Learning Theories in Education:

How to use principles of active learning (in constructivism,

active reception learning,...) for effective teaching with active instruction.

This page describes modern psychological theories about "active learning" and how these ideas can be used in education, to develop teaching methods with "active instruction" that will help students learn more effectively and enjoyably.

Overviews
• An excellent introduction to ideas about active learning is Joyce Alexander's overview-summaries of learning theories, behaviorism, cognitive information processing, meaningful reception learning, cognitive development, and constructivism.   She also has a links-page with resources for general Learning-and-Teaching plus summaries for 9 major learning theories.
• Another good course about learning theories in education is by Mimi Recker, with summaries for Behaviorism, Schema (Mental Models), Gagne (Instructional Design), Cognitive Development, and Constructivism, plus student papers, lecture-PPTs, and a variety of notes (explore the links) about Ausubel, Bandura, Gagne, Piaget, Skinner, and Vygotsky.
• ERIC Digests provide summary-overviews of Constructivist Views of Learning in Science & Math and Schema Activation, Construction, and Application and (later in this page) more.
• A more general overview is Learning, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and School Organization from Funderstanding (also check their sitemap).
• And you can see an outline of ideas about learning in the Table of Contents for Psychology of Learning for Instruction by M.P. Driscoll.

Learning Theories

• Overview-summaries for many theories of learning are in the websites of Alexander and Recker above, and you'll find a wider variety in the "Theory into Practice" website of Greg Kearsley, with 53 summaries of Learning Theories and more.
• And if you want to explore on your own, 23 links-pages for learning theories.
 

Meaningful Reception Learning — David Ausubel

• A theory of Meaningful Reception Learning, developed by David Ausubel, is a personal favorite of the editor (Craig Rusbult) and you can see why in summaries from Mimi Recker & Greg Kearsley & Joyce Alexander and the website of David Ausubel.
• This page concludes with the editor's ideas about discovery learning (first-hand and second-hand) and why cognitively active reception learning can be meaningful and effective, enjoyable and time-efficient.

Guided Inquiry
• four levels & more will be here eventually but not now (*)

Learning Theories and Teaching Strategies:

Interactions between Learning & Teaching, and Applications for Instruction

• an introduction to the constructivist learning theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Ausubel;
• ERIC Digests describe A New Framework (by David Merrill) for Teaching and Situated Learning and Conceptual Change in Science.
• CCCU offers resources for Active Learning and (when you follow the top-of-page links backward from Pedagogy to Faculty Development and Resource Center) much more.
• Educational Leadership, in November 1999, looked at The Constructivist Classroom and you can read a foreword about The C Word and 15 abstracts (from "The Many Faces of Constructivism" to "...a Partial Solution") and two articles: The Courage to be Constructivist and Caution: Constructivism Ahead.
• a range of proposals for "constructivist education" and the practical difficulties of radical constructivism that concludes with "Constructivism and... a New Look at Ausubel";  by ignoring the distinction between "what we can know" and "what actually exists," super-radical constructivism (which is proposed by some constructivist educators but not by most) can get carried away into the silliness of extreme postmodern relativism;
• chapter summary with an overview of models (cognitive, conceptual, social contextual) for meaningful learning in education by Mark & Cindy Grabe, plus informal thoughts about constructivism by Mark Grabe;
• Richard Mayer asks, Should There Be a Three-Strikes Rule Against Pure Discovery Learning? and concludes that "overall, the constructivist view of learning may be best supported by methods of instruction that involve cognitive activity rather than behavioral activity, instructional guidance rather than pure discovery, and curricular focus rather than unstructured exploration." (abstract)
• Analysis of Why Minimal Guidance during Instruction Does Not Work by Paul Kirschner (Netherlands), John Sweller (U.K.), Richard Clark (U.S.), in Educational Psychologist, 2006, explains why "these approaches ignore both the structures that constitute human cognitive architecture and evidence from empirical studies over the past half century that consistently indicate that minimally-guided instruction is less effective and less efficient than instructional approaches that place a strong emphasis on guidance of the student learning process."
• ERIC Digests summarize ideas about learning by discussions (guided, inquiry, reflective, exploratory) and teaching science through inquiry & design and various procedures (inquiry, STS, conceptual change, interdisciplinary themes, coordinated sequences, and student collaboration) for improving the science curriculum;  and as a humble reminder of what we don't yet know, open questions (where research is needed) about Science Education & Math Education.

* Later, but probably not until late 2008, there will more resources, especially in this section (including defenses of instruction based on "radical constructivism" to provide some balance for the claims above) but also in other parts of the page.
 

APPENDIX

• By promoting awareness of "what can be learned" during an educational experience, reflection activities (in Aesop's Activities) can be useful for goal-directed education to teach concepts and also skills, as outlined by Craig Rusbult in a set of pages — Thinking Skills for Problem Solving (using Design Method & Scientific Method) — about developing instruction to teach thinking skills;  intuitively, we should expect "active problem-solving inquiry methods" to be very effective for helping students learn thinking skills — because the problem-solving method (and associated thinking skills) actually IS the educational goal — but relatively less effective for helping them learn concepts.  Some ideas about "active education" are introduced in these excerpts from Whole-Person Education:

Learning and Thinking

Learning by Exploring
One way to learn about the world is to explore it yourself.  You can do this in many ways, using all of your senses.  You can explore near and far, by studying...   Exploring is fun at any age.  It is interesting and motivating for children, and also for adults who... are continuing their explorations.

Learning from Others
When you explore, you learn from your own experience.  But you can also learn from the experience of others, by letting them help you learn.  This happens when you read, listen, or watch what they have written, spoken, or filmed.  Learning from others is an easy way to learn a lot in a little time.

Learning is an Active Process
Learning is an active process that requires thinking.  When you learn by reading, for example, your thinking converts symbols on the page into ideas in your mind.  Every time you learn a new idea, you are actively constructing your own mental representations of the idea in a personally meaningful form.  And your new idea interacts with your old ideas, as you try to combine the new and old into a coherent system of ideas.
  The process of active reading is the theme when Virginia Voeks, in her book On Becoming an Educated Person, explains how to learn more and enjoy more while reading: "Start with an intent to make the very most you can from whatever you read.  Treat the author as you do your friends.  When talking with a friend, you listen attentively and eagerly.  You watch for contributions of value and are sensitive to them.  You actively respond to his ideas with ones of your own.  Together you build new syntheses."  When you're an active reader, eagerly searching for new ideas, you will find them, and reading becomes a stimulating adventure.
  You can read passively or you can make it an active adventure.  Some of the most effective teaching methods are designed to stimulate thinking, to replace boring passivity with exciting activity.  For example, members of a class can have a pro-and-con debate about the ideas in a book they are reading.  This activity encourages the mentally active reading that is recommended by Voeks.  But if you "internalize the action" you can always read with an active mind, whether or not your reading will be followed by an external debate.  You control the quality of your learning.  .....
 
THREE TYPES OF LINKS in this website for Whole-Person Education:
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 Above, a NON-ITALICIZED LINK is page-adding, opening a new page in a new window. 
 Below, a NON-ITALICIZED LINK is page-replacing, opening a new page in this window. 

Here are other related pages:

This page, written by Craig Rusbult, is
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/teach/active.htm

Copyright © 2007 by Craig Rusbult
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