Education has been studied for years. Educational theories address issues related to definition, existing types, influence factors, and styles of learning.
A complete summary of the 15 most influential learning theories. Includes Vygotsky, Piaget, Bloom, Gagne, Maslow, Bruner, Kolb and many more.
From Constructivism and Connectivism to Situated Learning, here are 32 of the most common learning theories every teacher should know.
Of the many eLearning theories that influence the practice, three of them are used by professionals on a daily basis.
These 50+ strategies to jumpstart your teaching brain include literacy strategies, approaches to assessment, and grouping strategies.
Adult learning improves individual knowledge and skill. This infographic shows the four principles of adult learning theory.
A cheat sheet of education theorists and their research based teaching practices.
Information Pickup Theory (J.J. Gibson) Information Processing Theory (G.A. Miller) Lateral Thinking (E. DeBono) Levels of Processing (Craik & Lockhart) Mathematical Learning Theory (R.C. Atkinson) Mathematical Problem Solving (A. Schoenfeld) Minimalism (J. M. Carroll) Model Centered Instruction and Design Layering (Andrew Gibbons) Modes of Learning (D. Rumelhart & D. Norman) Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner) Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner) Originality (I. Maltzman) Phenomenonography (F. Marton & N. Entwistle) Repair ... Learn MoreLearning Theories
If you want to learn better, follow these five learning theories in education. Knowing how teachers teach will make learning more exciting for you
The most recent blog post, Writing Effective Learning Objectives, introduced the concept of starting with the end in mind. Identifying the desired level of learning is one way to start at the end.…
Music theory worksheets are valuable tools for individuals who are learning or studying music. These worksheets provide structured exercises that focus specifically on note values. With a range of activities and exercises tailored to different skill levels, music theory worksheets help students grasp the concept of note values and their significance in creating rhythm and melodic patterns. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced musician, these worksheets are designed to enhance your understanding of note values and improve your musical performance.
A complete summary of the 15 most influential learning theories. Includes Vygotsky, Piaget, Bloom, Gagne, Maslow, Bruner, Kolb and many more.
Improve your instructional design with adult learning theories. Discover the key theories and their application on the Shift E-Learning blog!
This flowchart will help you understand which Cognitive Load Theory principles to use in your teaching material to optimise your students' learning.
I recently attended a conference about teaching students with executive functioning challenges. Executive functions are a set of essential cognitive capabilities and skills typically encompassing t…
Lev Vygotsky was a seminal thinker who had a major influence on psychology and education. Learn more about Vygotsky's life, theories, and psychology contributions.
Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory posits that an individual's development is influenced by a series of interconnected environmental systems, ranging from the immediate surroundings (e.g., family) to broad societal structures (e.g., culture). These systems include the Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, and Chronosystem, each representing different levels of environmental influences on an individual's growth and behavior.
A complete summary of the 15 most influential learning theories. Includes Vygotsky, Piaget, Bloom, Gagne, Maslow, Bruner, Kolb and many more.
When studying learning and cognition in graduate school, I was drawn to the theories of Lev Vygotsky, a Russian Psychologist from the early 1900s that presented a sociocultural approach to learning and cognition. He offered a theory that I believe presents optimal classroom instruction for all learners. What is Vygotsky’s Theoretical Lens? At the heart of Vygotsky's theoretical lens is that social interaction plays a key role in the development of learning and cognition. Vygotsky claimed: "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (inner-psychological) and then inside the child (intra-psychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals.” A second key feature of Vygotsky's theory is that one’s potential for learning depends upon the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). In the literature, ZPD is synonymous with the later concept, scaffolding, and suggests learning with adult guidance or peer collaboration exceeds independent learning. Vygotsky defined the ZPD as the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers." Using the ZPD to Enhance Classroom Teaching and Individualized Instruction: It’s always best to keep your students in the ZPD. See the image above. On the one hand, when learning is too easy, students get bored and their attention drifts away from a lesson. On the other hand, if learning is too hard, then anxiety and confusion can result and when discouraged enough, students can develop a sense of learned helplessness. The “sweet spot” is the ZPD where students are challenged enough to maintain attention and they are able to learn new concepts with guided assistance and scaffolding. Then, as learning happens, the support structure is slowly pulled away. Eventually, students engage in independent learning and practice until they reach automatization. Learning to automatization means that one has fully learned a concept to mastery and