Assignment 1: Teaching, Learning And Technology

Assignment 1: Teaching, Learning and Technology

Learning refers to the change in the subject behavior to given information brought about by his repeated experience in that situation, provided that the behavior change can not be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation or temporary states of the subject ( Hilgard and Bower) , Learning is a relatively permanent change in a behavioural tendency and is the result of reinforced practice. (Kimble and Garmezy 1963: 133)

Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the conditions for learning. Our understanding of how the learner learns will determine our philosophy of education, teaching style, approach, methods and classroom techniques.(Brown

The behaviorist orientation is fundamental to much current educational practice, including adult education. Skinner believed the ultimate goal of education was to train individuals to behaviors which would ensure their personal survival, as well as the survival of cultures and the species. The teacher's role, in this perspective, is to provide an environment that elicits the desired behaviors and extinguishes the undesirable ones. Educational practices which have these notions at their core include systematic design of instruction, behavioral and performance objectives, programmed instruction, competency-based instruction, and instructor accountability. Training for skills and vocations is particularly heavily saturated with learning and being reinforced for "correct responses and behaviors."

2. The cognitivist perspective : Cognitivist theories of learning are concerned processes which occur inside brain and nervous system as a person learn. They share perspective that people actively processes information and learning takes place through the efforts of the learner. Internal mental processes include inputting organizing, storing, retrieving and finding relationships between information. New information is linked to old knowledge, schema, Theories learning theory focuses on information procession memory, metacognition, theories of transfer intelligence. Leaning model Ausubel and Bruner

The cognitivist perspective , on learning as purely a mental/ neurological process, The constructivist individuals , construct their own perspectives/knowledge, based on individual experiences and schemata athough Ausubel, Bruner and Gagné each took different perspectives on learning, each has made significant contributions to the overall model of human learning. Ausubel considered the impact of prior learning and originated the tool called the "advanced organizer". The behaviourists did not consider the importance of prior learning. Bruner's work on categorisation and concept formation provided models of how the learner derives information from the environment. Gagné looked at the events of learning and instruction as a series of phases, using the cognitive steps of coding, storing, retrieving and transferring information. (Merriam & Caffarella,