theories of learning

photo: national geographic. reproduced with permission Pick up a standard psychology textbook - especially from the 1960s and 1970s and you will probably find learning defined as a change in behaviour. In other words, learning is approached as an outcome - the end product of some process. It can be recognized or seen.

The depth or nature of the changes involved are likely to be different. Some years ago Säljö (1979) carried out a simple, but very useful piece of research. He asked a number of adult students what they understood by learning. Their responses fell into five main categories:

Learning as a quantitative increase in knowledge. Learning is acquiring information or ‘knowing a lot’.
Learning as memorising. Learning is storing information that can be reproduced.
Learning as acquiring facts, skills, and methods that can be retained and used as necessary.
Learning as making sense or abstracting meaning. Learning involves relating parts of the subject matter to each other and to the real world.
Learning as interpreting and understanding reality in a different way. Learning involves comprehending the world by reinterpreting knowledge. (quoted in Ramsden 1992: 26)

As Paul Ramsden comments, we can see immediately that conceptions 4 and 5 in are qualitatively different from the first three. Conceptions 1 to 3 imply a less complex view of learning. Learning is something external to the learner. It may even be something that just happens or is done to you by teachers (as in conception 1). In a way learning becomes a bit like shopping. People go out and buy knowledge - it becomes their possession. The last two conceptions look to the 'internal' or personal aspect of learning. Learning is seen as something that you do in order to understand the real world.

n the five categories that Säljö identified we can see learning appearing as a process - there is a concern with what happens when the learning takes place. In this way, learning could be thought of as 'a process by which behaviour changes as a result of experience' (Maples and Webster 1980 quoted in Merriam and Caffarella 1991: 124). Such a focus on process takes us into the realm of learning theories - ideas about how or why change occurs. Here we will focus on four different orientations (the first three taken from Merriam and Caffarella (1991). As with any categorization of this sort the divisions are a bit arbitrary: there could be further additions and sub-divisions to the scheme, and there a various ways in which the orientations overlap and draw upon each other.

The four orientations can be summed up in the following figure:

Aspect	Behaviourist	Cognitivist	Humanist	Social and situational
Learning theorists	Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson, Guthrie, Hull, Tolman, Skinner	Koffka, Kohler, Lewin, Piaget, Ausubel, Bruner, Gagne	Maslow, Rogers	Bandura, Lave and Wenger, Salomon
View of the learning process	Change in behaviour	Internal mental process (including insight, information processing, memory, perception	A personal act to fulfil potential.	Interaction /observation in social contexts. Movement from the periphery to the centre of a community of practice
Locus of learning	Stimuli in external environment	Internal cognitive structuring	Affective and cognitive needs	Learning is in relationship between people and environment.
Purpose in education	Produce behavioural change in desired direction	Develop capacity and skills to learn better	Become self-actualized, autonomous	Full participation in communities of practice and utilization of resources
Educator's role	Arranges environment to elicit desired response	Structures content of learning activity	Facilitates development of the whole person	Works to establish communities of practice in which conversation and participation can occur.
Manifestations in adult learning	Behavioural objectives Competency -based education Skill development and training	Cognitive development Intelligence, learning and memory as function of age Learning how to learn	Andragogy Self-directed learning	Socialization Social participation Associationalism Conversation

Full details of the texts mentioned can be found in the piece on learning in the encyclopedia of informal education.

First published September 2002. Last update: January 31, 2005

theories of learning

What is learning? Is it a change in behaviour or understanding? Is it a process? Here we survey some common models.

infed is an open, independent and not-for-profit site put together by a small group of educators [about us]. Give us your feedback; write for us. Check our copyright notice when copying.