the process of completing a problem is virtually automatic and requires little to no thought. What are Some Direct Applications of Teaching in the ZPD? Because every student’s zone of proximal development is different, it can be challenging for teachers to accommodate the individual needs of each learner. Here are some possible problems and solutions. Problem Solution A student is unable to answer a direct question in class. - The teacher guides the student to the correct answer providing some scaffolding and by asking them questions. Some students have already learned the concept and others have not. - Break the class into two groups. Provide challenging applications to the group that has learned the concept and scaffolding instruction to the group that has not learned the concept. - Allow the students that have learned the concept to teach the students that have not. My students have a wide range of experience and knowledge with a topic. - Create learning stations with hands-on manipulatives, guiding materials, and demonstration videos that teach the concepts of the lesson. Have beginners, intermediate and advanced stations that increase in difficulty. Help each student select the best learning station. When a student finishes the advanced station, have them assist the other students to mastery. Some students still have not learned the concept after the lesson. - Offer one on one guidance and scaffolding with yourself or a peer mentor. - Go multisensory, creative and colorful in your instruction. Provide opportunities for the student to watch a demonstration and then do it themselves. Eventually, have them teach the concept back to you. Some students are ashamed or hide the fact that they have not learned a concept. - Create a safe environment for students to ask questions. Provide positive reinforcement for students that communicate misconceptions and learning difficulties. - Create a box in your class where students can write down their questions and ask for additional help. - Ask students to anonymously rate your lessons. Let them rate their learning on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 = Didn’t learn it - 10 = Got it). Also ask them about how engaging the lesson was (0 = boring and 10 = interesting, fun and engaging). By tapping into each student's zone of proximal development, you can assure that you will be maximizing your students' learning potential. What's more, you will find that your students are more engaged, find joy in the learning process and become active learners. I hope you found this blog helpful. I would love to hear your thoughts. Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses.· Blog: https://learningspecialistmaterials.blogspot.com/· YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/warrenerica1· Podcast: https://godyslexia.com/· Store: http://www.Goodsensorylearning.com/· Courses: http://www.learningspecialistcourses.com/· Newsletter Sign-up: https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/69400 · Private Practice: Learning to Learn
Full time work and doctoral studies are keeping me super busy, but finally I get a few minutes to post something on the good ol’ blog :) Here’s a little infographic I made for one of my…
People can learn in more than one way. How does this info help presenters and public speakers? By making us think of the audience in different ways.
The key terms and strategies you need to know about to get started with Cognitive Load Theory in your school - with a free poster.
A complete summary of the 15 most influential learning theories. Includes Vygotsky, Piaget, Bloom, Gagne, Maslow, Bruner, Kolb and many more.
Over the years, social learning theory has become an important means by which researchers explain how people learn new information.
Intelligence has always been a controversial subject. Find out your dominant intelligence type by playing this intelligence quiz.
The People of Pedagogy Infographic celebrates the contributions six researchers and educational theorists had on our understanding of pedagogy.
The 3 Learning Theories of Instructional Design Infographic helps you understand them and figure out which works well in a learning environment.
The name Lev Vygotsky is well known to most teachers, his work has been the basis of modern evidence based education research.
Our class recently spent some time studying one of my favorite concepts to teach, Gestalt theory. Gestalt theory refers to the brain’s need to make sense of the world around it. Our brains ma…
Chapter 3 Human Development. Prenatal Development Occurs in Three Stages. Zygote stage (lasts two weeks): Embryonic stage (lasts from week 3 to week 8) Fetal stage (lasts from week 9 until birth). Prenatal Development Occurs in Three Stages. Zygote stage (lasts two weeks):
Learning Theories Learning Theories, by Ian Robertson, via YouTube Learning Theories; behaviourism, cognitivism, humanism, constructivism, social constructivism, critical emancipatory =============…
Today, I'm excited to share with you a diverse array of philosophy of education examples. Now, it's important to note that these examples, while illustrative, might come across as simplified. But rest assured, their simplicity is intentional.
Critical theory is not hard for students to grasp when it is explained well. These are the best books to introduce students to literary theory and criticism.
Nudge theory infographic
Make a big impact on students' long-term learning with the four most powerful tools backed by cognitive science research : retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and feedback-driven metacognition. Access free downloads and our four favorite teaching strategies for each Power Tool.
