Learning theories were created to help describe how both people and animals learn. There are three frameworks which learning theories are built upon. The first is behaviorism. Behaviorism deals with cause and effect, the subject sees or experiences the behavior and learns about its repercussions. Internally the subject than begins to associate the behavior with the effect. Two subtypes of behaviorism are classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is where a subject learns to respond to a seemingly unrelated or neutral stimulus. For example, people playing a sport know to stop when a whistle is blown because they associate the whistle with a foul. Operant conditioning is using consequences to shape the behavior. Components of operant conditioning are reinforcement both positive(receiving a reward after the desired response) and negative(removing an unfavorable stimulus after the desired behavior). Another component is punishment which is designed to decrease a behavior. Positive punishment is implementing an unfavorable stimulus in response to the undesired behavior. Negative punishment is taking away a positive stimulus after the undesired behavior is shown. Last extinction which offers no rewards/punishments after an action so the action gradually goes away.
Information process theories deals with the internal processes rather than external behaviors. This theory states that the mind has 3 memory stores that register, process, retrieve and store information. One can retain information better by: rehearsal (repeating the information over and over in order to keep it in our working memory), organizing( where we "chunk" information into groups, like a phone number), elaboration(giving examples to clarify info), imagry(recreating an experience in our mind), and schema(which is our concepts of the world and we relate these concepts back to the info).
The last theory is constructivism. Constructivism is using our experiences to gain knowledge that is meaningful and relates to us. Some problems with the constructive learning style is that the skills learn may not be useful in the real world, some kids may not have the previous experiences needed to learn the new info ,and a teacher can not verify a students skill level. However, technology, like powerpoint, is helping the constructive learning style to become more practical by making learning more creative and meaningful, and letting students think about how they are learning.
Ultimately it depends upon the material you are teaching to choose what type of learning style is best.
As a telecommunication major, the constructivist learning theory is probably most related to my major. By creating movies/videos, we are trying to use the video format to help the audience relate or give the audience an experience (fictional or not) to convey the meaning in the movie. For example, in an advertisment we may want to convince the audience that brand A of an air freshener is better than brand B. To do this we might create a creative video that shows that brand B freshener does not get rid of the smell while brand A works so well that the consumer doesn't even notice the dog has gone to the bathroom in the room.
Different Learning Styles. This article talks about the learning styles we discussed in class as well as others such as cognitive learning theory. It also gives examples of ways to use the different styles of learning and goes over adults and others ways they learn and how some people are visual, sensual, intuitive, or active learners.
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