as significant explanations of learning theory.


Constructivist Learning Theory
mental representations are subjective
Everyone can imagines, or links new ideas to things they already know from past experiences. Since we all have different experiences, the mental representations are subjective to the individual. Some individuals learn things more quickly than others because they have different prior knowledge. These varying rates support the idea that knowledge is constructed rather than acquired. If it was passively acquired, we all would learn at the same pace. 


as teachers we feel a need to construct for them 
We help students understand the world but they need to construct it in a way that makes sense to them. They can't really construct the wrong world as long as they're properly understanding what needs to be learned.


learning to learn and learning
For a student to accept knowledge (learn), they need to have a way of achieving it. They need to know how to learn. Everyone learns differently, as we all know. Everyone constructs their way of learning differently, too. As teachers, we should find a way to meet all students' needs. Through the social, contextual, repetitive practice, and motivational aspects of learning, hopefully they can effectively apply these learned skills in future contextual learning.


information must fit into systems of mutually supported ideas for success
This sort of goes back to the metaphor of grabbing on to the old accepted idea (even if it's wrong) with both hands. Then letting go with one hand to catch the new idea (the right one) and waiting until stable before letting go of the old completely. When something is unfamiliar or complicated, it doesn't help to abandon what you thought completely, but instead to see how the right answer fits with what you thought was right.
This idea also fits into how teachers order their curriculum. A science teacher likely wouldn't teach organic chemistry before teaching general chemistry. A math teacher probably wouldn't go from addition to division. An English teacher would probably start with nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs before going into gerunds, participles and infinitives. All these examples wouldn't structurally make sense, because without some sort of basic understanding as the foundation for more complex subject matter, there is nothing to relate the new ideas to. 


The steps mentioned Ausubel's article would coincide with the ideas above. I do appreciate the sixth step--the one for the student to be responsible for. Implementing the powers of higher order thinking in his/her life. It really suggests that learning never ends, there is always a higher level that builds off the ones before it.


Social Learning Theory
Within the Vygotsky article I appreciated the links to constructivism. Learning an idea socially first and individually later is a construct. Learning from a more knowledgeable other is a construct. It is also important that teachers be the facilitators. The student is responsible for learning, but as teachers, we have a responsibility for assisting them along the way. 


Bandura's aspects of modeling (attention, retention, reproduction, motivation) are all true. If a student cannot focus on the topic they won't retain it, if they don't retain it they can't reproduce it, just as if they don't reproduce it they can't retain it. Additionally, learning requires the motivation to know more--this motivation often comes only with success.


I've always agreed with the world and environment affecting behavior, but I'm a little foggy and hesitant to define the argument that our behavior impacts the world. And I'm unsure of how this directly relates to learning theory. When I figure it out, I will complete this portion of the post.

What I know

We've learned a few things in class. Some things were familiar and others were new to me.

The most significant concept I have taken from Ed. 107 so far is the Developmental Learning Theory (Concrete first, abstract later). When we drew the line from concrete to abstract and applied the different aspects of learning (tangible, simulations, pictures, drawings, textbooks, formulas) the ease/difficulty of each aspect was put into perspective. I have always known that it is harder to learn a subject from a textbook than it is from a person. That much is obvious, but I never considered that reading a chapter before being taught what it is about makes learning the subject more difficult. I had a chemistry teacher who told us to read a chapter before class, then again after the lesson so we learned it completely. Maybe that first step is unnecessary, but it was probably unnecessary for us all to groan about reading the chapter period.

After the first few classes, I now can apply the term "zone of proximal development." As a teacher, I know I'll have students with varying abilities. I know some will be behind the curriculum, some will be able to keep up and others will be breezing through it. Everyone has different levels of difficulty--different zones. I can remember this falls under the social learning theory due to the variability among every student. I learned to expect my first teaching job to be a challenge. Not only am I going to need to formulate a curriculum with my content, but I'll need to consider the curriculum from the students' view points; and not all students are the same kind of student as I am.

Going from the social learning theory to the constructivist learning theory, is somewhat easy to think about because I can think of the ZPD applying to the role of prior knowledge. If something falls under the "too easy" zone for a student, the knowledge is likely prior knowledge. I think this theory is significant because it shows that learning is a process. Learning step by step, experiencing bit by bit, and building off what a student already knows is precisely how we should be teaching. Encouraging students to ask questions and try to answer them for themselves is how we should be teaching. Letting them think is how they are going to learn. Leading them to understand without simply 'telling' them why is how we can be successful. This may end up being the hardest part of the job.