Constructive Discourse and Learning Theories

Open and honest debate is essential to scholarly inquiry. Though at times I wonder how some theories have become so widespread, I realize that knowledge acquisition is viewed differently based on historical context and the value placed on the individual. While Kerr and Kapp’s views most closely match my own it does not make them any more or less correct than the views of Downes. Behaviorism is not dead; in fact many components are integrated into educational technology and serve as a valuable method of instruction for all levels of student ability. Cognitivism provides a different and divergent way of explaining how we learn, but does not completely account for more complex processes like language acquisition and biology. In isolation, theory no matter how comprehensive, only serves to exclude other empirically-based points of view and stalls open dialogue that is crucial for deepening our understanding.

Perspective is a funny thing. The value we place on the individual in a learning context influences how we view education. Behaviorism was an important first step in developing our understanding and we do not want to abandon parts of the theories, nor do we want to blindly adopt theories of cognition without the understanding that certain tasks are best accomplished through rote learning and reinforcement. As our knowledge base increases and technology improves to a degree that we can develop our understanding of the multifaceted and complex relationship of the learner to the environment, we can better explain certain aspects of learning; however, a unified theory of learning would have to be comprised of parts of all schools of thought.

Regardless of the theory each has a place in the classroom; tools in your arsenal.

What does learning look like to you?

Questions about how individuals learn best reflect the time in which they were first asked. As technology evolves into ways that more accurately reflect the complexities of the human mind, we are better able to comprehend what constitutes real "learning." Behaviorists are concerned with measurable changes consistent with reinforcement, while Cognitivists rely on structured learning environments with a strong emphasis on biological systems of memory and recall. The most accurate, at least in the current day, are the Constructivists who believe that the student is central to instruction and that learning is an active process that requires input and feedback to develop proficiency. The purpose of educational technology is to develop tools and strategies to put theory into practice in practical ways.

The best analogy that I can use for Theories of Learning is the story of the Six Blind Men and an Elephant. Depending on where each person stands in relation to the elephant is how they interpret what the animal looks like. While no one person is able to completely describe the elephant, each accurately describes what he "sees" based on his schema. Whether or not they are correct individually is moot--what matters is that together they form a more or less complete picture based on a frame of reference. In isolation learning theories do little more than attempt to explain a phenomenon; however, when used in conjunction with effective pedagogy and technology form the palette from which the teacher can create knowledge. In the future we may completely change how we view learning based on improved technology...and that is alright, because it is how we develop our understanding based on our collective accumulation of knowledge and research.