2.7 Theory of Learning
Over the past century, educational psychologists and researchers have posited many theories to explain how individuals acquire, organize and deploy skills and knowledge. To help readers organize and apply this extensive body of literature, various authors have classified these theories in different ways. For this summary, learning theories are grouped into three basic categories:
2.7.1 Behaviorist learning theories
2.7.2 Cognitive-information processing learning theories
2.7.3 Cognitive-constructivist learning theories
The summary ends with a brief discussion of epistemological perspectives that serve as foundations for the various theories. Only a brief overview of extensive literature is provided to help you make informed decisions about your personal educational philosophy. If you have good working knowledge of one or more areas underlined above, feel free to scan over those sections and concentrate your attention on the areas you feel less certain. For further detail, readers are also encouraged to search for the corresponding topics in literature.
As you look over the information contained in this document, keep in mind the purpose of your reading. The immediate purpose is to generate an educational philosophy statement (that is, stating what you believe in terms of how and why people learn and what educators should do to facilitate such learning). Your goal is to define a set of quality design standards. As such, you should note concepts and statements that you believe are important for promoting learning and for designing and delivering effective instruction