This is part two of a very occasional series of posts about my take on different psychological theories. Earlier this year I took a look at Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological approach to life. Who knew this would be my most popular post? As of this evening, over 4,430 people have viewed that blog entry. I'm thankful that the post is so popular: my human met him once and found him to be a very kind man. Children love and want to be loved and they very much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom. -- Erik Erikson Today we draw our attention to Erik Homberger Erikson. Please note, this is someone radically different from the conservative commentator Erick Erickson. The two would have very little in common in their world views. Erik was born on June 15, 1902 in Frankfort am Main, Germany. After graduating from high school, he moved to Florence Italy to study art. By 1927 he was teaching a a psychoanalytically informed school for children in Vienna that was started by Dorothy Burlingham and Anna Freud. Deeply influenced by this work, Erikson earned a certificate from the Maria Montessori School and later did psychoanalytic training at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. After graduating from the psychoanalytic institute in 1933, Erikson and his wife fled the Nazis who had come to power in Germany. His long career included positions at Massachusetts General Hospital Judge Baker Guidance Center, Harvard Medical School, and University of California Berkeley. While in California Erikson studied children on a Sioux reservation for a year as well as children in the and Yurok tribe. Erikson left Berkeley when professors were asked to sign a loyalty oath. He returned to Massachusetts first working at the Austen Riggs Center for a decade and finally returning to Harvard. He remained a professor of human development at Harvard University until he retired in 1970. Erik Erikson's highest academic degree was a high school diploma. In 1973 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Erikson for the Jefferson Lecture, which is the US government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture was entitled "Dimensions of a New Identity." Enough background information. Onto the good stuff. This chart is the most commonly learned distillation of Erikson's work. Sorry his name is spelled wrong in the chart. It seems there is a lot of confusion about the proper spelling of his name. The spelling I'm using, Erik Erikson, is the correct way. So when you think about it, puppy development and human development isn't all that different. I'm not so sure dogs really ever get past adolescence. That's okay though, I think you all like us just the way we are. Here is Erikson's theory, as it applies to humans, in a nutshell: The infant's first social achievement, then, is his willingness to let the mother out of sight without undue anxiety or rage, because she has become an inner certainty as well as an outer predictability. -- Erik Erikson Early in life both babies and puppies face a crisis: trust versus mistrust. If the world is safe enough, and we are cared for well enough, we develop a sense of stability and security. If we work through this well we approach the world with a confident curiosity. If problems happen (abuse, neglect, deprivation) we learn the world is unsafe, we lose our curiosity, and become closed off and hidden. We learn to hope. Always moving forward, our next crisis is autonomy versus doubt. Ever spend time with a two year old that constantly says no? Play a game with a very young child who insists on controlling every dimension of the game? Early on, youngsters learn a delicate balance between autonomy and interdependence. How many parents, in a demand for discipline, demand complete obedience from their children at all times? Too much of a demand for a child to bend to the will of an adult can create deep feelings of shame, incompetence, and out of control behaviors. Striking a successful balance creates creatures who remain curious, have built in self control, and have a certain degree of autonomy. We learn will. Children must eventually train their own children, and any impoverishment of their impulse life, for the sake of avoiding friction, must be considered a possible liability affecting more than one lifetime. -- Erik Erikson Next up comes initiative versus guilt.Young ones busy themselves learning about the world around them. Square pegs fit in square holes. Round pegs fit in round holes. Sugar spilled on the floor makes mom crabby. We learn to count, speak, and ask for things with ease. We start to engage in activities. We want to play with that game. We want to walk in this direction. We start to take risks and learn how to keep ourselves safe (look both ways before we cross the street!). Good enough parents encourage and support children's efforts toward their own goal directed activities in realistic ways. When things go wrong and parents actively discourage children's independent activities (or belittle their activities), children can develop guilt about their needs, desires, and activities. We learn purpose. The next crisis we all face is industry versus inferiority. During these years, our primary years of school, we find our self confidence. Now having developed goal directed activity, our activity becomes productive. We create the things we need. Words come together to form sentences. Sentences come together to form paragraphs. Paragraphs come together to form stories. Good enough parents share a sense of excitement in what their children create. When things go wrong, and children are ridiculed or unable to meet adult expectations, children internalize a sense of inferiority We learn competence. Every adult, whether he is a follower or a leader, a member of a mass or of an elite, was once a child. He was once small. A sense of smallness forms a substratum in his mind, ineradicably. His triumphs will be measured against this smallness, his defeats will substantiate it. The questions as to who is bigger and who can do or not do this or that, and to whom—these questions fill the adult's inner life far beyond the necessities and the desirabilities which he understands and for which he plans. -- Erik Erikson As childhood rolls into adolescence, we face the crisis of identity versus role confusion. Having built confidence in our abilities, we start to look for our place in our world. We ask the question "Who am I and where am I going?" In this time of development we find ourselves at a crossroad of development where we consolidate the rapid development of childhood and walk across the bridge to adulthood. Given enough time and space to explore the different roles society has to offer us, a young person can freely experiment and explore many different kinds of identities. A good enough parent will let their adolescents stretch and reach into all sorts of different identities while also offering some loose protective boundaries. Restrictive and domineering parents can clip the experiences of an adolescent and prevent them from finding a sense of identity that can haunt them long into their adulthood. We learn our identity. As our adolescence grows into young adulthood, we grapple with issues of intimacy versus isolation. Having found our identities we no longer need to destroy things that threaten our sense of self. We ask of ourselves if we are loved and wanted, and whether we will share our life with someone or live alone. Done well we find ourselves forming long-term commitments to others through intimate and reciprocal relationships. Done poorly, we find ourselves isolated. We learn love. As young adulthood moves into middle adulthood, we face the crisis of generativity versus stagnation. We ask of ourselves, "Will produce something of real value?" We find our way to contribute to society developing a sense of generativity, productivity, and accomplishment. Through our work we provide something toward the betterment of society and future generations. Done poorly we feel stagnated, dissatisfied, and disconnected from a sense of purpose. We learn care. As adults grow into elders, we face the crisis of ego integrity versus despair. Our work gradually slows and our attention turns inward toward contemplating our accomplishments. Done well, we see ourselves has having created a successful life. Done poorly we review our lives and feel we haven't reached our goals and we despair. We learn wisdom. Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have the integrity enough not to fear death. -- Erik Erikson
From Constructivism and Connectivism to Situated Learning, here are 32 of the most common learning theories every teacher should know.
